On 02/05/2006, at 9:29 PM, Michael Brook wrote: > This thread just got me thinking about 2 recent experiences with > native plugins. > > I sent 2 different albums to 2 different mastering engineers and they > both had similar, and for me, worrying comments. > > They both said that although the tonal balances were fine that the > mixes all had a kind of graininess that was not good, and anything > that they tried to do seemed to increase the graininess. > > I used buss compression and sometimes eq on all of the mixes, mostly > Sony Oxford, Waves L2, L3, URS. > > It's kind of disappointing as I really like the recallability of > mixing in the box, but wonder if this suggests that maybe it is still > better to use outboard analog buss compression and eq, or just wait > until mastering. The most I use here is a transparent limiter on the drum & bass sub group that's not working most of the time just to protect transients. Otherwise I don't believe in mix bus compression at all. Would much rather my mastering guy decide such things. > I'm using Logic native and couldn't really hear the graininess in my > studio, but trust these guys comments. This could mean a number of things. > Has anyone else experienced this, and if you have did you find a way > to fix it? A lot of my mixes go to a great mastering guy that has even spent time in my mixing room. He is real happy with what I give him. I do like to mix with a second engineer though. One who is really conversant the sound of classic eq, compression and old style mixing. The majority of the eq and compression decisions are mostly made by him. I'm very happy with this approach as my background is more music, composition and arranging and I find it invaluable to bring in a fresh set of ears for mixing. Give it with someone you respect and see what happens...? > I'm using a MOTU 896, but assumed that it doesn't make any difference > what interface is used once you are inside the computer and that > clocking options don't make a difference either, unless you send > signal to an external device. I agree with this to a point. Even so there will be a much bigger difference made by another set of ears on the job I feel. The tools are fine really. It in the choices you make... YMMV Kind regards