MixWithTheMasters Inside The Track 12 Nick Launay

Join us at Sphere Studios in Los Angeles with the producer and engineer Nick Launay! In this series, we take a detailed look into the creation of the record 'As a Man' - a song by the singer and guitarist Anna Calvi. Using a hybrid setup of Pro Tools, a Neve 8078 console, and an outboard mix chain, Launay demonstrates his techniques and recounts the journey taken for the project. In addition to explaining his tracking and production approaches, he shows his treatment used on vocals, live drums, samples, percussion, guitars, bass, and the mix buss. He discusses his production philosophy, inspiration, development of new methods, and the four main stages of his current mixing workflow - the home mix, studio mix, stem mix, and parallel blend. Nick elaborates on the pros and cons of analog and digital workflow, and shows a fascinating way of altering specific parts within a stereo mix by inverting the phase of stems.

Part 1
Production philosophy, working with bands vs. solo artists, changes in methods over time, four stages of mixing

Part 2
'Home mix' session, monitoring, colour coding, drums, percussion, lead vocal, gain structure, inspiration

Part 3
Emulating the analog mix buss ITB, console EQ, electric guitar, drum overdubs, finger snaps, notch filtering

Part 4
Different uses of EQ, vocal EQ automation, plosives, clicks, 'S' sounds, using effects as inserts vs. sends

Part 5
Emulating analog distortion ITB, gating, commitment to sounds in tracking, drum room, mics, & treatment

Part 6
Mixing phase 2, console track order, Neve EQ & distortion, vocal qualities vs. mics, stem printing, compressors

Part 7
Comparing analog mix buss compressors, replacing plugins with hardware, home mix vs. studio mix

Part 8
Stem session overview, final mix versions, altering parts within the stereo file using stem phase inversion