A question about what is needed for a pro sound these days

Hey Phil, I have a mate whos a proffesional producer and his sound is incredible. Everything is tight, sounds MASSIVE but above all just sounds very proffesional. I chat with him from time to time to see what his secret is and it seems that hes putting something like 10-15 processors on each channel and like using 5 eqs on each channel, limiters on everything etc etc



Now I know youv been in the pro producing game for a long time but is this what is needed these days or not? I mean I have heard this guys stuff and its amazing sounding, his basses are incrediblyowerfull etc



The reason I ask is cos ive never seen you do this on any of the tutorial tracks, I know you dont have weeks to spend on just the.mixdown etc but still, is this what you need to do in todays world.

Jan - By any chance are you related to Oscar De Jong?

I wouldn’t rule putting 15 processors on a channel if thats whats working for him.



I dont see why you would need more than 1 or 2 max EQs on a channel tho.



I some times use limiters on drums if im looking to crush the sound and its definitely useful on basses and groups.



Its very dependent of the type of sound your after… some of the popstep stuff is really heavily produced and i can imagine tons of processing on groups etc.



The hardest part is having an idea of how it should sound before you start adding processing. Good producers start with a vision in mind and sculpt the sound to achieve it.



Good producing is more about the art than the tech.



you could give a great artist bad tools and hed still give you something amazing but if you give a bad artist the best tools chances are it wont be that great.



Start really dialling in on how things sound on well produced tracks- Are the drums heavily compressed do they sound limited… what are the transients like. Is the bass even, whats the prominent frequencies - do they change. Are the drums pumping, smooth, aggressive or weighty. Do things sound squashed or open. how much reverb is on the hats, snares , kicks etc.



you really need to understand the language of production to apply it to your own stuff.



bit of a stream of conscious there sorry! lol



Then

In terms of sounding professional you can do it your friends way which isn’t bad or you can use send/return with all the effects like eq and such. It really doesn’t matter which way it’s done… it matters what sounds right to you and what doesn’t. I recommend getting Voxengo SPAN to help getting all the frequencies in the right place. SPAN is free so it’s a great tool to use.