Bob Power Ideas

• Below 95Hz is Where Hip Hop Lives (While Rock Lives on the Midrange), i.e. 95Hz to 80Hz (1 Oct Lower) and then Below 80Hz (2 Oct Lower)

• A Little Bit Twice is Better than a Lot Once, i.e. Make Positive Progression on Specific Tasks and Come Back to Make Again Positive Progression on Further Specific Task from the Previous Stage

• To Ensure if a Process is Good (e.g. Compression), Put the Cursor Over the Bypass Button, Play a Loop, Close your Eyes and then Toggle Bypass On/Off

• Fix the Weight (Low End) of Different Sources so they Match the Mix Workflow, i.e. Balance the Different Recordings so the Elements can Exist on Its Own

• Have an Idea of What Element Lives Where in the Frequency Spectrum, i.e. What Goes to Low, What to Mid, What to High

• Too Much at 4 kHz in the Kick Drum will Fight with the Snare

• Does a Lot of LP and HP on Individual Tracks to Make Room for Elements that Occupy a Certain Frequency Range

• Mix Buss Hardware Options = Distressor, Maselec VEA2 (Stereo), 2x TubeTech Pultec, Massenburg GML Parametric EQ, API 2500 Compressor, Pendulum Vari Mu Compressor, Pendulum Limiter, Avalon Pre Amp

– you can Look at a Mix in 3 Ways, Top Bottom = Frequency Content, Side to Side = Stereo Field, Front to Back = Depth of a Mix (Most Difficult of the 3)

• Depth of a Mix = Ambience Generators (i.e. Direct vs Reflected Sound, e.g. Send More or Less into Reverb or Delay), Volume Control (i.e. EQ, Fader, Compressor), Timbre (i.e. Things Further Away are Not Only Lower in Volume but also Darker, e.g. Use HF Roll Off in Delays to Mimic this)

• Monitors that Reveal Everything and More so Monitors you Know  Very Well 

• Digital Audio is Unkind to Sibilance as it Captures Everything in Great Details and so Reveals Harshness

• Before Power Starts to Mix he Wants to Know to What Genre the Song Belongs and thus What Kind of Sonic Emphasis, i.e. What Works in One Kind of Genre Does Not Necessarily Work for the Other One

• Before Dive into a Mix, Clean Up the Different Elements Resonant Peak by Finding Their Resonant Peaks within the 100Hz to 400Hz Range and Back it Off a Bit to Clean Up Low Mids which Leaves you with Much More Room, i.e. a Bell with a Rather Narrow Q (Not Too Narrow)

• Became a Fan of Doing Almost Always Cuts Rather than Boosts Particularly in High Frequencies, i.e. if you Manage to Dip Unnecessary Frequencies Without Boosting the Mix Sounds Cleaner and Less Lumpy, of Course e.g. Low End Often Needs a General Boost or Boost Tap of Kick at 3kHz

• People Clean Up Every Element with Low and High Cuts Prior Mixing, i.e., Particularly Hi Passing to Remove What is Unnecessary Below 150Hz or 200Hz, Especially when there are a Lot of Elements Coming Together Stuff Adds Up, but also Low Passing to Clean Up the High End, e.g. 2500Hz to 3000Hz

• Uses Compression to Keep the Presence of a Element at the Same Place and Void that it Drifts a Lot Back and Forth, or Uses Compression to Enhance the Low Level Details of a Voice,  Uses Compression to Shape Attack and Release of a Element

• Uses Melodyne to Optimize a Vocal but Never Use the Grid and Never Take the Singer Out of his Comfortable Zone by Tune it to the Center of a Pitch, i.e. Every Singer has a Certain Range Still in Tune but this Might be a Little Above or Below the Mathematical Center

• Bob Often Layered a Kick on the Snare for Body in the Tribe Called Quest Mix