Ideas On How to Get The Mix Sound of Conor Albert ?

A

astokesmusic

Member
Love the way the mix sounds in this video. It sounds, sorta like a Lo-Fi, hip-hop, Neo-soul type vibe. I’m currently trying to get a mix that sounds like this overall, but especially on the drums, such as hi-hats and the kick drum. I noticed how he’s got the kick sounding super distorted and in your face (almost like a clipping of some kind)? And the hi-hats sound chorused to me, but is there something else going on with the drums that I’m missing or is it something I need to apply to the mix bus too?

 
I'd guess he just eq'd and compressed the life out of the kick, and added some nasty chorus to the hats, but what you see in the video is not what it appears - the empty kick stand, and no mic on the snare - just that mid field one? The missing cymbal suggests it was made pretty for the camera.

My guess is he miked the sources separately so he could leave the side stick clean, process the kick and have enough hats to do the weird swimmy chorus.

I guess I'm just not a lover of over-treated drums. This ones sounds better on my macbook speakers than in the studio where the noisy drum treatment annoys me. I don't really hear over level distortion on the kick - just the sound of a compressor squashing the ransient with a quick release. It might be distorting, but it's so quick it is difficult to tell. I suspect that maybe the mic on the boom did the side stick - but as this is treated differently to the hats, the hats were perhaps recorded on a different pass? There's lots of annoying noise though - it makes the loop very evident when it goes quiet for a fraction of a second.
 
I love his other performances like the one you shared. I’ve just become interested with the over-driven sound he tends to do like in the video I attached. It makes for some really cool loops on Instagram and YouTube shorts. Mostly fun stuff. Do you know some good chorus plug-ins, especially for drums?
 
Too old - I've never in my recording life put chorus on drums, so it's something I'm not skilled in at all - maybe because I have so much trouble making drums sound realistic, that the notion of then treating them is alien. I hated the clip you want to replicate, but quite like his other stuff - just me, I think.
 
For the bass drum, it sounds to me like it's nothing but a completely muffled kick that's been clipped hard. The `hi hat sounds like a fair amount of reverb with a phaser or flanger.

One comment... I keep hearing people say are looking for "LoFi" sound. I wish someone could explain to me what they mean by LoFi. If you're talking about limited bandwidth, high noise and distorted sound, ok. Its the exact opposite of something with high fidelity. Anyone who listened to old phonographs with crystal cartridges and puny 4 inch speakers would recognize that sound. AM radio sound is more what I would consider Lo Fi.

The problem is that the term gets thrown out today as generic style of sound and the examples sound nothing alike to me, and none of them has what I would consider low fidelity, other than dumping a lot of distortion on things.

What was in the clip above isn't "LoFi. It's just processed with effects and an overblown kick.

Can somebody please explain it to me?
 
TalismanRich said:
AM radio sound is more what I would consider Lo Fi.
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AM radio is no different today than it was nearly 60 years ago when I would listen to Mad Daddy and Wolfman Jack.

That's the lo fi sound I remember way back then whenever I laid in bed holding onto a small radio close to my ear.

It was all there. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and others.

I've never been a fan of home recordists attempting to mimic and sound like their favorite performer.

I do, however, appreciate it that astokesmusic was inquiring about the drum mix.
 
60's guy said:
AM radio is no different today than it was nearly 60 years ago when I would listen to Mad Daddy and Wolfman Jack.

That's the lo fi sound I remember way back then whenever I laid in bed holding onto a small radio close to my ear.

It was all there. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and others.

I've never been a fan of home recordists attempting to mimic and sound like their favorite performer.

I do, however, appreciate it that astokesmusic was inquiring about the drum mix.
Click to expand...
 
Wow cool! And not sure if you were referring to me about “I’ve never been a fan of home recordists attempting to mimic and sound like their favorite performer” but if so, that’s not the case for me. I simply like the over-driven sound and I’ve never attempted it before so I just wanted to get some ideas here for what can create something similar, not “mimic” lol.
 
astokesmusic said:
Wow cool! And not sure if you were referring to me about “I’ve never been a fan of home recordists attempting to mimic and sound like their favorite performer” but if so, that’s not the case for me. I simply like the over-driven sound and I’ve never attempted it before so I just wanted to get some ideas here for what can create something similar, not “mimic” lol.
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Oh no! Never, was I comparing you to anyone else.

Over driven sound? That sound was always at the very edge of distortion whenever I listened to AM radio.

It was...what it was.

Difficult to hear lyrics.
 
60's guy said:
Oh no! Never, was I comparing you to anyone else.

Over driven sound? That sound was always at the very edge of distortion whenever I listened to AM radio.

It was...what it was.

Difficult to hear lyrics.
Click to expand...
Ohh my bad haha. Ohh that makes sense! Thanks for the info! Yeah I mostly hear some distortion in the kick drum. Love that sound on a muffled acoustic kick. :)
 
Our drummer used to just throw a big pillow or blanket into the bass drum. It dampens all of the ringing from the head, so you just get a "thud" instead of a boom. It also dropped the level a bit, so things weren't quite as loud. Taping a cloth over the snares would keep them from buzzing when the bass player hit certain notes. We also had to carry a rug for the drummer to set up, and he even had a rope going from the kick drum around his stool, just to keep it from scooting across the floor.

Drummers could be a pain!
 
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