MixWithTheMasters Inside The Track #21

Enter the world of prolific mix engineer Tom Elmhirst as he dives into the multi-track session of ‘Lazarus’ – a song from David Bowie’s Grammy-winning final album, ‘Blackstar’. At Electric Lady studios in New York, Elmhirst describes the collaboration with Bowie and his producer Tony Visconti, detailing the entire journey from rough to final mix. Learn about his gain staging principles, console layout, monitoring environment, ergonomic VCA usage, effects routing, and a hybrid workflow that comprises a variety of processing from high-end outboard gear to stock Pro Tools plug-ins.

PART 1
Workflow introduction, console preferences, analog gear, plug-ins, monitoring, rough mix analysis

PART 2
Final vs. rough mix contrast, vocal EQ and compression, hardware and software effect chains

PART 3
Drums and bass focus, line amp coloration, parallel compression, subtractive room EQ

PART 4
VCA system, static balance, mix buss chain, dynamic range, gain staging, stem prints, collaboration