Audio Engineer tries to MIX MUSIC on iPad Pro #Helpful Post

o guys johnathan here first off thank

you guys so much for the incredible love

on the latest video featuring Henny the

business honestly creatively this might

have been the most fun I've had not only

shooting something editing something but

kind of taking a step back away from the

front of the camera and directing it so

it should be no secret that have a huge

passion for film and cinematography but

I think I also have an equal passion for

music and music productions so to have

someone like Henny and then Ken freakin

Lewis together using technology as that

means to bring two immensely talented

people together for me was such an

amazing experience and seriously I'm

sitting there holding the camera and you

could not slap the smile off of my face

with that said I think it got kind of

lost into the story so much to the point

where I almost did not want to include

my voice whatsoever it was just kind of

one of those situations where I'm

sitting there editing everything

watching it come together to the point

where the story essentially told itself

the entire process from flying Haiti and

Ken out to shooting to editing to get

ended up on YouTube was all within a 24

hour window so kind of sitting back and

watching I think my biggest self

critique was not including enough of the

educational aspect there was a ton of

feedback that I 100% absolutely agree

with wanting to see what was happening

on the iPad display especially with

someone like Ken Lewis whose track

record is about as legitimate as it gets

he's a multi Grammy winner he's mixed

engineered produced written songs for

everyone from Kanye West to Mary Jane

polite to fun the list is absolute

insanity so to have someone like that in

the room not only with his knowledge but

just reacting having a pure genuine

moment mixing on the iPad for the first

time I think is invaluable what I did

was kind of put together a looser more

kickback educational feel style video

kind of similar to what I did with the

editing on the iPad pro video I'm not a

hundred percent sure if I'm gonna leave

this up publicly I might switch it to

unlisted and then link it back to the

original video for those that want to

see more of an educational site but if

you guys dig this and you think it's

worth leaving up let me know with a

comment down below and also drop in a

like and with that said let's go and

check out henny mixing with Ken Lewis on

the iPad for the first time in his life

so what I had is basically three

different ideas right

the piece with just kinda like the drums

the swing part and the bass in the

sample light in the string sample right

and then like it gets funky and you take

the string sample out and it kinda has

the pianos and synth that's part of a

different part of the sequence and then

throughout we could try to figure out

how to bring those lives and so so I

have anything you're gonna start the

record off probably with the string

sample as a solo so if you take the pin

you can little let's let's let's copy it

out so if you grab the whole thing I

down here you have three different

functions right yep

that's that's two copy that you just

kind of drag around that whole thing yep

and then just repeat yep that's dope

yeah one more time yeah all right now

this is kind of like how you get back

forth up there

and so say for instance it was string

sample if we just wanted it to go maybe

eight bars you can always just spread it

out and take out the pieces that you

want so if I just draw like this

everything but the string sample and

rich

 

remove there we go so now we have an

arrangeme

 

there were some comes in there maybe the

blaze every basin bells so you can

literally take those here and you can

drag it over you know

 

what I do is hit undo is up there mm-hmm

I'll just take that drag it over one and

then where am I yeah where's the drag

all right yeah well just in the middle

of it all I see you know and then just

and then repeat it smart yeah yeah I see

what you're doing and let's do the same

thing with the bells and see how that

hits us ok

 

in there

the drum yeah we have this as a prelude

so and then repeat that so yeah so if

you go up here and play from there so

we're looking right at that so there's

two here's the cut piece

do I need to select this first yep okay

and now any on any line you just cut it

and then you can go back to their throat

go back to select and then delete

 

and if you want to go all the way out

rig

 

that's Italy or the let's say the synth

lead for the hook okay

and maybe the pianos to the rock kept so

no I say this is moves the whole

arrangement yep

gotcha all right so the synth lead may

will cut this was that cut this much

more out

yep and sometimes you can just tap on it

if it's the whole piece ah okay it's in

pieces I didn't yeah they're in there

they should be in either for eight more

pieces there you go okay let's see see

what this gets u

 

so now going back to where we were

sometimes you can just do that nice and

then would you you do that and then you

use the cut tool or you get elect to the

car I want you to cut the cut tool put a

line and then and that automatically

does it yeah so now we have I don't know

if that was it or if we wanted oh I

think trying yeah we just let the loop

rock through it

 

they're not for ya setup okay so

 

so if we wanted that I think from that

point we can start to figure out there

all right

the mix right yeah this is plenty to dig

into so now we have sequence window mix

window double tap

this is

all your fix so you have these normal

effects that beatmaker comes with right

but all these third-party people make

these other effects so if you you're

saying you know compressor I'll show you

where it is

EQ show you where it is well so it's

just like I can select congas

yeah add effect go maybe I want a

dynamics processor mm-hmm and then how

do you fast forward we can

yeah just maybe loop a full section of

let me just get a bye for a whole thing

and another can see how that fine Tunes

itself

 

so where's the McCain

for detail

now is there a meter that shows up and

it's like righ

 

full mixers there's a company called

cleb grande that makes some really cool

third-party ones right so we want stereo

widening they have this thing called

haze so say for instance we like you

never want right yeah yeah just like

you know by frequency that's great yeah

it's kind of like a waves spread look

yeah do it with one finger

I'm very nice so you can get really

fine-tuned into the frequency rate I

want and the mix

 

and how do you bypass this and come here

 

yeah it's nice and if you want out of it

so that's like a wet/dry yeah parallel

balanced and then if you want to eat you

there's are these up to or how much yeah

here I hear what it's doing

yeah esto

are there different types of overdrive

you s

can you automate on-the-fly so like if

you arm I'm I think it's too complicated

right I'll pick you and I'll sign but if

I arm this and in real time I could yes

man yeah that's what that's what you

call a media video let's hear that in

the whole mix and then if I just want to

adjust like a string

is there a way to set it automatically

sentimental

 

if I wanted to add a second plug in I

just did that

they're like a tap delay you can select

this is actually it's been left and

right inside it's already on

 

 

Wow yeah that's always prudent is a

right

throwing it back to that up again so I

could bypass the fuzz and just you know

what's doing about it yeah

so at this point we basically have a

basic arrangement and I've kind of got a

feel for how the plugins work okay let

me go to the full mixer and just pull

the faders down and get an idea of just

how the faders are you know we're

looking is let's go and that way you

have the whole sequence so it did bring

this all the way back and I'll just keep

it looping like that okay okay cool

 

that's the master up

I can just do this with my fingers

that's really nice so let's loop a

section that has everything in it with

it that way I just know all right so all

faders down I'm just gonna start

building a mix from scratch just you

know getting basic balances and see how

the functionality is can I turn the

speaker's no it depends on the song

usually I like to plastically stun

volume for about 15 minutes get all of

my basic bal

so if I want is all compression under

dynamics processor yeah

no clipping that makes me move coverage

stuff too like yeah that sounds more on

my hey you don't that I've no idea how

to use this but let me find out kind of

a squeeze it out you have a my god

attack time

I'm liking what's going I'm gonna just

add another compressor to it okay which

one what hit went from there I want to

take down just the initial attack okay

so it's not so sharp and more of the

resonance of the bell comes out then the

initial like mallet hit that nominee so

super fast attack and wheelie is higher

compression and just get a little bit of

reduction so that that now at strike

isn't s

we can't filter do I just wanted to so

that the compressor is only looking at

more the high-frequency unless the

low-frequency watching but you know a

crisis let's just put it back

I'm also gonna try a spreading effect on

that perfect stereo one I want to do the

way does this do really really short

delay times like 4 milliseconds now it's

only on tempo yeah yeah how do I get rid

of this you do that's perfect let's see

what else we got here modulation delay

widening out that's nice I'll kind of

keep it away from the drums and vocals

and keep it lower

 

do anything to see if

that also brings a little bit that shake

around in there

we didn't really hear it like that

before

 

this is a ban for that come bring out

that sharpness in the snare

stop and see what it sounds like from it

from the top

yeah let's do it and then I'd love to

like give the mixbus a a try and see

what kind of mixbus stuff they they okay

have now let's see I get back to the

take that whole piece and just Joe yeah

there you go

and where's the stop star

 

I'm pretty good with where we're at now

how do you feel like you know your whole

first take on the iPad is something I

never really thought I would be doing

this on an iPad yeah but if but from

from your experience it's very much it's

very capable right yeah I mean the thing

I love about it is is it's all tactile

and I come from old school analog you

know you have 15-foot mixing consoles in

front of you and those have gotten

smaller and smaller but I'm still on an

analog board and one of the reasons I'm

on an analog board is because it's all

tactile and I can't touch it and you

know and work it and get the the feel

for that musical connection that you

know turning the knobs gives you and

moving the faders gives you and it feels

like one of the things that I have

always disliked about the mouse that's

kept me analog for so long is that that

tactile experience of being able to look

at the whole console and just grab

whatever you want to tweak on the fly

and to me this is like the best version

I've seen so far of that in the box Wow

and I mean I haven't used the Raven so

the Raven might be this or you know who

knows but the Raven is multiples more

expensive and write in a much bigger

footprint and you can't stick it in your

backpack so this guy yeah I am

definitely gonna be like taking this to

the beach and putting the headphones on

with the controller and sitting there

for hours at a time just making music

and the my favorite part is the tactile

response of it that I can just scroll

around and I can very easily select

everything that I want to do and it's

and I don't have to use a mouse to do it

that's that to me I love that and it

seems like their effects packages and

their plugins are super usable yeah so

it's only getting better device I'm sure

as third parties come on board and and

the awesome