Manon Grandjean is a multiple MPG Award‑winning mix engineer whose credits include Stormzy, Dave, AJ Tracy and many more.
Mixing in software needn’t mean that the results lack character, colour and warmth.
As a mixer, I like to deliver a big and quite hyped sound, and I am always searching for ways to capture analogue warmth. At the same time, though, I need to mix mainly ‘in the box’ to allow me to work on multiple projects at a time, and have a fairly quick turnover for mixes. To achieve this, I use a combination of hybrid hardware with saturation, distortion, harmonics and console emulation plug‑ins. The key is to add a little bit of all the elements throughout the mix, rather than relying on one plug‑in or stage of processing.
Working mainly in the box means my studio setup is fairly simple. My monitors are Ex Machina Pulsars: this is a relatively new brand of speakers, but I was sold as soon as I heard them. They give me the low end I need without a sub, along with top‑end sparkle and detail. The same goes for the McDSP Analog Processing Box system. I tried an APB8 and it integrated perfectly into my workflow and gave me the analogue sound that I was missing. A recent addition as well is the Freqport Freqtube, which is a similar concept. I also have an SSL Fusion mastering processor, and my main audio interface is a Universal Audio Apollo x6.
To illustrate how my hybrid mix approach works, I’m going to refer to the song ‘Cardboard Box’ by the amazing girl band called FLO. It was produced by MNEK and mixed and mastered by me. My aim for this record was to have sparkly vocals recalling 2000s R&B, combined with a big, round low end.
FLO’s hit ‘Cardboard Box’ puts a modern twist on the classic R&B girl group sound.Photo: Emma Houghton
Proper Channels
My sessions are usually organised the same way. All tracks go through their respective buses, which I will detail below, which in turn are all routed to a mix bus/master bus.
Manon Grandjean’s first mix move is usually to place Sonimus’ Britson Channel and Britson Bus on every track and bus in the session.Once I have done colour‑coding, markers, bus assignments and so on, my first step is usually to put a Sonimus Britson Channel plug‑in on all my audio tracks and a Britson Bus plug‑in on all my buses. This is a console emulation plug‑in which I found gives me some warmth and opens my mixes. Each instance has high‑ and low‑pass filters, which I adjust accordingly depending on the source. I use the Fat mode on both tracks and buses, and Master Loudness on the Britson bus. You can assign multiple tracks to a group, but I don’t use this feature: I like to set it and forget it.
Once the console emulation is in place, I start carving each track with FabFilter’s Pro‑Q 3 equaliser. I also switch on my master bus plug‑ins pretty early on — usually as soon as my initial gain staging is done. This is necessary because I find that parts always come to me very hot in level; I usually apply ‑10dB clip gain so that everything is at the optimum level for the plug‑ins to run properly, and not be too high in level going in to the mix bus. If it’s not enough then I clip gain down some more.
The plug‑in chain on the mix bus changes slightly from mix to mix, but the chain I used on ‘Cardboard Box’ is fairly typical. First I use the SIR Standard Clip plug‑in to catch any kick or snare peaks, but this is only doing some very light clipping (1 or 2 dB) with the saturation down at 4 percent. Then I use the Waves SSL G master bus compressor to give me some glue, applying about 2 or 3 dB gain reduction at most. I set the attack time to 10 or 30 ms and the release time to 0.1 or 0.3, depending on how tight or open I want the mix to be, I also always stay on 4:1 ratio.
Waves’ L3 multiband limiter provides both limiting and frequency rebalancing on the master bus.
After the SSL, I use the Waves L3 Multimaximizer to impose a ‘smile curve’ frequency response on the mix. I then add Slate Digital’s Virtual Tape Machines plug‑in. I like how this brings the mids forward and shapes the low end. After that, I’m using iZotope’s Ozone 9 for some multiband compression, overall EQ, enhancement and stereo imaging. On the exciter section, I prefer the ‘warm’ setting on the low end and low mid bands, but in this case I used ‘tape’ on the high mids and high end to make the vocals pop. If the track is quite dense in the upper mids, I would switch the high mids and high end setting to ‘warm’ as well. Following Ozone, I want to bring back some transient impact, which I’m doing with the Slate FGX Virtual Mastering Console. I bypass the compression section as I don’t need more compression at that stage.
The four‑band enhancer section in iZotope’s Ozone can achieve different results depending on the mode to which each band is set.
I master a lot of the mixes that I do, and if I’m working on a single song rather than an album or EP, I do the mastering within the same session on the mix bus.
We are now transitioning into the mastering part of the mix bus. I master a lot of the mixes that I do, and if I’m working on a single song rather than an album or EP, I do the mastering within the same session on the mix bus.
McDSP’s L‑18 analogue limiter plug‑in for the APB system provides a colourful alternative to digital limiters.
Manon Grandjean prefers to use several limiters in series rather than just one.T
his is where the McDSP Analog Processing Box comes into play, and here I am using the APB L‑18 analogue limiter. I love the Color setting, which adds top end to the mix. I limit very lightly with this plug‑in — about 1dB gain reduction, with a soft knee and short release time — as the limiters after that will do the heavy lifting. These are the Softube Weiss MM1 and the FabFilter Pro‑L 2.
The Weiss gives me a bold, loud sound which I always like on my mixes, and the Pro‑L 2 rounds everything off. The ‘Allround’ limiting style is my favourite, as it seems to bring in some more low end. I much prefer having a few limiters doing the work rather than just one, as each one has a different colour. With all of them in place, the total amount of gain reduction is about 6dB. The choice can be genre dependent: if I find that the master is missing a bit of punch, I would swap the Pro‑L 2 setting to ‘Punchy’, or use a different limiter like Newfangled Audio’s Elevate, for example; I often use this on rap tracks as my last limiter.
Vocals
Once I have de‑essed, equalised and slightly compressed (usually with Waves’ Renaissance Vox) each lead vocal track, they are all sent to a lead vocal bus. On this song, I used XFER’s OTT on the lead vocal tracks, as it carves out some of the mids and brings some top‑end sparkle. I use the same process on the ad libs and the backing vocals: treating the individual tracks first then sending them to their respective buses, and using the processing on the bus to fit them in the mix.
On the lead vocal bus, I have a set chain which I use a lot. The UAD Tube‑Tech CL1B adds some light compression and also shapes the tone, and it’s followed by the Waves CLA Vocals plug‑in. I really like using the stereo mode on the Pitch fader to give the vocal some width, despite the common belief that vocals should strictly be mono. On the Compress fader, my favourite settings are Push and Spank. I use Spank when the vocal really has to be in your face, but in this case Push was sufficient.
The Pitch fader on Waves’ CLA Vocals plug‑in has a stereo mode that introduces some widening.
I am always looking for ways to bring warmth to everything in the mix, so Soundtoys’ Little Radiator is on all my buses, including the vocal bus; it is then followed by the Eiosis Air EQ. The setting I use boosts the ‘air’ band but with a dip at 10kHz so it is not piercing.
A broad air boost is combined with a 10kHz dip to make the lead vocals bright but not harsh.
After this I do more light compression with another favourite plug‑in for the APB: the Chickenhead compressor. I particularly like the Sauce mode, which is slightly warmer than the standard mode. The final two plug‑ins in the chain are Avid’s Lo‑Fi, with a tiny amount of distortion and saturation to bring the vocals forward in the mix and make sure they cut through, and a Waves L2 limiter to control peaks.
Another analogue plug‑in for the APB system, Chickenhead provides characterful vocal compression in Sauce mode.
Sends & Sensibility
In terms of effects, I have sends from the lead vocal going to a plate reverb from Liquidsonics’ Seventh Heaven, a hall setting from Valhalla Vintage Verb and an eighth‑note delay from Waves’ H‑Delay. The levels of these sends are ridden all the way through the song using automation. Obviously, the eighth‑note delay is sync’ed to the tempo of the track, but I also like to match the reverb settings to the song tempo too. For example, in this case I set the pre‑delay time of the plate reverb to 46.58ms and the decay time to 2.9s; this makes the reverb tail last exactly one bar at 80bpm. This avoids having reverb tails overhang longer than necessary and crowding the mix. I dial these settings in by calculating beat and bar times for the song tempo, then adjust by ear if necessary.
Spot effects such as delay throws are created by copying individual words to a separate effect track.
For spot effects such as reverb throws or quarter‑note delays, I prefer to set up a separate effect track and simply drag the audio clips that I want to effect onto this track. This is quicker to set up than using automation to achieve the same results.
Lastly, I also have a send going to an aux track with the UA Thermionic Culture Vulture plug‑in, which I adjust depending on how much I need it, to bring excitement to the vocals and bring them forward. This is very useful to help vocals cut through dense tracks.