The very first mix I did with the NLS was smoother, more present, and less crunchy (the bad kind).
Question (or request): since the individual channels on each desk have been modelled, are there specific channels better for guitar or kick or vocals etc? Would Yoad alway put vocals into ch 7 because it seems to sound better? Would Mike Hedges use ch 3 for guitar because it sounds a certain way? Would be keen to have these mix engineers thoughts on any preferences they have…or maybe they don’t. Either way, each individual channel was modelled for a reason.
Funny you should ask this, he just did a video on it a couple of weeks ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_65U67D4iE
I think the short answer is he sometimes has a preference on the desk, but apparently not for individual channels. As far as I understand, the idea of modelling each channel individually is to get some variation between tracks so the added harmonics don’t directly clash, but it’s unlikely you’ll ever notice that variation individually - just that you may notice the interference if you have multiple tracks all using the same channel. Yoad’s video does a good job explaining the whole concept (he doesn’t start with NLS, though he ends there).
That makes sense. Thank you
I think this goes either way.
I have heard stories of some engineers opting to process certain instruments through a specific channel on their mixer because they like the way it sounds. While other engineers opt for certain outboard processors but keep their desk more organised.
Personally I hate chaos and disorganisation. Although, at least with DAWs we can have the best of both worlds. If we wanted to we could choose the “best channel number” to process certain instruments because we like what it does, but then still manage to keep our DAW channel strips organised regardless of what our plugins are doing.