Vance Powell mixing Lifeboats

In this episode of the Lifeboats Series, Nashville’s treasured engineer, Vance Powell, opens the multitrack for the Lifeboats session and does a start-to-finish mix from hearing the song for the first time through to the final mix sharing his thought process and signature sound each step of the way.

Watch as Vance’s assistant engineer, Mike Fahey:

• Sets up the mixing session with Vance’s preferred settings on Pro Tools and the SSL console
• Pairs the session down to 32 channels on the SSL console
• Cleans up the vocal from sibilance and plosives before Vance starts his mix
• Prepares Vance’s wall of outboard gear for him to insert quickly across elements in the session
• Calibrates Vance’s parallel outboard chains for proper gain staging
• Shares his session prep checklist as a downloadable file

See how Vance Powell:

• Sets up the mixing session with Vance’s preferred settings on Pro Tools and the SSL console
• Deals with phase issues between the drum mics and bass DI and amp mics to bring the most out of each source
• Inserts his Distressors and API 550B eqs on the kick and snare
• Dials in the mix track by track with his tried and true plugin and hardware chains
• Reamps the snare drum to a speaker laying on a new snare in the live room
• Talks about the benefits of having an assistant
• Applies his Manley Massive Passive across the piano
• Reamps the Guitar DI tracks with the UAD Fender 55 Deluxe Plugin and blends with the guitar amp mics while adjusting phase
• Demonstrates his Empirical Labs Fatso, UTA Fairchild, and two Neve 33609 parallel processing chains
• Adds drum samples to the toms
• Applies his signature parallel processing techniques to the lead vocals
• Automates the mix and discusses the workflow on the SSL