Son Lux, Mitski and David Byrne ‘This Is A Life’

Join renowned mixing engineer Chris Tabron from his studio "Rumors" in Brooklyn, New York, as he delves into the masterful mix of "This Is A Life" by Son Lux ft. Mitski and David Byrne.

In this Puremix exclusive, Chris shares his expertise in crafting a mix under tight deadlines using both outboard hardware and In The Box techniques, the importance of discovering the intention of the song before tweaking, how he crafted the unique textures on Mitski and David Byrne's vocals, and much more. 

Watch as Chris:

• Explains the origins and context of the project.
• Explores his unique combination of analog gear and digital techniques, and how he decides when to use each.
• Dives into the specific hardware chains used in the mix.
• Explains the pace of the project and how he managed time constraints.
• Demonstrates how he started the mix with the vocals, treating the intro line uniquely to draw listeners into the story.
• Breaks down the vocal chains used on Mitski and how David Byrne's lead vocal was treated with different textures to complement his role in the song.
• Reveals how he created space for the lead vocals through his handling of the background vocals.
• Teaches how he used auto-align to adjust the phase relationship between microphones on the drum kit.
• Shows how samples were added to the kick drum and the outboard UnFairchild, Pultec, and SSL Compressor hardware used on the drums.
• Explains how he dialed in the low end of the bass and kick drum to complement each other using side-chaining multi-band compression.
• Explores how he went through each element of the string ensemble to utilize them for texture in the mix.
• Adds the background vocals, explaining his treatment for each part of the arrangement.
• Talks about the Neve 1073 and Telefunken V72 microphone preamps used on the lead vocals and legato instruments.
• Deconstructs the outboard Pendulum ES-8 compressor, DW Fearn VT-5 EQ, Chandler Germanium Compressors, and Cranesong Head on the mix bus, along with the stereo bus plugin chain.
• Discusses the importance of discovering the intention of the reference mix.
• Helps you understand his print levels and how he interfaces with mastering engineers.
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Watch Chris Tabron, mix “This Is A Life” from Son Lux, Mitski and David Byrne. Only on Puremix.