Daniel Kandi : Breathe (7 Skies Remix) Video & Review

Hey guys, finally an update on the blog.
So this time the content quite juicy and hopefully interesting, in this page you will find a link to a video I just posted on my YouTube channel, on the video you will be able to have a look at the Logic project of one of my latest remix, you will also see a few plugin settings and see how I mix elements together and how I create percussions etc.
The rmx in question is Daniel Kandi : Breathe (7 Skies Remix) which is out now on 10 years of Anjunabeats compilation, you can check iTunes if you ve never heard the track.
So enough with promotion and let’s get to the point.
1st have a look at the video :

Liked it? I’m sure you got bored of my voice…
Anyway due to YouTube upload time limitation (which I found out they are no more now) I had to slice out the video pretty hard so some stuff might not be too clear for you so here’s a few things.
1) why sometimes there are different eq even on the same channel, would 1 be enough?
Answer is: yes, 1eq would definitely be enough but as for the analog world, plugins have their own character, now let’s forget about sounding more or less analog, and let’s focus on the sound.
Some of my favorite and most used eqs are R-eq, Sonalksis EQ and ssl eq, I do own and absolutely love flux epure II and dmg equality but they get too heavy on CPU so I usually save them for very special elements and usually for buss channels.
Now all these eqs I listed sound really good to me but IMO each and one of them has a certain frequency range / element where they sound good and somewhere where they don’t.
For example I find the R-Eq to be great on bass freqs and on the highs as well, while I’ve never been able to get a satisfying result on pads and leads with it, can’t say the same about Sonalksis eq in this case, this eq is awesome on lush sound and leads, on the bass it’s ok, not great, if I use it there probably there is another eq before or after.
SSL EQ is great on kicks and percussions / hats, on the kick I can get that round sound that sometimes take a lot of work if achieved with other eqs, same with the sparkle on the hi-hats, the ssl delivers a clean crisp sound without adding that annoying buzz sometimes you get when you push the highs.
So the reason sometimes I have more than an Eq is because I get the best out of their character.
Please note, as always, what I’m writing here is not a statement that has to be taken as the u
the ultimate true fact, it’s my taste and something that my ears find good sounding, this may not be the same for you.
2) why so many logic eq?
The 1st time Jono from Above & Beyond saw one of my logic projects he was surprised to see how many logic eq I had opened.
This eq is far from being the best sounding eq around, yet is the fastest eq you can have access to while working with logic.
For those who didn’t know, logic eq can be opened just by double clicking the little square box at the top of the channel strip, so there is no need to open menus and surf thru a Schindler list of plugins.
You know how important a fast workflow is for me, I pointed it out on many tutorials and videos, a fast way to do things helps not to kill your inspiration and excitement during music production and the logic eq is a real fast thing to get.
Second reason, logic’s default plugins are much lighter on the CPU than any other 3rd party plugin so pushing your machine to the limit is a little harder when you use this eq compared to using lets say the same amount of r-eqs or whatever.
Logic eq as I said is far from being a great sounding eq but it does the job, take a look at any of my video screen flow on YouTube you will notice most of the time this eq works as a low cut, high boost or hi cut, and as a freq killer, by freq killer I mean a type of eq that cuts frequencies rather than boosting them.
So when there is some heavy job to do on the eq of an element, or if there is a stand out element to eq my choice will be on some 3rd party product, if there is some frequency cut or a simple boost to make Logic Eq does the job and it’s excellent cause of its low CPU requirements and by the way you can quickly get it on your channel.
3) why so much low cut?
Yeah I’m pretty easy going when it comes to low cut, I’d say 80% or more of my channels have a low cut, the reason is cause human ear can’t listen below a certain frequency range (and above certain others) so what’s the point having something that adds a significant amount of “weight” to your sound if you can’t even hear it?
Let me focus on that “weight” for a second, usually bass frequencies is where all the dirt of the sound goes, it’s probably more obvious when it comes to real instruments rather than plugins and electronic equipment but in that frequency range there is often stuff that you don’t need and you don’t hear but that doesn’t mean it’s not there, all this crap adds weight to your mix, this leads to unwanted clipping and to a reducer room in your mix.
Now do not think slicing away all the frequencies below 100hz is the key to the perfect mix, cause it’s not! On The kick for example if while cutting frequencies I hear the sound changing even just a tiny little bit I usually back off and cut less, same for the bass(usually I don’t go over 20hz), low cut has to be invisible unnoticeable especially with kick and bass, with other elements like hi hats or leads you can go a little harder, but I wouldn’t go over 120 / 200 hz on the lead and over 500 on the hihat, pads depends as this usually cover a huge range of frequencies.
What I’ve learn during the years is that usually what’s really subtle makes more difference than what’s really obvious or anyway, most of the times it works better.
That’s it for this part one of the video, I found out YouTube now allows to upload videos longer than 15 minutes so next time I’ll try and be more clear with this kind of stuff straight into the video, I hope anyway you enjoyed the reading.