In your opinion, what is the Harrison sound?

[tonstwo]

Hi all, new user of Mixbus (using the regular Mixbus, plus the 32C channel where needed) here by the way, also working with Reaper.

Anyway, as per the thread subject:

Online there can be found a lot of talk abut the Neve/API/SSL sound. So I'm curious what the Harrison sound is. Of course that'd be up to the user, no? In any case I've been listening to the Harrison Console playlist on Spotify and the thing I notice immediately is how many of the songs have such strong and clear bass, plus the extended high end and general clarity.

The first thing I tried mixing was the multitrack files of Traveling Light from Produce Like A Pro and (as a not yet pro) I am so pleased with the results, sure enough I was easily able to get what I thought was "Harrison". Bass that I can pick out from the mix, kicks that move air, all the while having more than enough space for everything else.

Your thoughts?

[Ben@Harrison]

Don't forget that the A-list songs that are often brought up as the "Harrison" sound were also written and arranged and performed and mixed and mastered by A-list talent

Harrison's main contribution to the sound was "because the A-list audio engineer chose to work on a Harrison" ... so you've made it that far, at least

-Ben

[tonstwo]

Don't forget that the A-list songs that are often brought up as the "Harrison" sound were also written and arranged and performed and mixed and mastered by A-list talent 

Harrison's main contribution to the sound was "because the A-list audio engineer chose to work on a Harrison"  ... so you've made it that far, at least 

-Ben

That's a very good point Ben. I hope to bring my skills up to that level at least, as I'll start arranging, producing, recording and mixing for my musician friends soon. Mixbus certainly makes it a lot easier to get a good sounding mix.

[Ben@Harrison]

We have a big advantage because some of our guys were around during those huge records, and we had a chance to see what features and settings were getting used the most, and what kinds of problems they were trying to solve with their tracks. The idea is to do 'as little as possible' to the audio, but fix the problems in your tracks. The 32C EQ is a simple example: when you cut deeper with a 'bell' filter, the Q tightens for you.

It's worth noting that the 32C filters (high and low) weren't separately enabled: if you turned on the filter you got 'both' which had the tendency of limiting the frequency ranges of everything into a 'pocket' and then you could disable the filters on those channels that really deserved to exist in the extreme highs or lows.

Said another way, I think the great sound in those records was 'the lack of any bad stuff': they made sure to get rid of anything that didn't serve the song. So instruments were pretty heavily filtered to sit in their range, and the eq's were used to take out any enharmonic stuff (like a 'ring' in the snare that didn't match the song).

Another factor is that the 32Series consoles were 'packed' with features, for those days. There were 32 buses (double what other consoles provided) and you could turn any channel into a bus-master (predating the DAW concept where any track can be a bus). It was an inline console so you could EQ on your way to tape and then EQ again on playback. Stuff like that was revolutionary, and it saved them a lot of time so they could experiment more in the allotted studio time. Mixbus carries forward that tradition with tons of innovative features like the Polarity Optimizer and our multi-format export features.

As you said in your initial post, the Harrison sound generally has extraordinarily clean bass (maybe because they used 32C filters to keep other instruments out of that range), very clear vocals (maybe using wide EQ cuts to make space for the vocal in the instruments), and clear highs (maybe because they notched or filtered out the annoying rings and sizzle).

That's my opinion based on being a 'fly on the wall'. I wasn't around for those records but I've heard our sales and support guys talk about these things for years.

-Ben

[tonstwo]

I didn't know that factoid of being an inline console, I can see how much of a difference that'd make! I love the 32c filters and eq, great point on the use of those. One more reason I use Mixbus is it keeps me from overloading my tracks with saturation, since it already has that built-in. Otherwise I tend to overdo it using saturation plugins in pursuit of an "analog" sound .