Piraxa Studios Live | MIXING Catalysis "Serpentine" EP

Honoured to welcome Catalysis onto today's stream! Especially while doing something incredibly silly: Mixing an entire EP in a day. Catalysis have absolutely earned their accolades as one of Scotland's most well-known metal bands in the local scene, and I'm excited to see what comes out of the other side of this crazy stream. Let's chat in the comments! It's going to get loud. TIME STAMPS: 00:00:00 – Intro: Catalysis "Serpentine" EP Overview 00:12:30 – Stream Start: Welcome and Q&A (Listener Feedback) 00:14:30 – Project Walkthrough: Logic vs Cubase Workflow 00:18:30 – Tuning the Mackie Console & Starting the 2-Hour Timer 00:21:00 – Initial Balance: Setting the "Holy Trifecta" 00:25:30 – Vocal Auditioning: Layering Screams vs Melodic Grit 00:31:30 – Lead Guitar & Harmony Routing 00:39:30 – Master Bus Chain: SSL and Elysia Alpha Setup 00:41:30 – Console EQ: Sculpting the Drum Bus 00:43:00 – Console EQ: Rhythm Guitar Mid-Range Focus 00:46:00 – Console EQ: Vocal Bus Clarity & 400Hz Ducking 00:51:00 – Kick Drum Focus: Trigger Blending (Modern & Massive) 00:53:00 – Snare Drum Focus: Snappy EQ & Detection Circuits 00:55:00 – Tom Focus: Managing Stick Attack & Natural Bounce 01:00:00 – Room Mics: Creating Explosive Trash Room Textures 01:03:00 – The Pink Noise Trick: Smoothing Cymbals with Soothe2 01:04:30 – Distorted Bass Focus: Managing the 2k Nasal Resonance 01:07:00 – Clean Bass: Custom IR Blending for Depth 01:09:00 – Rhythm Guitars: Sculpting 400Hz for Vocal Space 01:13:30 – Solo Guitar FX: Designing Custom Delay & Reverb Sends 01:17:30 – Clean Guitar Tones: Softening "Crusty" Top-end 01:21:00 – Lead Guitars: Frequency Carving vs Volume Panning 01:28:00 – Lead Vocal Cleanup: High Pass & Initial Leveling 01:31:30 – Vocal De-Essing Strategy for Aggressive Screams 01:39:00 – Scream Vocals: Using Limiters for Consistent Aggression 01:53:30 – Dynamics Focus: Clipping the Kick Drum for Uniformity 01:58:30 – Snare Logic: Comparing Detection Circuits for Snap 02:04:30 – Advanced Room Mics: MIDI Sidechaining for Maximum Pump 02:12:00 – Rhythm Guitar Dynamics: Soloing Band-Specific Limiting 02:18:00 – Guitar Solo Limiting Strategy 02:22:00 – Lead Guitar Bus: Compression vs Limiting 02:30:00 – End of Static Mix: Recap and Reflection 02:32:30 – BREAK (30 mins) 03:04:30 – Session Resumed: Setting the Stage for Automation 03:05:30 – Automation: "Tremors" (Section-by-Section) 03:13:30 – Frequency Balancing: The "Isolate" Spectrum Check 03:16:30 – Parallel Saturation Bus for Scream Vocals 03:22:30 – Trackspacer Sidechaining for Vocal/Guitar Clarity 03:32:00 – The "Jelly Jigsaw" Analogy: Analogue vs Digital EQ 03:35:00 – Refining Tom Rolls with MIDI Side-chains 03:40:00 – Fighting the DAW: Logic Automation Frustrations 03:46:00 – Checking Vocal/Instrumental Glue 03:54:00 – Creative Experiment: Octave Melodic Clean Vocals 03:59:30 – Automation: "Futile" 04:13:30 – Snare Processing for Blast Beats 04:23:30 – Delay Throw Automation for Melodic Vocals 04:34:30 – Automation: "Serpentine" (Title Track) 04:41:30 – The Mother of All Snare Bombs (Trigger Layering) 04:52:30 – Build and Verse Automation: "Serpentine" 04:59:30 – Designing the Shell Reverb (Pro-R 2) 05:05:30 – Executing the Snare Bomb Highlight 05:10:00 – Breakdown Focus: Rhythm Guitar Panning & Weight 05:21:30 – Solo Processing & Tone Tweaking for "Serpentine" 05:28:30 – BREAK (15 mins) 05:43:00 – Session Resumed: Q&A and Final Songs 05:46:00 – Automation: "Damocles" (The "Ace of Spades" Vibe) 05:50:30 – Micro-Detailing: Pick Slide Panning Automation 05:58:00 – Ride Cymbal Presence & Automation 06:05:00 – Fixing Human Error: Manual Drum MIDI Correction 06:10:30 – Social Media Highlight: Relatable Studio Pains 06:11:30 – Snare Ghost Note Recovery: Manual Velocity Automation 06:17:30 – Surgical EQ: Notching Harsh Harmonics on Rakes 06:23:30 – Arrangement Hack: Dropping Snare/Bass for Impact 06:32:00 – Troubleshooting: Resonances on Jamie’s Solo Tone 06:40:00 – Rebalancing the Halftime Harmony Sections 06:44:00 – Dialing in Chug Patterns for "Damocles" 06:51:30 – Automation: "Death Blow" 06:58:30 – Creative Vocal FX: Using Guitar Amps on Vocals 07:01:30 – Death Blow Vocal Leveling & Layering 07:05:00 – Ride and Snare Blast Beat Automation 07:12:00 – Q&A: Band Recording History & Gain Staging 07:20:00 – Adding the Final Octave Guitar Layer 07:27:30 – Master Bus Final Polish & Loudness Check 07:41:30 – Final Playthrough & Stream Outro 08:09:30 – System Overload Blooper & Goodbye ______________________________________________________ How can I help you? Get in touch with me: Email: [email protected] Socials: @PiraxaStudios Website: https://www.piraxastudios.com