Elements of Mixing with Bassy Bob: The Decapitator – Small But Mighty Mix Tool

On the most recent album I was mixing , I really discovered some incredible uses for the Decapitator, a saturation plug made by SoundToys.

SoundToys had me at EchoBoy which was another go-to plug that I still use every day. The thing that sets their plugs apart from so many that I’ve used is that they have an “analog feel” to them. By that I mean that not only can you make millions of combinations of saturation, compression and EQ (more on that later), but the knobs behave in an analog way, and you can really hear the effect, even when it’s inside the mix.

Discover (or rediscover) the myriad benefits of analog saturation in your mixes.

Getting Inside My Head

My initial experiments with Decapitator were with the obvious choices, drums and guitars, and electric bass.

The simple addition of DRIVE to any of those brings up the visibility and apparent loudness in a really elegant way. It’s easily possible to add more spark to a bass or guitar with just the Decapitator, and no EQ… In fact , I’ve often found adding an EQ before it can screw up the sound and make it phasey, which is an ever present danger inside the Digital Matrix.

Guitars sound more analog, more like they’ve been through tape, tubes, or transformers.  Drums respond much in the same way as using the Distressor or EMI compressors, which has a dramatic crushing and lengthening effect on the envelope of drums, making them smash more. (I love to record with the Distressors, and burn in the distortion sound to the drums on the record.)

Want to get more of the chatter up in the snare drum? The Decapitator does an excellent job of revealing more detail as you increase the DRIVE. Also I find it really interesting to play with the plug with almost no distortion, using only the EQ/filters on a track, which gives character to the hat or overheads. The possibilities are endless…

Try This On Vocals

My most recent experience has been using Decapitator in a very subtle way on vocals.

My current lead vocal chain usually consists of an EQ, a De-Esser and a Compressor. Recently I’ve been replacing the EQ with the Decapitator, which is a saturation/distortion plug, but the effect is that it adds harmonics to the vocal, and that equates to more high or low frequency detail, which sounds really musical inside the track.

Give it a try as an insert across the track or use a send to feed it from an aux. Both gain structures yield interesting results. Also can be quite cool on reverbs to dust them up a bit.

If you are mixing out of a multi-channel mixer like mine, the Rupert Neve 2055 Satellite, try it across a whole stereo output like the guitars or keyboards. It can have a dramatic effect with very little distortion.

Analog…from the Neck Down

I spoke briefly with Ken Bogdanowicz, the owner and lead developer of SoundToys. He chronicled the long and challenging process of modeling all these pieces of gear that they own. I thought that was particularly significant, that they have a monstrous gear collection. That way they could continually go back, over and over, and test the plug against its analog contemporary.

The list of pieces that they modeled to create the Decapitator is truly amazing. Old preamps from Universal Audio and Ampex. Neves, API’s, Chandler/EMI/TG, Thermionic Culture, and many others. Ken said that the huge advances that have happened in the past couple years are a combination of “figuring it out”, meaning the creative side of plugin development, and faster processor speeds, which enable the plug to do more without taking over the computer.

The Decapitator is an amazing piece of modeling for its size and the time we are in. I have no doubt that tremendous positive changes will continue with SoundToys and other innovative and musical designers, as the science of saturation continues to evolve in the digital domain.

Give Decapitator a try. I have used in on almost anything at this point, drums, bass , guitars, vocals, synths, glockenspiel, and it’s always musical. If you check it out, drop me a note and let me know your experience.

BassyBob

bassyb@gmail.com

Bassy Bob is a multiple Grammy winning mixer/producer, Tech entrepreneur, and trumpet and bass player. He often lectures and teaches on the subject of the art of mixing. Bassy loves crawfish, and fried oysters, and fat mixes. Follow him on instagram at http://instagram.com/bassybob. He lives in New York City.

Please note: When you buy products through links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.