HELP!!!! Mixing new overdub tracks into a stereo mixdown.

[duffield]

So, the studio my girlfriend and I were recording at has been completely booked solid for a while now. The lineup has changed significantly, so the engineer suggested that it would be best I recorded the overdubs in my apartment and then we'd bring the songs back into the studio to get a final mix. Since we were working across two platforms, (the studio uses Pro Tools, I use Logic) the most simple solution was for him to send me the stereo mixes and then I'd just send all the audio files to him to add to the session and then we'd do a final mix. However, he's not in town and I'm leaving for tour in 4 days...and I need to at least mix three tracks so we can have a demo to sell on the road - don't get me started on why we aren't touring without a record done, I'm just the drummer!

Anyways, I have to mix over the stereo files he sent me and I'm having a helluva time making it right. All of my tracks stick out like a sore thumb, and I'm looking for any help I can get to making it sound passable. The band itself doesn't seem to care, as they have "it's just a demo" mentality, but I can't bear to sell something that I've spent so much time working on with such a poor result.

Anyone have any experience or insight into making this work?

The instruments I recorded were: lapsteel, singing saw, mandolin and guitar. (I also recorded female and male backing vocals and those were easy as pie to mix in)

Thanks!

[jhharvest]

Hard to say without hearing. Have you tried:
*mixing the overdubs low
*cutting highs
*compression
*matching the reverb used for the original recording?

[Nick Sevilla]

Hi,

How about.....

1.- You WAIT until the engineer is available to finish mixing your music.

Or

2.- You hire a different engineer to finish mixing your music (wink wink..nod, nod...)

Or

3.- You take the EP as it is without the new overdubs and sell it for now. Years from now it might turn into a collectible version of your songs.

Once your music gets finally done (is there such a thing?) then have the new EP ready to sell.

Cheers

[fuzz]

Everything Nick put forth above is the right take on this.

We get asked alot by clients if they can add to mixes at home. Since everyone nowadays has some sort of recording rig they feel empowered to go back into their mixes usually because the personnel has changed, they wrote more parts, they decided they were not happy with their performance. While saying it doesn't really work never seemed to suffice, I ended up putting it like this to a client that was particularly insistent:

Let's say your making a stew and after 3hrs of simmering all the ingredients you decide you want to add celery. If you chop up some celery and add it to the bowl before you're about to eat (master) you notice that the celery isn't cooked, hasn't seasoned the stew, and in a bold way sticks out and doesn't taste right. The celery really needed to be there when the stew was cooking because now as an after thought it's not very palatable.

[duffield]

Hey thanks everyone,

I wasn't under any illusion that I'd be able to make it work, but after spending hours trying to shelve things, compressing and matching reverbs, I more or less just needed confirmation that I'm not completely inept.

I think i'm just going to do my best, show the songwriter an A/B between the bare stereo tracks and the songs with everything, and ask how she wants to present herself. If she goes with the full monty, I'll just make sure that any production notes don't make it on to the packaging.

Once we get back from tour and studio is once again free, we're going to finish it properly and hopefully get this beast done...properly.

Thanks again!

[cgarges]

Keep in mind that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so there's not really much chance of you selling these EPs thinking that people will become more excited about them later with the promise of something that "sounds better."

I'm with Nick. Either wait until your guy gets back in town, or ask him if there's someone he could recommend to knock out some decent mixes for you before you leave. Still, four days is pretty quick to get something like this done completely. I say lay off the stress and get them doen before your next tour. I would bet that all the sleep lost and apologizing is not going to be made up for by massive EP sales. I'm prepared to be wrong about that, though.

Good luck with it! I know deadlines can be really stressful, especially if everyone's not on the same page.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[maggot]

If the mixes with the old lineup are finished and sound decent, sell those. Lineup changes happen all the time, and bands are always selling music with older lineups, etc.

You'll have a reason for people to buy the finished album if they already have the demo e.p. If the bare bones e.p. is what you used to get get your tour gigs, it should be just fine.