That icky harsh wax buildup

[alanfc]

hey thanks guys

Joel- the idea of going in with a chainsaw and AARRGH make everything fit- that made me totally laugh out loud and everybody here was lookng at me like I was crazy. This is totally =me=. I'm working on a cure for this behavior now.
I'll be trying to uncover the purest tones from each instrument and voice. Maybe their traits will tell me what to do with them - with no FX first. Like I don't have to force chorus harmony vocal # 22 to have sparkle. If its nature is duller and smoother, leave it. In theory I think this approach to all instruments will serve me better. Thanks for the more rational ideas I've been getting from you guys.
thanks again

[vvv]

The first thing I would do is submix, like all the BG's, then all the rhythm guitarz, meaybe a sub of all the sweetening, etc.

Only then would I consider EQ, as I mix the submixes down to the 2.

[soundguy]

Alan-

dont take this the wrong way or anything but if your recording was 12 or 16 tracks, would it sound completely awesomely the way you want it, or would it sound like the same mess you have now, just with 1/4 the density that you might confuse as clarity in a 16 track mix which you might think is awesome?

Can you make a 16 track mix sound good? You need to perfect that first because you need to have a solid foundation thats not lacking in clarity if you plan to tuck another 30 tracks behind it and expect it to sit well. What you do with those other 30 tracks is going to be very well connected to what you did to your first set of foundation tracks for the song. Adding 10dB of 20K to a tambourine might be absurd with 16 tracks but it migth be exactly what needs to happen with 40 tracks blaring. If you anticipate having to add that much top to a tambourine to get it to cut at the level you want to have it in your mix, then what do you need to do to your overheads to make the rigth space for that tambourine? Everything is connected and influences everything else. If you dont have a foundation of authority to start from you are never going to be in crontrol of a 40 track mix. Maybe try doing a project with a limited track count until you can master that. Having more tracks generally sucks more than it is cool, its just another source to complicate your mix. Nothing worse than having a great song ruined by the "spice" tracks that you threw on there with the intention of making the song better.

dave

[trevord]

i am not a "pro" mixer but here are the things i have learned
1) if all the faders are up you are sufferring from fader creep
forget the mix drop all faders and start again -
this time with the main outs up more
2) use automation to mute tracks when they are not needed ( if in a DAW - snip sections where there is no valid signal)
3) are your returns adding too much crap to the mix? listen to them alone - yeah - its an ear opener are all 40 tracks being sent?

last
1) turn down real high freq on most tracks
2) noise gate

if all else fails you may have tracked too low - too much noise from all tracks is being summed

[alanfc]

hi thanks guys

what I'm doing now as it is, is having a guitar group bus, a harmony vocal bus and an overheads bus. This is pleasing. Much better than I had before.

I've just delivered Mix #1 to the band and I'll have about 10 days or so to tinker with this some more. I'm not telling them, but actually I'm stripping the whole thing down and mixing in Mono with no FX, starting from scratch. To find whats really necessary or not. For example, there's a fair amount of empty space on some of these tracks that could be shared, like Jason harmony 1,2,3,4 etc, that come in at differnt times - sticking those together on 1 track. I don't know anything about the tech side of it, but I have to think that the computer and everything will be cleaner with fewer total tracks.

And perhaps keeping the guitar pairs I really like and discarding the # 3 and #4 guitars just because they added that little "something". I like starting from scratch. Right now I'm rethinking my whole approach on the snare for example (I have a thread on that called "hi-Quality problems" ).

Oh yeah, and I've changed stuff on the levels to avoid this "fader creep" scenario. I keep the master RMS'ing at -6.0 and group all the faders and keep it down. I read up on it and got alot of help on it, and I think it really does sound better. Something about summing and digital something r other.


thanks again