mix exercise

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goose42
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mix exercise

Post by goose42 » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:48 am

One of my colleagues is in a duo, and they've recorded a short, sweet instrumental themselves (using some of their own gear plus some borrowed stuff from me and others).

They've been tearing their hair out trying to get a mix done (they are musicians, not engineers, but they're trying to learn how to record at home), and have flat just asked me to do it for them.

I thought - aha, here's a chance to teach a man to fish. As a purely intellectual exercise, would anyone be interested in doing a quick mix and posting here about what you did?

Not a paid gig, not for commercial release, ok to use for portfolio as long as you credit the performers?

Tracks are:
Drums: kick, snare, three different room mics
Organ: mic on amp, mic inside kick drum, mic inside piano in the same room
Electric guitar (clean w/ light chorus)
Harpsichord
Cheers,
Stephen "Goose" Trageser
bucketcitymobilesound.squarespace.com

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:02 am

Hi,

I'll do a mix with explanation / apologies...

Send me the multitrack in as high a quality as is possible to my email.

nick [] nicksevilla.com

Give me until this Sunday to get the mix back to you.

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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farview
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Post by farview » Thu Feb 09, 2012 7:08 am

I wouldn't mind giving it a go either.

jasonwalsh(at)farviewrecording.com

mscottweber
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Post by mscottweber » Thu Feb 09, 2012 8:11 am

Sure, I'll give it a go. I'm not sure how quickly I'll get it done, but it sounds like fun!

mscottweber(at)gmail(dot)com

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T-rex
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Post by T-rex » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:47 pm

Sent a PM with my info.

Thanks!

cale w
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Post by cale w » Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:04 pm

I'd love to take a crack also!

caleofseattle(at)gmail.com

goose42
gimme a little kick & snare
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Post by goose42 » Sun Feb 12, 2012 9:39 am

Hey, all,
Thanks for the great responses! I was swamped and it took me a couple of days to get the files together. Everyone who has responded here or PM'd me should have received a link to the dropbox folder via email. Anyone else interested, please drop me a line!
Cheers,
Stephen "Goose" Trageser
bucketcitymobilesound.squarespace.com

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Sun Feb 12, 2012 5:22 pm

"Teh" FANTASTIC ROUGH MIX:

http://soundcloud.com/nick-53-1/velcrostarsbeforeruff

This rough mix is all faders -10, all panned center, no processing.
"For Comparison Purposes"

And now, for the really messed up mix:

http://soundcloud.com/nick-53-1/velcrostarsnsevillamix

There were many plug ins abused, yelling going on, crashing hard drives, and some alcohol rubbing on tape heads.

Mixing time : about 2 hours.

If you liked it, PM or email me for the full skinny on what was done on each track, screen shots, etc...

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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farview
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Post by farview » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:08 pm

This is almost the exact opposite of what I normally get to mix. I only had about an hour to spend on it, so here goes...

www.farviewrecording.com/audio/farview- ... rs-mix.mp3

cale w
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Post by cale w » Tue Feb 14, 2012 9:35 pm


goose42
gimme a little kick & snare
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Post by goose42 » Wed Feb 15, 2012 10:49 am

Wow! You guys are awesome! Hopefully I'll get some time to do a mix myself soon. Thanks for your help.
Cheers,
Stephen "Goose" Trageser
bucketcitymobilesound.squarespace.com

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HeavyHand
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Post by HeavyHand » Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:38 pm

PM'd
Ok, who brought the dog? - Louis Tully
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leigh
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Post by leigh » Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:04 pm

This was fun!

http://tapeop.leighmarble.com/audio_pub ... le_mix.mp3

cheers,
Leigh


EDIT: I forgot that Stephen and the band had asked us to share notes and thoughts about the mix. I had a listen back to my mix today, and I'm still digging it. Some of the elements are presented a bit conservatively, maybe - I would probably exaggerate some of them more if I went back and revised it.

It was an interesting piece to work on, as structurally it has that repeating 2-bar refrain, but then each section in between those refrains is different. So I treated it kind of like a book with different chapters - each section got some subtly different treatment. And I brought in that rhymthic delay on the drums to emphasize each time the repeating refrain happens.

I did this mix all ITB in Pro Tools, with the exception of a spring reverb on a hardware insert, plus also running the stereo mix out through a Chameleon 7720 for 2-bus compression. Most EQ'ing was pretty mild, with the exception of the guitar, which I wanted to add a lot more body to. There's UBK-1 compression all over the individual tracks - still learning that plug-in, and it has many different flavors to offer. Other bits and pieces along the way (some Valhalla Shimmer at 1:06), and a handful of automation moves. This was a two-hour mix, start to finish.
Last edited by leigh on Fri Feb 17, 2012 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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farview
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Post by farview » Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:44 pm

That's pretty funny, you almost can't tell that I do a lot of metal, with my mix being the brightest, loudest, most compressed, etc...

I guess it's hard to switch gears.

goose42
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Post by goose42 » Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:05 am

Hello! Sorry for the long delay in providing any feedback. Next time I do one of these, I need to make it more direct and connected.

I got to briefly touch base with Keith and Shane last Friday. They're really excited that you all took the time to play with these tracks, and blown away with the results. I couldn't get much more out of them before they ducked back into work - my goal is to eventually get them to post here, but we'll see how it goes.

Provided with basically no direction, and possibly too many restrictions, you all came up with something completely different, which is awesome.

Nick - your rearrangement is really interesting! Takes the song to a completely different place from the "Let's Go Away for A While" idea that they started with. How did you get the distortion you added?

Cale - your drum mix is sweet. How did you process them? When I first heard the drums, I was torn about how to pan them. How did you decide to go the way you did?

Jay - yours definitely is massive! (I bet the ladies tell you that all the time.) How did you treat the kick and snare - are both sent to the reverb? Did you trigger samples, too?

Leigh - interesting how you change the perspective by making the organ so wide and putting the guitar in the middle. I never would have thought of that. Your effects and subtle rearrangement also take the song to a new place, especially with the dub delay on the snare. I love how you brought in the Shimmer output in the same space that the harpsichord fills in later, too.

I'll try to get a mix up this weekend, myself.

What track or tracks did everyone have to mess with the most to get it to do what they liked in the mix?
Cheers,
Stephen "Goose" Trageser
bucketcitymobilesound.squarespace.com

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