About This Multitrack - Mike Senior - 22-06-2012
You can find the multitrack files for this project in the 'Mixing Secrets' Free Multitrack Download Library.
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Here's some more project info you might find useful:
- About The Raw Multitracks:
- The drums tracks include stereo overheads, two mono room mic signals (one lo-fi processed), and close mics for kick (in, out), snare (over, under), hi-hat, and two toms.
- Bass is available as DI and miked-amp signals, and the main acoustic-guitar has mono close-mic and stereo ambient-mic tracks.
- The main acoustic-guitar part features a mono close-mic track as well as a more ambient stereo mic rig.
- Single tracks are provided for ukelele, harmonica, lead vocal, and backing vocal.
- Challenges You're Likely To Face:
- The overheads have very pronounced transients, presumably on account of compression used during recording.
- The lo-fi room mic makes the cymbals come across as very harsh.
- A bass-amp has quite a lot of click-track spill on it, and a resonance around 90-100Hz which makes the musical line feel quite uneven. Some of the lowest bass notes lose level on their fundamentals too, on the DI signal as well.
- Although the acoustic-guitar part sounds rather nice in general (and the multi-miking combines pretty well straight away), the pick-noise get a bit overbearing.
- Both vocal parts have low-end spill which needs dealing with, and the lead also has quite a lot of room sound on it for an overdub.
- Some Mixing Tips: Although this isn't a mix I've attempted myself, here are some suggestions that come to mind:
- Flip the undersnare polarity straight away -- the combined sound of the two mics will be very thin otherwise.
- I think the snare spill on the hat mic sounds better than the snare close mics, so I'd be looking to try to make some use of it.
- Threshold-independent transient processing is fantastic for situations like this overheads recording.
- I'd probably gate the lo-fi room mic to provide just snare support, if I used it at all -- it feels a bit too rock-and-roll for this arrangement anyway, somehow.
- Given that all the kit mics have significant spill on them, you should make a point of checking the polarity and phase of each for the best combination as you add it in.
- The close tom mics have caught quite a bit of pitched sympathetic ringing from the drum, so be careful compressing those tracks to avoid pulling that aspect of the spill too high in the balance -- it can easily muddy the overall tone. (That said, a little tom ringing is actually quite a nice thing for tying a drum sound together, so don't necessarily just gate it out either.)
- Careful EQ'ing should deal with that bass-amp resonance adequately, but if you want a more consistent low end, then multi-band compression of the DI signal is probably the easiest way forward. An automated low-pass filter can disguise the click-track bleed if you're careful.
If you have any other general questions about this multitrack, just reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.
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