27-05-2015, 11:00 AM
this project afforded some fantastic opportunities for exploration, despite only being 2 tracks, though i ended up with a few more by the time it was finished. i heard the song firstly in LondonMatt's thread, so thanks go to him for firing up my inquisitiveness in the song and it's arrangement.
mix notes:
the Vox+AcGtr track was down-mixed to mono, which gave a clear lead vocal, with the illusion of the vocalist playing the acoustic. this was of course, panned centrally. a spin-off of this was to lose the tendency for the acoustic guitar to hang a little heavy on the left channel when in stereo. the track was to be the anchor for the song. the banjo was muted in the first verse, as it was felt that with both instruments running all the time through the song it might be a little sonically intensive (i.e. lack variation, or interest). this meant the banjo track could be used for it's vocal as a form of backing vocal as well as enable placement of the banjo while working some automation into the groove to aid the push and shove. mid-side processing was fundamental to achieving the vision and working the stereo as much to one's advantage as possible. there's also some polarity switching engaged here, and some widening techniques (the consequences on mono playback was of no concern).
the backing vocal was fader ridden. a negative of this was the fact that on the push, the banjo wanted to appear wide in the depth field. this would be an inevitable compromise for the benefit of gaining the BV's.
there's a foot stomp in the back of the banjo/vox track, which can be heard in the background during the instrumental section (and the stretched outro!). unfortunately it doesn't play ball at being brought out in the mix without radical intervention.....and that has it's own unwanted consequences, so this wasn't pursued. there was a plan of donning the hog-nail boots and miking up some stomps and leg slaps to the beat, and blending it in at certain places..... this song is crying out for something with a beat like this to hook in to.....
the acoustic gtr was a slight nuisance; the danger's lurking at 7kHz and 8.9kHz respectively (as well as some serious low-end build up). and of course, the banjo has a whole tonne of honk which needs pulling out in quite a heavy handed fashion. nothing that can't be fixed though and generally, depending on your approach, it won't mess with the vocal. what did cause some consternation was compression within the mix. because the attributes of a vocal are different to that of a banjo or acoustic guitar, and because these are locked together in the raw material, it wasn't going to work without a train wreak. some exploration was engaged out of interest, though unsurprisingly nothing proved satisfactory to the ears.
if one attempts notching out the problem frequencies of the guitar with static EQ, it will have a negative effect on the spectral balance and timbre quite dramatically - with only 2 stereo tracks, even the simplest of processing really stands out. so dynamic EQ was chosen; the notches would only be working relative to the amount of 'problem spectrum' presented.
the raw stuff was pretty warm, but that's a reflection of the genre. the treble was marginally tweaked to get the guitar a little brighter for "English ears", but it needs REAL care otherwise it starts to get harsh. some delays were used (fader ridden) on the guitar during the instrumental section to give it some space and to give a little more stage presence.
there's a total of 5 reverbs running, though not all at the same time. the 5th is a spring dropped on the stretched'n somewhat distorted banjo at the end - who's the bad boy?!
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this was great song concept and refreshingly different in it's delivery too, and i totally loved it. the "expression of voice" was superb. and what a great chance to push some voodoo and get dirty with the Science of Stereo too. for a relatively simple project, i probably haven't had this much fun for ages! the load of enthusiastic words herein probably confirms it, eh? And, i haven't even had my coffee yet
if you folk are not familiar with Seasick Steve (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?????), i recommend checking out his music, and especially his guitars!
if you want to explore the mix, i'd encourage you to take advantage of this download otherwise you'll be hearing the mp3 artifacts, especially when engaging side channel analysis. i'll leave the link for as long as possible (normally a minimum of 4 weeks after the thread post).
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1565...-16bit.wav
loudness stats:
Prog loudness: -14LUFS
LRA: 6.2
TP: -0.4
mix notes:
the Vox+AcGtr track was down-mixed to mono, which gave a clear lead vocal, with the illusion of the vocalist playing the acoustic. this was of course, panned centrally. a spin-off of this was to lose the tendency for the acoustic guitar to hang a little heavy on the left channel when in stereo. the track was to be the anchor for the song. the banjo was muted in the first verse, as it was felt that with both instruments running all the time through the song it might be a little sonically intensive (i.e. lack variation, or interest). this meant the banjo track could be used for it's vocal as a form of backing vocal as well as enable placement of the banjo while working some automation into the groove to aid the push and shove. mid-side processing was fundamental to achieving the vision and working the stereo as much to one's advantage as possible. there's also some polarity switching engaged here, and some widening techniques (the consequences on mono playback was of no concern).
the backing vocal was fader ridden. a negative of this was the fact that on the push, the banjo wanted to appear wide in the depth field. this would be an inevitable compromise for the benefit of gaining the BV's.
there's a foot stomp in the back of the banjo/vox track, which can be heard in the background during the instrumental section (and the stretched outro!). unfortunately it doesn't play ball at being brought out in the mix without radical intervention.....and that has it's own unwanted consequences, so this wasn't pursued. there was a plan of donning the hog-nail boots and miking up some stomps and leg slaps to the beat, and blending it in at certain places..... this song is crying out for something with a beat like this to hook in to.....
the acoustic gtr was a slight nuisance; the danger's lurking at 7kHz and 8.9kHz respectively (as well as some serious low-end build up). and of course, the banjo has a whole tonne of honk which needs pulling out in quite a heavy handed fashion. nothing that can't be fixed though and generally, depending on your approach, it won't mess with the vocal. what did cause some consternation was compression within the mix. because the attributes of a vocal are different to that of a banjo or acoustic guitar, and because these are locked together in the raw material, it wasn't going to work without a train wreak. some exploration was engaged out of interest, though unsurprisingly nothing proved satisfactory to the ears.
if one attempts notching out the problem frequencies of the guitar with static EQ, it will have a negative effect on the spectral balance and timbre quite dramatically - with only 2 stereo tracks, even the simplest of processing really stands out. so dynamic EQ was chosen; the notches would only be working relative to the amount of 'problem spectrum' presented.
the raw stuff was pretty warm, but that's a reflection of the genre. the treble was marginally tweaked to get the guitar a little brighter for "English ears", but it needs REAL care otherwise it starts to get harsh. some delays were used (fader ridden) on the guitar during the instrumental section to give it some space and to give a little more stage presence.
there's a total of 5 reverbs running, though not all at the same time. the 5th is a spring dropped on the stretched'n somewhat distorted banjo at the end - who's the bad boy?!
----------
this was great song concept and refreshingly different in it's delivery too, and i totally loved it. the "expression of voice" was superb. and what a great chance to push some voodoo and get dirty with the Science of Stereo too. for a relatively simple project, i probably haven't had this much fun for ages! the load of enthusiastic words herein probably confirms it, eh? And, i haven't even had my coffee yet
if you folk are not familiar with Seasick Steve (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?????), i recommend checking out his music, and especially his guitars!
if you want to explore the mix, i'd encourage you to take advantage of this download otherwise you'll be hearing the mp3 artifacts, especially when engaging side channel analysis. i'll leave the link for as long as possible (normally a minimum of 4 weeks after the thread post).
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1565...-16bit.wav
loudness stats:
Prog loudness: -14LUFS
LRA: 6.2
TP: -0.4
Beware...........Cognitive Dissonance!