Hello everyone !
I've been using this multitrack library for my own practice for a very long time, yet it's the first time I share a mix with you !
This one took me around 1 hour and a half to go, maybe two hours considering editing time (tracks order, subgroups assignment, etc). As opposite as before, I try to go as fast as possible (never taking more than one day to mix) because otherwise I would spend too much time on small details, and ending with a mix that sounds worse than two days before, etc.
I started the mix with drums, replacing the kick with something deeper - I felt something "smoother" than the original trig. I decided to completly skip overheads and to compensate with room and hi-hat/ride, as the OH tracks seemed to completly mess up with space (like, if you balance them completly left and right, you hear everything in both sides, and Hi-hat all over the place, while snare looses most of it's definition). Anyway, I have no drums programer, so I couldn't do much more to replace overheads. I think it's really noticeable with cymbals that are a bit off, but I really enjoy the feeling it gives, so I decided to let it this way. This ended leaving snare really dry, so I just enhanced it a bit with a low-level OldSkoolVerb.
The bass has really not that much on it, only a smooth compressor with a sidechain from the kick to add to the bass/drums groove, and a reamp simulation to help it going through the mix a bit.
I followed up with the piano, only smoothing attack a bit - it felt really aggressive to me.
Then I kept accoustic guitars almost unchanged, as their sound is awesome. I only removed some dB around 1.3kHz to help them taking their way through the mix. Also, the "Center" one has been shaped with a huuuge lowcut and a huuuge high shelf to bring that sort of "Dream Theater" accoustic guitar sound. I love it.
Not much more to say concerning guitars, the tracks were pretty good overall. I only added a sort of echo to the bridge guitar as I heard it like this from the first time I heard the song. And of course some reverb for lead guitars, and a tiny bit of compression too.
The Orchestre was really a pleasure to mix, with once again awesome tracks, and most of the job consisted in placing them in stereo. Compressor on the harp to reduce the attack, and we move on to backing vocals.
I generally love to end my mixes with voice, even though it requires to "carve" the rest of the mix if you want voices to fit in. So I first placed backing vocals which needed a bit of work as they didnt quiet fit in. I had to severely cut some frequencies, to reduce attack of it and to add a compressor to those vocals.
I choosed to duplicate the "wah" track with some detune and delay to enhance stereo image.
Finally, lead voice had to be severely de-essed, that's why I used 2 different EQs, a very smooth and low-volumed reverb and transparent compression.
By the end I literally love the song and I think my mix does fit with the initial thoughts of the artists, I mean, the ambiance feels great. I hope you enjoyed my mix and feel free to leave a comment !
Oh, and just to mention, english is not my native language, so I apologize if there are too many mistakes :/
I've been using this multitrack library for my own practice for a very long time, yet it's the first time I share a mix with you !
This one took me around 1 hour and a half to go, maybe two hours considering editing time (tracks order, subgroups assignment, etc). As opposite as before, I try to go as fast as possible (never taking more than one day to mix) because otherwise I would spend too much time on small details, and ending with a mix that sounds worse than two days before, etc.
I started the mix with drums, replacing the kick with something deeper - I felt something "smoother" than the original trig. I decided to completly skip overheads and to compensate with room and hi-hat/ride, as the OH tracks seemed to completly mess up with space (like, if you balance them completly left and right, you hear everything in both sides, and Hi-hat all over the place, while snare looses most of it's definition). Anyway, I have no drums programer, so I couldn't do much more to replace overheads. I think it's really noticeable with cymbals that are a bit off, but I really enjoy the feeling it gives, so I decided to let it this way. This ended leaving snare really dry, so I just enhanced it a bit with a low-level OldSkoolVerb.
The bass has really not that much on it, only a smooth compressor with a sidechain from the kick to add to the bass/drums groove, and a reamp simulation to help it going through the mix a bit.
I followed up with the piano, only smoothing attack a bit - it felt really aggressive to me.
Then I kept accoustic guitars almost unchanged, as their sound is awesome. I only removed some dB around 1.3kHz to help them taking their way through the mix. Also, the "Center" one has been shaped with a huuuge lowcut and a huuuge high shelf to bring that sort of "Dream Theater" accoustic guitar sound. I love it.
Not much more to say concerning guitars, the tracks were pretty good overall. I only added a sort of echo to the bridge guitar as I heard it like this from the first time I heard the song. And of course some reverb for lead guitars, and a tiny bit of compression too.
The Orchestre was really a pleasure to mix, with once again awesome tracks, and most of the job consisted in placing them in stereo. Compressor on the harp to reduce the attack, and we move on to backing vocals.
I generally love to end my mixes with voice, even though it requires to "carve" the rest of the mix if you want voices to fit in. So I first placed backing vocals which needed a bit of work as they didnt quiet fit in. I had to severely cut some frequencies, to reduce attack of it and to add a compressor to those vocals.
I choosed to duplicate the "wah" track with some detune and delay to enhance stereo image.
Finally, lead voice had to be severely de-essed, that's why I used 2 different EQs, a very smooth and low-volumed reverb and transparent compression.
By the end I literally love the song and I think my mix does fit with the initial thoughts of the artists, I mean, the ambiance feels great. I hope you enjoyed my mix and feel free to leave a comment !
Oh, and just to mention, english is not my native language, so I apologize if there are too many mistakes :/