About This Multitrack

[Mike Senior]

You can find the multitrack files for this project in the 'Mixing Secrets' Free Multitrack Download Library.

Before posting a mix, please read The Three Commandments!
Please post your mix as a new thread, rather than as a reply to this sticky.

Here's some more project info you might find useful:

• About The Raw Multitracks: Just six tracks here: stereo piano and drum overheads, and mono bass, as well as close mics for kick inside, kick batter head, and snare. All the parts were recorded live, so there's spill between all the mics to at least some extent. The quality of the capture is on the whole very good, despite the fairly inexpensive recording equipment, with the exception of the snare close mic, which is rather woolly-sounding.
  

• Challenges You're Likely To Face:
  • The spill between the instruments is a primary concern, because it can either work for you or against you depending on how you pan the mics and set their phase/polarity relationships.
    
  • You may find that the dull-sounding snare close mic makes it hard to find the snare sound you're looking for. If so, then bear in mind that the snare spill on the batter-side kick mic may therefore be a blessing in disguise.
    
  • The cymbal stick noise on the overhead mics is a little overbearing.
    

• Some Mixing Tips:
  • You shouldn't have to process anything too savagely on this mix, because the raw recordings already fit together rather nicely.
    
  • Parallel compression and fader automation are very useful for music like this where a nice warmth and sustain flatters the instruments, but you don't want to kill all the subtle dynamic nuances of the performance.
    
  • I remixed this song for Sound On Sound's April 2008 'Mix Rescue' column, which not only shows how I approached this band's recordings myself in practice, but also includes a selection of audio files demonstrating the effects of some of my processing and layering decisions.
    

If you have any other general questions about this multitrack, just reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.