About This Multitrack

[Mike Senior]

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

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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: A nice simple self-contained little multitrack this, and as such quite a good place to start if you're just dipping you toe in the water. There aren't any spill issues (except between the drum mics), but there are plenty of other trouble-shooting tasks to keep you busy. The drums have stereo overhead mics and close mics for kick, snare, and one tom. Bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, dobro, fiddle, piano, and lead vox are all presented as mono microphone recordings.
  

• Challenges You're Likely To Face:
  • There are a variety of glitches and clunky-sounding edits on the overhead tracks, so you may need to do some patching up if you're planning on using those tracks prominently in the mix.
    
  • The bass has very little mid-range definition, although whether this matters to you depends on what role you want the instrument to perform in the balance. The performance is also quite inconsistent in terms of level.
    
  • The fiddle player's foot-tapping is sending thuds up the mic stand.
    
  • The lead vocals have some 60Hz mains hum on them, as well as a printed-in mono reverb effect which may limit your ability to compress/automate in a natural-sounding way. The electric guitar has reverb on the amp too, although this is less likely to cause problems, I think, because it seems fairly well-judged for the style, and effectively part of the sound.
    

• Some Mixing Tips: Although this isn't a mix I've attempted myself, here are some ideas that immediately presented themselves to my mind:
  • Given that this production has been built up from overdubs, one of the big tasks will be to try to connect the tracks so that they sound like they're a real performance. Beyond normal balance processing, I think it's careful use of short reverbs and buss compression that'll be most likely to fit the bill here.
    
  • The overheads present a very wide image, and I'd consider narrowing them down a little to avoid 'Attack Of The 50-foot Drummer'.
    
  • The snare has a strong, but sporadic, resonance around 310Hz which makes it a bit tricky to blend with the rest of the backing to my mind, so a bit of a notch there would probably make life easier.
    
  • If you also notch out the tom's 165Hz resonance when the tom isn't being played, that track actually has some useful drum spill on it which I suspect could fill out the overall sound -- just be aware of the impact that phase/polarity settings may have.
    
  • High-pass filtering most of the overdubs would make a good deal of sense, as there's some degree of unhelpful rumble on all of them.
    
  • A comb-filtering plug-in such as TB_HumRemover makes short work of the lead vocal's unwanted mains hum. (That plug-in's part of the cheap-as-chips, but seriously capable, ToneBoosters TrackEssentials bundle.)
    

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