Uncle Dad - Who I Am - Mixed by Mange

[Pedaling Prince]

Third song on this site.

Started throwing away some tracks.
M81 Kick: Kept two of the three kick tracks. Three kicks got to be overkill.
Fat head: Some overhead/room mic, Nah.. away with it.
HiHat: With great hihat from the overheads and two stereo miced strumming guitars at the same pace as the hihat I decided this too had to go.
Cieling mic: yet another distanced drum mic in the trash.
Banjo AK47: Found the CU29 more even in the dynamics.
Fiol 260: This was a bit boxier than the AK47. Liked less box more.

Kept the stereo takes of the guitars but didn´t use them centered.

OHs was narrowed quite a bit as the swaying of the cymbals came through too much.

Drums were tracked quite compressed so I just used a little compression on the drumheads bus. I usually use three drumbuses. Heads, cymbals and room. These three then goes to a DrumMix bus. Maybe a tip for someone. Maybe a laugh for others.

As Mike Senior mentions/suggests in his great book I this time mixed last chorus first, then I tried to make the earlier parts less and less. Only used the mute button to achieve the build up.

For automation, all I can recall is the different mutes/cuts and a slight mult on the snare/rim to gain better control of the snare/rim balance. Other than that the mix is static.

Used Tracktion 4, all stock plugins with the little help from Spitfish deesser.


All suggestions for improvement are welcome.

When I first started listening to this I wasn't sure I was going to like it; it sounded kind of flat and sparse. It wasn't until I listened further that I started to understand the effect you were going for, adding more to the mix as it goes to create that sense of buildup you mentioned. By the end of it, I was actually enjoying it.

That being said, I did feel that the drums sounded flat and unnatural somehow. I suspect it would've helped if you'd kept that fat head overhead room mic; would've added a little more natural character. Also, the snare got a little too snappy towards the end, feeling a bit like someone was knocking on my forehead.

Lead vocal level is perfect, if maybe a little too compressed; might dial the compression down a notch. Also, the backing vocal would sound better up a dB or two, I think.

Might want to make the instrument tracks louder in the early going.

Otherwise a solid mix I enjoyed quite a bit.

BTW, I agree on the CU-29 Copperhead choice. I LOVE that mic; whenever I see it in a Telefunken demo track I tend to use it. Nice flat frequency response and warm character suitable for recording just about anything IMHO.