MerryGold: Motherload - Mixed at Walt's Audio Engineering

[WaltsAudio]

The mic configuration presented some challenges. I chose to give it a new sound stage. Great group/song that deserves a great mix!

[thedon]

Nice Mix i like it !

[LupoPazzo]

Oh yeah well done Walt...and yes i do love the low end you have here as well. More impressive is how you cleaned it up. Sounds warm as well and i love the levels and balance. Great Mix!

[Francesco]

Hey Waltsaudio,
I love your mix. Great low end and warmth.
I like what you did with the snare drum. Is it saturation or simple EQ ?

— this is my 1st post here. I'm glad to join this community !

[WaltsAudio]

Hey Waltsaudio,
I love your mix. Great low end and warmth.
I like what you did with the snare drum. Is it saturation or simple EQ ?

— this is my 1st post here. I'm glad to join this community !

Thanks Francesco. I'm a fan of upright bass, so I carved out some low end space for it and brought it forward. Some might think I over emphasized that, but I just love the warmth it naturally adds. I did roll off the very bottom end to tighten it a bit. I think the mic was a bit too close to the "F" hole of the upright and some individual notes were emphasized. To make it cut through, I also copied the channel, added distortion to the copy, then just blended in a bit of that.
On the snare, I did a lot to it to get it how I wanted it to sound:
-HP at 126Hz
-band cut 773Hz
-gentle roll off 8K+
-gentle multi-band compression at below 200Hz and above 4KHz
-gentle broadband compression at 1.4 ratio
-Ambience reverb plugin set up to taste with a touch of pre-delay
I wanted it to come through, but still have that gentle sound of brushes.
Thanks for the comments!

[WaltsAudio]

Oh yeah well done Walt...and yes i do love the low end you have here as well. More impressive is how you cleaned it up. Sounds warm as well and i love the levels and balance. Great Mix!

Thanks for your comments. I didn't think what I heard in the room mics was very complimentary, so I left them out and created a new sound stage. The biggest challenge was getting the instruments out of the vocal mic. I had to do some things to that vocal I normally would never do, but it paid off in the overall mix.
I did much of the mixing in mono to force myself to give everything a space, then popped it back out to stereo to set the new stage.
Thanks!

[brokenstarsfl]

I really like the grove you brought out in the mix!! I could almost fall asleep to it. So relaxing.

[tjmtruth]

Walt's Audio,

Loved your mix. I am not usually a fan of extreme panning on individual instruments, but that approach worked really well here as every instrument is clear as a bell. I've got to learn to stop adding too many panning/chorusing type effects to my mixes....it clutters them up. Your mix really has taught me a good lesson, especially in this genre of music. Everything in your mix is perfection......loved it! .....and thanks for slapping me upside the head.....my next mixes I will stop with the doubling/chorusing plugins.....they are clouding my own mixes and I didn't even realize it.

:-)

Tom

[WaltsAudio]

Walt's Audio,

Loved your mix. I am not usually a fan of extreme panning on individual instruments, but that approach worked really well here as every instrument is clear as a bell. I've got to learn to stop adding too many panning/chorusing type effects to my mixes....it clutters them up. Your mix really has taught me a good lesson, especially in this genre of music. Everything in your mix is perfection......loved it! .....and thanks for slapping me upside the head.....my next mixes I will stop with the doubling/chorusing plugins.....they are clouding my own mixes and I didn't even realize it.
:-)
Tom

Wow Tom, thanks for the glowing review!
At this point I'm mostly into mixing acoustic/bluegrass and in that genre I love hard panned strings. This might surprise you - there are actually numerous effects present in the mix:
-GlaceVerb
-Lexicon LXP Native
-Liquid Delay II
-Ambience
-Voxengo Tube Amp
-Waves Renaissance Reverb
-Slate Revival
-Marroquin Delay (Doubler)
-an LFO constantly moving the pan of the accordion (and other automated pans)
-EQs, compressors, multi-band compressors, etc.
-automations of dynamics, including on the master bus
Each is used for a specific purpose on a specific channel and only enough to get the desired effect. All of the small changes can add up to a significant change in the overall sound.
I think two things helped me keep it clean: 1. Keeping only what is needed (discarding or lowering tracks that don't contribute something positive) and 2. Mixing and EQing everything in mono until each part stood out - then doing the rest in stereo. It forces me to cut an EQ space for each part. If the individual tracks pop out in mono, they'll really pop out in stereo.
Thanks again for the great review!
Walt

[WaltsAudio]

I really like the grove you brought out in the mix!! I could almost fall asleep to it. So relaxing.

Hi brokenstarsfl,
Thanks - that's an interesting thought - I had described that upright bass in another reply as being like a warm sweater wrapping itself around you. ...guess that could lull you to sleep.
Thanks for the nice review!
Walt