I spent more time on this mix than I thought I would spend. There are a lot of technical challenges in this one because of the bleed with the cymbals and the load that each of those mics end up putting on the final drum sound. It would have been great to just mix those down to the appropriate level but the ride/crash really wants to ride/crash in this song.
The next thing I noticed was that the background vocals seemed to have some undeveloped ideas and were too offbeat for what I thought the track needed. I didn't use any of the second background vocal and used just some key parts of the first background vocal to compliment the lead vocal and to add some extra energy to the chorus sections. I also decided to add a delayed second vocal under the main vocal in the chorus sections. It's just a 60ms delay using ReaVerb. I thought it was in keeping with some of the thoughts that seemed to be indicated by the unused background vocal.
The other thing that I thought was important on this track was to let it breathe. I tried to go easy on the compression. The vocal is moody and I wanted to let that come through.
I started out by putting the drums together and initially tried to widen the overheads to create some width in the mix but it just sounded wrong. I ended up putting some EQ across every mic doing different things to try and address the spill and other issues. I then moved on to the bass. I dialed up a bit of compression and EQ and it was where I wanted it.
The main acoustic was treated with a bit of EQ, a Fairchild for a little more width, and then a limiter set on mild compression.
The lead vocal was treated with some EQ, a plate reverb, and a bit of compression. I ducked some of the louder phrases as well in the verses. I split the vocal for the chorus and treated it with a slightly different EQ, same plate reverb as the verse vocal, and a Fairchild for a little compression.
For the background vocal I used some a long plate, EQ, and a brickwall limiter. I then ducked the levels until they felt right. This track is used whenever a particular word is emphasized.
After all of that the mix started to sound o.k. but not great. I ended up chopping the lead vocal off the end. That made things a little better. I made some more changes to the drums and used some gate, a lot of ducking, a de-esser, and a bit of compression on the overheads to try and tame the harshness of the cymbals. This was after the other changes I made at the start of the mix.
After working on the drums, I ducked a couple of the most obvious slaps on the bass part that needed addressing. Overall I like the stops and starts as it adds realism to the track. You can tell that someone actually played the bass.
Finally, I felt like the guitar needed to be a little wider in the mix and tried an Exciter. I preferred it with Stereo Touch set at 20ms with a bit less gain. I also used a couple of de-essers to address some of the worse of the string noise along with a 1/2 octave notch filter at 4500hz.
I took a lot of liberties with the track and altered the arrangement as much as I dared. Hopefully it resulted in an improved song.
I hope that everyone enjoys the mix. It was a great learning experience.
The next thing I noticed was that the background vocals seemed to have some undeveloped ideas and were too offbeat for what I thought the track needed. I didn't use any of the second background vocal and used just some key parts of the first background vocal to compliment the lead vocal and to add some extra energy to the chorus sections. I also decided to add a delayed second vocal under the main vocal in the chorus sections. It's just a 60ms delay using ReaVerb. I thought it was in keeping with some of the thoughts that seemed to be indicated by the unused background vocal.
The other thing that I thought was important on this track was to let it breathe. I tried to go easy on the compression. The vocal is moody and I wanted to let that come through.
I started out by putting the drums together and initially tried to widen the overheads to create some width in the mix but it just sounded wrong. I ended up putting some EQ across every mic doing different things to try and address the spill and other issues. I then moved on to the bass. I dialed up a bit of compression and EQ and it was where I wanted it.
The main acoustic was treated with a bit of EQ, a Fairchild for a little more width, and then a limiter set on mild compression.
The lead vocal was treated with some EQ, a plate reverb, and a bit of compression. I ducked some of the louder phrases as well in the verses. I split the vocal for the chorus and treated it with a slightly different EQ, same plate reverb as the verse vocal, and a Fairchild for a little compression.
For the background vocal I used some a long plate, EQ, and a brickwall limiter. I then ducked the levels until they felt right. This track is used whenever a particular word is emphasized.
After all of that the mix started to sound o.k. but not great. I ended up chopping the lead vocal off the end. That made things a little better. I made some more changes to the drums and used some gate, a lot of ducking, a de-esser, and a bit of compression on the overheads to try and tame the harshness of the cymbals. This was after the other changes I made at the start of the mix.
After working on the drums, I ducked a couple of the most obvious slaps on the bass part that needed addressing. Overall I like the stops and starts as it adds realism to the track. You can tell that someone actually played the bass.
Finally, I felt like the guitar needed to be a little wider in the mix and tried an Exciter. I preferred it with Stereo Touch set at 20ms with a bit less gain. I also used a couple of de-essers to address some of the worse of the string noise along with a 1/2 octave notch filter at 4500hz.
I took a lot of liberties with the track and altered the arrangement as much as I dared. Hopefully it resulted in an improved song.
I hope that everyone enjoys the mix. It was a great learning experience.
