02-06-2017, 10:19 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-06-2017, 11:48 PM by molonlabe23.)
Awesome Song!
First, this was challenge to mix because my Audio Interface went down and will be in the repair shop for a few weeks, but I couldn't wait that long to try mixing this, so this was mixed through my Pod X3 Live with headphones. There was a lot of A/B ing with the reference mix to try to to get low end right, So if low end come out Ok on this I will be amazed.
Once I got the basic levels I had to make a few edits. The breath was a little loud at the 1st verse. I assumed they wanted it there or else it wouldn't of been there, but I toned it down a bit.
The main guitar in the 1st verse had a weird noise at the end of the first part and had to tone that down a bit. There was also high G# harmonic noise or something through out the the 1st verse guitar that I couldn't sweep out without destroying the sound so I tried my best to tone it down without ruining the part.
I tripled the kick and did a low pass and high pass filter on the two new kicks around 125hz. I called the high pass sub kick and the low pass click Kick. This allowed me to control the low end build up on the double kicks better. I also did a automated high pass filter on my Kick bus for bit bit more control. I multed out the double kick parts so I could control and time my compressor release to fit the tempo.
I also doubled the main snare and added Izotpe trash to it and blended it in the with the main snare. A trick I picked up from a interview with well known metal producer who name I can't remember now.
I did very little to the guitars other than some light compression (1db GR) and a slight bit of high pass and a few minor eq sweeps on a couple of noisy freqs. As guitar player I know they probably worked real hard on their tone and didn't want it messed with. Despite this my guitars came out brighter than the reference, but rather than try to do tone shaping I left them as is, since mastering probably had a slight impact on this (my headphones too)
I added a tube screamer on the bass with the drive all the way down and the tone turned down a bit to help it cut through better. (Another tip from that same producer)
There is a lot of small volume automation changes on the snare, bass, and vocals to highlight the details. On the guitars I did some pan automation to widen and narrow through different parts.
I also added some slight volume automation on my mix bus to add some dynamics between the verse, pre chorus and Chorus.
Trying to replicate a mix is very challenging (especially on headphones). I think even if I had used all the same plugins it would still not sound the same considering this was a professional mastering job and ears hear things differently.
I want to say thank you to Dark Ride for being so kind to allow your songs to mixed and to Mike for Hosting this awesome site and for your great book on mixing which as been a big influence on me.
This was mixed in Studio One with mostly Stock Plugins a few free ones and some Waves API and CLA3a and HoRntet gain reduction plugin.
First, this was challenge to mix because my Audio Interface went down and will be in the repair shop for a few weeks, but I couldn't wait that long to try mixing this, so this was mixed through my Pod X3 Live with headphones. There was a lot of A/B ing with the reference mix to try to to get low end right, So if low end come out Ok on this I will be amazed.
Once I got the basic levels I had to make a few edits. The breath was a little loud at the 1st verse. I assumed they wanted it there or else it wouldn't of been there, but I toned it down a bit.
The main guitar in the 1st verse had a weird noise at the end of the first part and had to tone that down a bit. There was also high G# harmonic noise or something through out the the 1st verse guitar that I couldn't sweep out without destroying the sound so I tried my best to tone it down without ruining the part.
I tripled the kick and did a low pass and high pass filter on the two new kicks around 125hz. I called the high pass sub kick and the low pass click Kick. This allowed me to control the low end build up on the double kicks better. I also did a automated high pass filter on my Kick bus for bit bit more control. I multed out the double kick parts so I could control and time my compressor release to fit the tempo.
I also doubled the main snare and added Izotpe trash to it and blended it in the with the main snare. A trick I picked up from a interview with well known metal producer who name I can't remember now.
I did very little to the guitars other than some light compression (1db GR) and a slight bit of high pass and a few minor eq sweeps on a couple of noisy freqs. As guitar player I know they probably worked real hard on their tone and didn't want it messed with. Despite this my guitars came out brighter than the reference, but rather than try to do tone shaping I left them as is, since mastering probably had a slight impact on this (my headphones too)
I added a tube screamer on the bass with the drive all the way down and the tone turned down a bit to help it cut through better. (Another tip from that same producer)
There is a lot of small volume automation changes on the snare, bass, and vocals to highlight the details. On the guitars I did some pan automation to widen and narrow through different parts.
I also added some slight volume automation on my mix bus to add some dynamics between the verse, pre chorus and Chorus.
Trying to replicate a mix is very challenging (especially on headphones). I think even if I had used all the same plugins it would still not sound the same considering this was a professional mastering job and ears hear things differently.
I want to say thank you to Dark Ride for being so kind to allow your songs to mixed and to Mike for Hosting this awesome site and for your great book on mixing which as been a big influence on me.
This was mixed in Studio One with mostly Stock Plugins a few free ones and some Waves API and CLA3a and HoRntet gain reduction plugin.