AM Contra_Heart Peripheral Mixed with detailed workflow!

[jimmyklane]

Hello everyone! This was an interesting one to mix, as all the tracks were call/response style with those alternating tracks....PITA! SO....I used all 8 busses to make integrated tracks for processing and parallel compression. Here's how I did it with both plugins and hardware.

Lead Vocal: I started by sending both tracks to a buss, then EQ'ing at 7kHz to bring out her upper harmonics, then LA-2A into 1176 to catch the peaks the LA2A misses. I then used the Eventide H3000's "DUAL H910S" patch at 45% wet to give a bit of width and ambiance. The automated delays are sent from the DAW to an old ADA S1000 tuned by ear to dotted 1/8th's, and I like how it's just a tiny bit off!(this is all hardware and printed back into the DAW) Once back into Nuendo, I used Waves DeEsser to catch all the harshness that I brought out by compressing the crap out of the vocal!

BG Vocals: All 16(!!!) tracks were sent to a buss, then hit hard with the LA2A (in 2 passes L then R) then sent out to the H3000 using the "MICROSHIFT" patch, then multed via the patchbay into the Lexicon 300 for a touch of reverb and recorded back into the DAW where I added the Vertigo VSM-3 to widen the stereo image and give a very subtle bit of drive to them. You can't hear it, but you notice when it's gone.

Synths: The synths were sent to a buss for both regular processing as well as parallel compression. The main synth (synth 1) was sent out into my EMU E5000 Ultra deliberately clocked incorrectly to give strong aliasing, which is the "vocal effect" you hear on the track. I triggered the entire song's worth back into the DAW via MIDI and nudged it back into time by ear. The other synths were processed in the box with VOS "Thrillseeker VBL" (fantastic plugin!!!) to add a little hair to them, and I sent "synth 3" to the ADA S1000 for another dotted 1/8th delay at a low level.

Drums: The Kick I sent to my Moog Slim Phatty with the resonance tuned to the resonant frequency of the low "thump" and sent the kick to a transient designer to get the kick to "pop" a little in the upper frequencies...since the hats are on the same channel I sent it back into the DAW to use Waves DeEsser to lower the level of the hats, and used an aux send to compress the utter crap out of the entire drum mix and mixed in in about 18dB below the main drums. The fills I simply left alone, as they've been processed to death already :-)

Master Bus: This is all ITB...Alpha Master with 2-3dB of reduction on "warm mode", SieQ with a bit of a smile curve, Vertigo VSM-3 used to spread the mix out to the sides a bit and focus the middle, into Voxengo Elephant to give peak protection but no GR.



PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS AND CRITICISM!!! I'm looking to learn more from the community, so without comments I may as well have never posted! Thank you so much in advance for telling me what you think. Brutal honesty is a good thing.

[azwayne]

Dude, gotta deal with that kick... Can't listen to the track because of how loud that drum is. It has also completely clobbered the bass track. Download SPAN from Voxengo (it's a free spectrum analyzer plugin) and put that last on your master bus. (Just remember to turn it off before you do your export unless you're doing an audible bounce to avoid potential noise.) I think you'll see that there's a problem...

[jimmyklane]

Dude, gotta deal with that kick... Can't listen to the track because of how loud that drum is. It has also completely clobbered the bass track. Download SPAN from Voxengo (it's a free spectrum analyzer plugin) and put that last on your master bus. (Just remember to turn it off before you do your export unless you're doing an audible bounce to avoid potential noise.) I think you'll see that there's a problem...

Thanks for the criticism. Even though I'm mixing on cans at the moment, I should've heard something like this if it's a problem...I disagree with you, but I'm still thankful you listened and commented!

My EQ has a spectrum analyzer built in, entire song follows the spectrum of pink noise, but I will pull it down 3dB and see what happens. problem there is that I lose the rest of the drums since they're in the kick track!

[azwayne]

Yeah, but the problem is the low end, not the 4kHz and 8kHz where the beater lives. If I drop 200Hz to about -6dB, then 50Hz a bit more, it becomes much easier for me playback becomes a lot easier and I can generally hear the rest of what you've done with the mix but the weight of the bass line is gone and the tonality kinda gets muddled, so I can't really give a fair critique of the rest of it. Looking at this on the analyzer, there's a pretty clear downward slope from the low frequencies to the high. So from what I can tell, it seems to me that while you've probably got some balance problems in the mix, the bigger issue up front is that you've completely squashed it with the limiter and compromised the high end. That's how I see things from where I sit, at least.

[jimmyklane]

Yeah, but the problem is the low end, not the 4kHz and 8kHz where the beater lives. If I drop 200Hz to about -6dB, then 50Hz a bit more, it becomes much easier for me playback becomes a lot easier and I can generally hear the rest of what you've done with the mix but the weight of the bass line is gone and the tonality kinda gets muddled, so I can't really give a fair critique of the rest of it. Looking at this on the analyzer, there's a pretty clear downward slope from the low frequencies to the high. So from what I can tell, it seems to me that while you've probably got some balance problems in the mix, the bigger issue up front is that you've completely squashed it with the limiter and compromised the high end. That's how I see things from where I sit, at least.

Fair advice. Now that you've explained the issue I can correct it. I'm on a pair of $99 Sony cans, which we both know are hyped in the high-end and both flabby and lacking in that 50-75Hz region. Sincerely, I appreciate the advice, I've taken the fairly drastic step of zeroing the entire mix and redoing it with your advice in mind. It will sound as if the kick is low but that means it should be dead on. As for balance issues, I'd love your opinion once the bottom end is corrected.

Thanks again, man....this is a prime example of what this website is about....and also goes to show everyone that a bunch of fancy gear (left over from when I actually owned a studio) does not make a mix any better!

[jimmyklane]

SO.....I tore it all down after listening in my wife's car (my CD player broke last month :-( )....and I found out that azwayne was correct. The kick drum dominated the entire track, except perhaps in the heaviest chorus where is was only "loud" as opposed to "obnoxious". So I took the drastic step of starting a totally new mix. I think this one has less balance issues....but I mixed the vocals hot on purpose since they ARE the song....it's very sparse when you mute them.

I hope you enjoy, and would love to hear your comments and criticism on this second (or the first) mix(es).
All the Best!

-Jim

[azwayne]

I've had really good luck with AKG K240 mkII headphones. They don't reflect the extreme low end but they do a good job on everything that's typically audible and will definitely let you know when you're out of bounds anywhere. I like them better than the $400 headphones I bought.