Rescue Me - My best - Updated

[Mixinthecloud]

Well this had some challenges; lots of leakage which had to be incorporated into the sound of the mix and an odd electric guitar sound. While a challenge, it certainly lent lots of character to the piece.

Here is my first real pass. Please let me know what you think.

Enjoy...
MITC

Amy Helm - Rescue Me - Take 4
11/17/2017

I have commented previously and vehemently about my disdain for the guitar part in this piece, but it is I who needed to come to peace with this. Kind of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", kind of thing. I had stated in another thread that with all the leakage in this recording there was a glaring omission, that being the bass guitar. Since it was only a DI you had no ambience info for the bass. So you either had to clean up the existing ambience to match the bass (an impracticality) or put the bass in an environment that matches or enhances what the rest of the ensemble is in. But then you have the guitar. So after making this statement it dawned on me that (doink) the only way to present the guitar is to take everything towards the environment it has printed to it. It is the delivery boy of this song and you cannot fight it. And this is the result.

I thank everyone for their patience at my venting in your threads. This piece has created a lively discussion and I am grateful for the opportunity to participate.

Happy mixing,
MITC

Oops. Uploaded the wrong version. fixed now...MITC.

Amy Helm - Rescue Me - Take 5
11/20/2017

Tightened the low end and integrated the guitar better. Cleaned up the vocals by sculpting the mid-side presentation of them and shortened the vocal decay. Refined the mandolin. Considering the mando needs to hold it's own against the enormity of the guitar, I tried hard to get it beefy and dreamy. For me the mando participates significantly in the completion of the melodic phrases of the verse.


Note: The primary reverberant effect throughout the song is the leakage into the vocal mics by the ensemble. The vocals are sub-group by lead and backing and then buss'd together. An in-line IR reverb of a medium hall with stage was used on the overall vocal buss. The mandolin has a dedicated in-line plate in its stereo buss, using only the DI track. There is an FX send for the guitar and one for the bass each going to dedicated reverbs. Spent a good amount of time on the mastering opting for headroom as opposed to shear volume.

I hope this improvement is worthy of comment.

Thanks, MITC

[Robert]

The only changes I'd make would be to bring down the lead vocal, snare and mandolin. That would balance-out all the levels. The mix does sound clear though.

[Mixinthecloud]

The only changes I'd make would be to bring down the lead vocal, snare and mandolin. That would balance-out all the levels. The mix does sound clear though.

Robert, thanks for the input. Bringing down the snare is a bit of a trick as a lot of the snare is coming from the vocal mics. Have you killed everything in your mix and listened only to the three vocal mics? It is almost the entire mix. The M81s on the vocals have an enormous amount of proximity effect which needs to be tamed. And what's up with the mandolin mic? Taint nothin' there! This is a bit of an odd recording considering the typical cleanliness which comes out of the lab. You'd have to consider this is a function of the players and their styles.

[Mixinthecloud]

Hi Mixinthecloud very nice mix,the only thing that I can suggest is that mandolin is a bit loud in the right ear,maybe warm it a little with eq and down a dB?well done.

The right ear? The DI for the mandolin is panned left with the mic (with almost no mandolin content in it), panned right. Are you sure it is the right ear?

[Robert]

There certainly were a lot of 'bleedin' problems to deal with - and that guitar not only sounded 'odd' but it needed serious fader-automation to tame the constantly changing levels (particularly on the gtr solo) - and I'm still not happy with my 'work' in that area. Need to revisit. Yes, the vocal microphones were interesting to listen to in isolation; that snare really kept punching-through the lead vocal - making things 'inetersting, lets say. I did a lot of prep-work on the vocals tracks; rather than gating (as I would normally do for FOH), I quite ruthlessly edited-out all the 'bleed' from the tracks and carefully compressed and EQ'd that result for the mix. I wanted us much of the track space to only contain what was 'supposed' to be there - which did take away a lot of the background noise bleed to make the mix clearer. I actually built my mix from the perspective that the drums microphones would be 'open' all the time and concentrated on getting them to sound 'acceptable' before blending-in anything else. It's all a 'compromise' with live tracking. One thing impinges on another and one can only try to make a cohesive sound. A Hammond B4 would have worked nicely on this song... that would have made balancing-out the mandolin a bit better as the mix can sound a bit left-weighted (at times).

[Mixinthecloud]

There certainly were a lot of 'bleedin' problems to deal with - ...

Robert,
Great points made. Being a live engineer too, we understand bleed.

I was watching a seminar on YouTube by a 'famous' mixer who said he has his interns go in and do all his prep work like empty space and hi-pass filtering. Wouldn't that be nice? A lot of busywork even on small track counts.

Can we discuss your perspective from the drum overheads? Kind of an odd place to listen to a band from, wouldn't you say? I do get your point and there is a lot to be said for balance and panning when listening to overheads, but mostly for the drums, I would think. I't is not the primary perspective I would have chosen, but your results are excellent. Kudos on that.
I spent some time listening extensively to the vocal pan I am creating and how that matches with instrument placement and room modes. This is fun and eye opening and I am working on a new mix based on that perspective. One thing I did notice is a paucity of bass guitar in any bleed. That alters the sound field to where you need to place the bass into existing one or bring the other instruments closer to the DI'd, un-effected bass environment. The latter is implausible.

I am kind of taking the opposite approach to yours and bringing in the drums and instruments to fill the bleed in the vocal mics. I am concentrating on that view. It is fun and interesting that good results can be obtained from many perspectives which are exemplified so much in this track because of the bleed and that 'bleedin' nasty guitar part. He must play with ear plugs on because that's the only way his guitar could ever sound good. You would think this would be just crying out for an overdub, huh? I love the idea of an organ but if it bled like other parts bled, it might be even more of a nightmare scenario! The challenge is high on this one, eh?

[Cudjoe]

Hi Mixinthecloud I am so sorry I was listening to another mix on a play list,oops, everything is good to me, well done.

[sgwork]

Well this had some challenges; lots of leakage which had to be incorporated into the sound of the mix and an odd electric guitar sound. While a challenge, it certainly lent lots of character to the piece.

Here is my first real pass. Please let me know what you think.

Enjoy...
MITC

Amy Helm - Rescue Me - Take 4
11/17/2017

I have commented previously and vehemently about my disdain for the guitar part in this piece, but it is I who needed to come to peace with this. Kind of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em", kind of thing. I had stated in another thread that with all the leakage in this recording there was a glaring omission, that being the bass guitar. Since it was only a DI you had no ambience info for the bass. So you either had to clean up the existing ambience to match the bass (an impracticality) or put the bass in an environment that matches or enhances what the rest of the ensemble is in. But then you have the guitar. So after making this statement it dawned on me that (doink) the only way to present the guitar is to take everything towards the environment it has printed to it. It is the delivery boy of this song and you cannot fight it. And this is the result.

I thank everyone for their patience at my venting in your threads. This piece has created a lively discussion and I am grateful for the opportunity to participate.

Happy mixing,
MITC

Oops. Uploaded the wrong version. fixed now...MITC.

Hey MITC, great mix again man and this was a challenging one. I like your productional input on this mix and how you manage to keep the live feel float. Great bass again, love it.

Have a nice day!

[sagalegin]

The instruments sound good...great balance....might get a little harsh in parts but not a lot...good mix

[crownoise]

Hey Mixinthecloud! I like the take 4 version, it has the most feeling imo. I do think that there is to much ring and pokyiness in the mandolin and think it needs some lowmid distortion and hf taming. I like the place you put the bass though, its present but still dynamic.