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About This Multitrack
#1
You can find the multitrack files for this project in the 'Mixing Secrets' Free Multitrack Download Library.

Before posting a mix, please read The Three Commandments!
Please post your mix as a new thread, rather than as a reply to this sticky.

Here's some more project info you might find useful:
  • About The Raw Multitracks: This is one big project(!), with an ambitious arrangement into the bargain, so presents considerable challenges to the mix engineer, not least in terms of the complex task of creating convincing long-term mix dynamics.
    • Drumkit: stereo overheads, stereo room mics, and close mics for kick (x2), snare (over, under) hi-hat, and three toms.
    • Percussion overdubs: stereo reverse cymbal track, and mono ride, maracas, triangle, bongos, and handclap.
    • Bass: DI and miked amp tracks.
    • Guitars: four mono tracks of electric and two stereo tracks of acoustic.
    • Keyboards: one stereo piano track, two stereo organ tracks, and three tracks of synth.
    • Vocals: one main lead line and 32 tracks of individual backing vocals.
  • Challenges You're Likely To Face:
    • The handclap part is one performer, which can be difficult to make full-sounding in a mix because a single handclap is such a short and transient sound.
    • The acoustic guitar is quite softly played, so it's difficult to generate any sense of rhythmic drive from it.
    • The piano sounds rather like an upright to me, and not a very well-tuned specimen at that, so it's tricky to make it sound as big and impressive as the arrangement seems to call for -- to my ears at least!
    • The lead singer doesn't enunciate very clearly, so you may have your work cut out to maximise the intelligibility of his lyrics.
    • You'll want to set aside a good chunk of time for sorting out all the backing-vocal balances.
  • Some Mixing Tips: Although I've not mixed this particular track myself, here are some suggestions that come to mind:
    • The bass and drums seem pretty sensibly recorded, but you will still need to attend to phase/polarity issues if you're going to get the best out of them.
    • I could imagine editing the hand-clap part around a bit to generate some fake double-tracking, or else perhaps using something like a Haas delay effect and some short ambience reverb to spread it out and lengthen it a bit.
    • My instinct would be to either replace the piano track with a more grand-sounding sampled version, or else to try to make a virtue out of the slightly 'honky-tonk' tone by emphasising that and turning it into a deliberate statement.
    • Although it's tempting to process backing vocals as a group, you'll probably get better-sounding results if you process each track individually first, especially given that there's a mix of different singers involved here.

If you have any other general questions about this multitrack, just reply to this post and I'll see what I can do.
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