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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 a nice little multitrack session which provides great practice for juggling phase relationships, given that it's a live take with everything spilling onto everything else. The drum setup comprises stereo overheads and close mics for kick (x2) snare, hi-hat, and three toms. The bass, acoustic guitar, and violin are all recorded via two different mics at once, which provides the potential for some nice tonal-sculture possibilities at mixdown. For more information about the performers and some photos of the recording sessions, check out this page on the Telefunken site.
  • Challenges You're Likely To Face:
    • Although the drum mics feature very little spill from the other instruments, the drums are all over the bass and the acoustic guitar which makes it tricky to control the tone of these instruments with any independence.
    • The bass recordings have a very pronounced low-end resonance, perhaps from a room mode, or else from the nature of the instrument used. There's also not very much in the way of midrange definition on the recording, which means that it's not easy to get the melodic nature of the line to cut through in the midrange without bringing up a wash of boxy-sounding drum spill.
    • The acoustic guitar recording catches some of the instrument's low midrange fundamentals rather too strongly for me, but it's not something I think you can properly tackle with simple EQ without gutting the instrument's nice tonal warmth.
    • There's a certain amount of harshness to the captured violin tone in the 3-6kHz region, but again it's sporadic enough that's it's likely to defeat any simple EQ fix, I think. Plus the violinist sounds like he's doing some serious foot-tapping... Smile
  • Some Mixing Tips: I footled around with this multitrack for an hour or so in order to get a better handle on how it worked, and here are some suggestions I'd make based on that initial reconnaissance:
    • There's a strong snare resonance at 478Hz that you may want to dip if you're looking for more overall snare tone from the close mic.
    • I had some luck generating extra bass definition by distorting a band-pass filtered parallel channel.
    • High-pass filtering the violin and guitar parts seemed to clear up the mix tone a lot.
    • I'd probably try to deal with any rogue guitar notes with automation -- although that might mean EQ automation!
    • A fairly fast compressor with a big boost above 3kHz seemed to work quite well when it came to smoothing off the violin tone -- although I used a different compressor for general balancing purposes.

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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