Okay, so here's my mix of this wonderfull tune. (Great artist and if you looked at the pictures, you noticed that he did everything himself, including the drums. A true singer/songwriter.)
Really, there wasn't a whole lot to be done with this tune once you whittled down the duplicate mics and got to a set you liked. Most tracks are labeled has having gone through a compressor when they tracked this and the way some things sound, I'm betting there was some amount of EQ sculpting as well, although probably not much. At that, then, the only thing to do is find your balance, make subtle tone adjustments, add automation and ambience. This is also the first mix I did on my brand new Focal Alpha 50 monitors and let me tell you, it's a HUGE step up from headphones and PC speakers!
Let me know what y'all think!
Notes on my mic selections (since we had so many to choose from, I thought it would be of interest):
I chose the U47 for the vocals (note that this is, as I am told, not quite the same U47 of history and apparently Neumann, with their recent reissue, got much closer. So take the "U47" label with a grain of salt). Also, slights bits up front from other takes but after the intro, it's all the U47.
For BVOX, I went with the AR51. This one we saw used on the Abletones tracks and I took quite a liking to it there. It stands tall here again.
Drum overheads were the ELAM 250.
I did not use the back of kit mic or the outside kick at all and only had the slightest touch of the hi hat mic.
The piano was the C12. LOVE that C12. (For those who don't know, the original C12 eventually became what we know as the C414 from AKG but there's barely any resemblance to the original C12 after all these years of adaptations.)
The acoustic was the M260 and the electric was the M80 with much contribution from the room mics.
BTW, I *heart* the choice of compressors. In a number of cases, I'd have been inclined to use the same ones. For example, I didn't think the bass had quite enough so stuck an LA-3A on it and then noticed by the label that this is the same one the engineer used during tracking. He also had a fantastic set of preamps and that helps a great deal. Excellent mics, Excellent preamps, excellent signal processors... it all adds up to a fastastic recording!
Really, there wasn't a whole lot to be done with this tune once you whittled down the duplicate mics and got to a set you liked. Most tracks are labeled has having gone through a compressor when they tracked this and the way some things sound, I'm betting there was some amount of EQ sculpting as well, although probably not much. At that, then, the only thing to do is find your balance, make subtle tone adjustments, add automation and ambience. This is also the first mix I did on my brand new Focal Alpha 50 monitors and let me tell you, it's a HUGE step up from headphones and PC speakers!
Let me know what y'all think!
Notes on my mic selections (since we had so many to choose from, I thought it would be of interest):
I chose the U47 for the vocals (note that this is, as I am told, not quite the same U47 of history and apparently Neumann, with their recent reissue, got much closer. So take the "U47" label with a grain of salt). Also, slights bits up front from other takes but after the intro, it's all the U47.
For BVOX, I went with the AR51. This one we saw used on the Abletones tracks and I took quite a liking to it there. It stands tall here again.
Drum overheads were the ELAM 250.
I did not use the back of kit mic or the outside kick at all and only had the slightest touch of the hi hat mic.
The piano was the C12. LOVE that C12. (For those who don't know, the original C12 eventually became what we know as the C414 from AKG but there's barely any resemblance to the original C12 after all these years of adaptations.)
The acoustic was the M260 and the electric was the M80 with much contribution from the room mics.
BTW, I *heart* the choice of compressors. In a number of cases, I'd have been inclined to use the same ones. For example, I didn't think the bass had quite enough so stuck an LA-3A on it and then noticed by the label that this is the same one the engineer used during tracking.
He also had a fantastic set of preamps and that helps a great deal. Excellent mics, Excellent preamps, excellent signal processors... it all adds up to a fastastic recording!
Old West Audio
