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About This Multitrack - Mike Senior - 08-05-2012

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:
    • Drum tracks have been generated by a virtual instrument, under the control of a live drummer using one of Roland's V-Drum trigger systems. The simulated 'mic' tracks provided for mixing purposes are as follows: stereo overheads, containing spill from all the kit components; close mics for kick (in, out) and snare (over, under), also containing fairly realistic levels of spill; and spill-free signals for snare, hi-hat, ride, two crash cymbals, and three toms.
    • The bass is provided both as a miked cab signal and as a DI feed.
    • The single acoustic guitar performance was dual-miked, and a DI feed was also recorded at the same time.
    • There are five tracks of electric guitar, all recorded via a miked amp.
    • Two vocal tracks complete the line-up: a lead and one harmony.
  • Challenges You're Likely To Face:
    • The pitch of the inside kick-drum mic signal seems slightly out of tune with the track as a whole, and also resonates in a way that obscures the bass line melodies.
    • Hi-hat spill is very strong in most of the main drum-mic signals.
    • The simulated spill signals generated by this particular virtual instrument don't fill out the drum timbre in the way that spill tends to do in a real live drum recording, and tends to sound rather phasey.
    • The bass doesn't have much in the way of low-end weight, but if you add lots of EQ boost down in the lower regions of the spectrum, what you get isn't well defined at all.
    • There's a lot of superfluous subbass on all the acoustic guitar tracks.
    • The tuning of the guitar and vocal tracks leaves a certain amount to be desired, which makes it tricky to find a good blend for these tracks.
    • The electric guitars have been recorded with delay/reverb effects, which clouds the important gaps in the rhythm parts in particular.
  • Some Mixing Tips:
    • The way the bass and kick interact is key to this mix, in my view, so be sure to give those enough time and attention. Personally, I chose to add a subsynth part to underpin the bass, given that the existing low-end of that part wasn't particularly well-defined.
    • Don't expect to wheel out all your normal drum-mixing techniques when working with a simulated drumkit like this one -- you need to work from first principles, because the raw tracks respond rather differently to mixdown processing than live recordings.
    • If the bass amp track doesn't work well for you, then bear in mind that you can easily replace it by reamping the DI track.
    • You can reduce the apparent delay/reverb levels on the electric guitars by gating them.
    • Although there are no double-tracks in the raw recordings, it's pretty easy to edit together your own, given the amount of repetition in the parts.
    • I remixed this song for Sound On Sound's August 2010 'Mix Rescue' column, which not only shows how I approached this band's recordings myself in practice, but also includes a selection of audio files demonstrating the effects of some of my processing and layering decisions.

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


RE: About This Multitrack - Voelund - 01-10-2013

Yet another excellent description of your choices and solutions mixin a track.
I have a question: are the guitar tracks supplied with the download treated with melodyne, as you describe you did on the mix. I were pulling my hair where that chorus like thing came from, soloing the 2 mic´d acoustic guitar tracks. I got really confused as it wasnt present all the time and that would be an explanation.


RE: About This Multitrack - Mike Senior - 02-10-2013

Glad this stuff helps! I've not had the time to do many of these recently, but hopefully I'll be able to get back to them again.

(01-10-2013, 11:57 PM)Voelund Wrote: I have a question: are the guitar tracks supplied with the download treated with melodyne, as you describe you did on the mix. I were pulling my hair where that chorus like thing came from, soloing the 2 mic´d acoustic guitar tracks. I got really confused as it wasnt present all the time and that would be an explanation.

I'll have a listen. <Mike goes to have a listen...> Ah! I see what you mean. I think it is the Melodyned track, and I can tell you why it's in there. Although I normally put things in raw, I Melodyned the part before doing some timing edits, and so couldn't revert the Melodyne processing later on when I stripped out all the processing without also reverting the timing edits, and that would have meant that various additional parts I edited together wouldn't have been able to be included, because they'd not have sync'ed. I seem to remember deciding to keep the edited timing, rather than uploading the completely raw tracks therefore in this case. This is pretty rare, though -- it's only with a few of the Mix Rescue projects that I've uploaded edited files, just because some of the arrangements didn't function properly without the edits. Hope that makes sense!





RE: About This Multitrack - Voelund - 02-10-2013

Makes perfect sence and Im glad my ears didnt fool me. Its known to be a possibility Big Grin So if I make any timin edits to this I will be editin your timin edits :-) Thanks for takin the time to give a precise answer too !