Motherload

[The_Metallurgist]

.....Every time you pan a close mic to align it with the room mics, you're smearing the stereo location of another track with the (often out of phase) leakage, and the inevitable comb filtering consequences of spreading out phasey tracks with lots of leakage are compounded.

in an ideal world, (or even a decent studio one), we'd have access to the microphone and musician arrangements in a Studio Plan which are absolutely crucial in order to avoid the issues discussed herein. without this fundamental piece of information, it's a crapshoot....basically it's academically unmixable in the true sense. having said that, it is possible to glean [some] information from the tracks available regarding musician/mike placement by using some acoustic science and donning a deer-stalker hat...but life is short, eh? and it will still be missing the target to a greater or lesser extent.....

....so, it ends up being a damage-limitation exercise, which immediately brings to mind issues of major compromise. which is why we track dry when at all possible, of course.

was the spectral skew a direct consequence of your speaker issues, by any chance?

hope the dust settles shortly over there