19-10-2015, 06:57 PM
this is a bit of a tricky mix when it comes to negotiating the bass and low mids... the drums are the tricky bit in my opinion. There's quite a bit of proximity effect and a few of the mics are picking up quite a bit of cymbal bleed off axis that sounds a little strange to me.
I personally find the phase interaction on the tracked drums overall to be a little troublesome, and it sounds like the drums were miked pretty closely, most likely to accommodate a small recording space. Trying to tame the proximity effect with minimum phase EQ seems to introduce a bit of comb filtering which, as callum1145 aptly noted, robs the kick and snare of power in the mix. This is just my personal taste, but linear phase EQ sounds gross to me almost always, but fortunately, the producer is aware of the situation and very sensibly included samples to repair any sort of phase difficulties in that department.
If you choose to revise your mix to further clean up the low mids, my advice is to be bold with the EQ on the live drums, then gradually introduce whichever samples you like to fill out the timbre/fundamentals to your taste. Try bussing the live kit components together with the samples so you can apply additional enhancements to them all at once. That will really help glue them together. The tom mikes have picked up quite a bit of unnatural sounding cymbal bleed, so if you haven't already, it would be sensible to use the trigger tracks to replace the tom mics entirely.
Furthermore, I've personally chosen to bin the room tracks and rely on a convolution reverb to create space around the drums. That's completely a taste thing, and it's important to keep in mind that your personal taste will sell your mix to a client more than your engineering, but also be aware that the room tracks may introduce further comb filtering or conversely, low end mud, depending on your processing decisions.
There are a thousand ways to skin a cat and my solution is only one, but maybe that might help you if it fits with your work flow. Overall, a good effort, but I agree with the others that the low end needs quite a bit of attention.
BTW, in no way am I downing the producer for his recordings. I think these tracks are a great example of the "rock what you got" philosophy, and we were duly provided with everything we need to get a decent lo-fi punky sounding mix. Hopefully I'll be satisfied with my rendition enough to post soon.
I personally find the phase interaction on the tracked drums overall to be a little troublesome, and it sounds like the drums were miked pretty closely, most likely to accommodate a small recording space. Trying to tame the proximity effect with minimum phase EQ seems to introduce a bit of comb filtering which, as callum1145 aptly noted, robs the kick and snare of power in the mix. This is just my personal taste, but linear phase EQ sounds gross to me almost always, but fortunately, the producer is aware of the situation and very sensibly included samples to repair any sort of phase difficulties in that department.
If you choose to revise your mix to further clean up the low mids, my advice is to be bold with the EQ on the live drums, then gradually introduce whichever samples you like to fill out the timbre/fundamentals to your taste. Try bussing the live kit components together with the samples so you can apply additional enhancements to them all at once. That will really help glue them together. The tom mikes have picked up quite a bit of unnatural sounding cymbal bleed, so if you haven't already, it would be sensible to use the trigger tracks to replace the tom mics entirely.
Furthermore, I've personally chosen to bin the room tracks and rely on a convolution reverb to create space around the drums. That's completely a taste thing, and it's important to keep in mind that your personal taste will sell your mix to a client more than your engineering, but also be aware that the room tracks may introduce further comb filtering or conversely, low end mud, depending on your processing decisions.
There are a thousand ways to skin a cat and my solution is only one, but maybe that might help you if it fits with your work flow. Overall, a good effort, but I agree with the others that the low end needs quite a bit of attention.
BTW, in no way am I downing the producer for his recordings. I think these tracks are a great example of the "rock what you got" philosophy, and we were duly provided with everything we need to get a decent lo-fi punky sounding mix. Hopefully I'll be satisfied with my rendition enough to post soon.