Inner Circle- Mixed over a few days

[The_Metallurgist]

did not use the trigger tracks for any replacement. All drums are supplied files.

the trigger tracks are perfect for gating/triggering their respective [grouped] instruments though; eg snare top and bottom mics, or anything else you might fancy during a creative frenzy

Didn't go crazy with automation, but I definitely had to automate the volume of the guitar tracks throughout the whole song

they've printed automation. so, if you don't undo this first it means one minute the material is hitting your insert chain gently during the attenuated sections, the next it's hitting it harder where the fader's been pushed up (and/or compressed harder, heaven forbid!). the solution is not to have printed automation in the first place. but given that it's here and in my experience often accompanies "most" multitracks in the Library, it's better to try and fix it first before mixing IMOFWIW.

yeah, you're right, it's a royal chore


unfortunately they don't have a good room for tracking, so we need to be especially wary of low-end excess (and combfiltering) while also recognising they've applied cuts and in so doing inappropriately skewed the frequency response i.e. we can't uncut it and take a different (and more appropriate?) approach. the vocal is an example; the room's size/ambiance/frequency response is captured by the mic which gets carried through to our own ideas of space, depth and room size in the performance - one room inside of another sounds odd by default. there's no effective solution to these ills, but shaping the frequency while taking into account what's already been going on in advance, can help to fight the consequences at least a little bit. i'd look at trying to defeat the low-mid imbalance because it's primarily the higher energy low frequency stuff which is delayed (the RT60, but it's not quite that simple) in the ambiance which we detect and get our spatial cues from; generally an audience will do so unconsciously. if you compress the vocal, you should hear the issues of the room...there's an echo in there which smears the vocal, affects it's timbre and contributes to losing her some clarity too.

i've had sleepless nights trying to shape this vocal....

hey ho, onwards and...upwards?