03-05-2013, 12:49 AM
Replying to all the questions/comments so far...
The El guitars needed some taming from the upper mid resonance. I cut some 2,5-4 kHz in every single EG stem (dependable of the stem, I checked the actual resonance of each one with a RTA), and added some shelf boosting above it (close mics, no boosting in room mics). I also kept the low mids (200-400 Hz, once again depended on the stem) at bay with some dynamic EQs. Taming the upper mid resonance helps the EG to blend in much better.
I used the all the room mics (stereo configuration), panned fully to edges. They were about 15 dBs quieter than the close mic. All the EG close mics are panned LCR. My initial reaction was that the summing of EG channels was already good, flipping any polarities caused more trouble than solved any.
The acoustic was more tricky to do (and even more tricky to explain). I used the only the channels 1 and 2 (close ones). I think I nudges them around to get the waveforms align better, and on top of that I used a some sort of phase shifter/aligner to get out of phase frequencies to twist to the "positive sum" side. I listened the two channels' sum in mono, flipped the polarity to hear which sum had more bottom end. The less bottom end sum had more clarity in the upper mids so I twisted the upper mids' phase around from one of the channels to "rotate" the sum to the other side in order to have both good low end and clarity. God this is hard to explain
The goal is simply to have good sounding sum from the two mics.
Thanks. If it's any help, I didn't use the side mics at all (they don't work well with the overheads anyway, and the extra misplacement of the kick/snare doesn't really help that). There also no reverb in the drums. All the stereo space you hear in this mix comes from the overheads panned fully to the sides. Not much compression on them either, just few dBs sawing off some stray snare hits. Everything else in the drums (snares, room, even tomtom) is dead center.
The drum's forwardness is probably a combination of many things: My habit generally of putting the drums quite loud in a mix (I consider them probably the most important after lead vocals, but I'm also a sucker for super bright snares as is evident here) and also the fact from a starting point they were the best sounding stem in this whole song (the great drummer is definitely not hurting that situation), so it becomes quite natural to make it "mask" some of the weaker aspects of the song (for example the acoustic guitar here wasn't necessarily that hot sounding).
(01-05-2013, 11:12 PM)jeremias666 Wrote: Great mix.
I like how you cleaned and polished the vocal.
I like how you balanced and processed the electric guitars. I am mixing this right now and i dont like how the rythm guitars blend, i would have liked less distorted guitars. the lead sounds nice.
Have you used the guitar tracks as they were provided? because the stereo tracks have some phase issues. i splitted them into L and R and choose the best sounding side.
The El guitars needed some taming from the upper mid resonance. I cut some 2,5-4 kHz in every single EG stem (dependable of the stem, I checked the actual resonance of each one with a RTA), and added some shelf boosting above it (close mics, no boosting in room mics). I also kept the low mids (200-400 Hz, once again depended on the stem) at bay with some dynamic EQs. Taming the upper mid resonance helps the EG to blend in much better.
I used the all the room mics (stereo configuration), panned fully to edges. They were about 15 dBs quieter than the close mic. All the EG close mics are panned LCR. My initial reaction was that the summing of EG channels was already good, flipping any polarities caused more trouble than solved any.
The acoustic was more tricky to do (and even more tricky to explain). I used the only the channels 1 and 2 (close ones). I think I nudges them around to get the waveforms align better, and on top of that I used a some sort of phase shifter/aligner to get out of phase frequencies to twist to the "positive sum" side. I listened the two channels' sum in mono, flipped the polarity to hear which sum had more bottom end. The less bottom end sum had more clarity in the upper mids so I twisted the upper mids' phase around from one of the channels to "rotate" the sum to the other side in order to have both good low end and clarity. God this is hard to explain
The goal is simply to have good sounding sum from the two mics.(02-05-2013, 04:19 AM)Dags Wrote: That was a quick mix Spede! ...heh - I just unintentionally made a joke there
I'm looking at this song (well, haven't had time over the last few nights) and wringing my hands as to what I'm going to do about the snare, guitars, vocals, l-r drum tracks (which have the kick prominently in one side and the snare in the other!)........
Yours has come together really well.
Well done!
Dags
Thanks. If it's any help, I didn't use the side mics at all (they don't work well with the overheads anyway, and the extra misplacement of the kick/snare doesn't really help that
). There also no reverb in the drums. All the stereo space you hear in this mix comes from the overheads panned fully to the sides. Not much compression on them either, just few dBs sawing off some stray snare hits. Everything else in the drums (snares, room, even tomtom) is dead center.(02-05-2013, 10:24 AM)Xabix Wrote: What i find disturbing : maybe the kit is a little too upfront in the mix for such a pop song. The snare above all, is, for me, a little too much present . It's obvious when you listen to it on small speakers at low volume. Maybe, if you have Auratone or equivalent, you'll notice it after a few days resting your hears...
The drum's forwardness is probably a combination of many things: My habit generally of putting the drums quite loud in a mix (I consider them probably the most important after lead vocals, but I'm also a sucker for super bright snares as is evident here
) and also the fact from a starting point they were the best sounding stem in this whole song (the great drummer is definitely not hurting that situation), so it becomes quite natural to make it "mask" some of the weaker aspects of the song (for example the acoustic guitar here wasn't necessarily that hot sounding).