Workshop on this song

[sthauge]

Hi

This is my version of this song as it was mixed to a training workshop I and friend was arranging in a closed Facebook group with nearly 2K sound engineers. The FB group is for Harrison consoles DAWs users. There was a restriction to only use one of the Harrison DAWs and a very small set of free and simple plugins eg reverb without predelay. The aim was to get training to use the DAWs to its full potential and use the DAWs build in EQs, compressors ect. 


My comments to the song(some comments are relate to functionality and predefined workflow in the DAWs):



In this recording there are 7 tracks, all of them acoustic. To me this mean that I have to preserve and bring out the "life" in the instruments and vocal. Only 7 tracks also make it a challenging task to get a broad and interesting panorama. I also have to make some dept into the mix to make it sound "as being there listening". The bottom line is that I have to make "a stage" or a room for the artist and listeners.

In general I've used parallel compression(PC) with different settings on all sound sources in this project - Vocal, guitar and cello to get them to sparkle a bit more and to add clarity. For the drums it will add more energy and edge.

 

Vocal:
There is just one mono track, so I used two ACE EQs(one on L and one on R channel) very, very gentle to make a little artificial stereo spread in the vocal mixbus. PC will bring out more articulation and clarity to the voice. Using the HPF on the vocal relatively aggressively will also bring it out a bit. To give it some extra "life" I retained the singers breath noises so it's audible.

 

Guitar:
There are two guitar tracks. I presume that this is one guitar with two mics placed in two different positions. This mean that I can't pan them hard L and R but have to pan them together but with a little spread so I get some space between them as it was when it was recorded. This will also make it more natural, bring in more "air" and dept to the mix. Using the EQ filters a bit differently on the two tracks can reduce freq buildup and make some "space" around the two mics.

 

Cello:
Same as for the guitar

 

Snare: Just EQing, the leveler and a PC bus. I also put in a Enhancer on the snare. It was just to experiment and try it out for fun, but it was Ok so I just left it on the track.

 

Kick:
Here I use EQ to adjust it to the sound I like and the leveler on the track to bring out the hit from the pedal. Hard PC on a separate drum mixbus also add punch and energy.
 

Panorama and dept:
A mix in general are not only L and R, it is also dept. To achieve panorama and dept I used two techniques. First, when adding the reverb I leveled it out on the opposite side as the source for the guitar and cello(feature in 32C). This makes a feeling of a "rom" surrounding the instruments without making it to wide as it could be just adding the same level of reverb to the L and to the R.

 

To make the dept I used a mixbus with a delay to make a predelay before a reverb that have a longer tail than the general reverb mixbus. The stereo width become smaller the longer you are from the sound source. Since the dept mixbus should make the distance from the artist and listener, I reduced the stereo width on the mixbus. Removed freq below 300 Hz to avoid rumble in the Rev and Dept mixbuses and used the leveler with no attack to reduce unwanted slapback noise in the reverb tail.

 

Cleanup and separation:
HPF are in use when natural. EQ'd the guitar and the cello so they are a little bit separated in some freq bands to add space and separation. This is not so important in this mix though, since the guitar is to the left and the cello is to the right.

 

Balancing everything:
I've used the leveler at the channelstrips to enhance the transients and make the sound level more even and stable between the tracks. There's also automation on every track to get all the nitty gritty things in the tracks out to the listeners.