10-03-2015, 11:38 PM
Hey there fellow mixers!
Here are a few info about the song "Blue" that you might find useful when attempting to mix it:
General
To me this is a dreamy one, it's very much lyrics-oriented (probably one of the most lyrics-oriented that I've ever done), and the lyrics themselves are painting a dreamy figure in a not so real world... It's about my daughter, or rather fond memories of my daughter when she was little and how she was, now that she is very much a teenager, it would be a different story
So I suppose the vocal (however bad it is) should be king and the vibe dreamy and soft.
Recording
Recording in an untreated room, using a portable vocal booth that I use as a gobo to shield from computer noises, a sofa and a mattress and a SE Electronics Reflection filter for vocals.
For the vocals I've used a SM75 pretty close because I liked what the proximity effect was doing to my voice that my condenser wasn't really doing, it was tracked direct into the preamps of my RME Fireface UCX.
Turns out this was a really bad decision that created more issues than solved any. You will likely have to process the vocal for extra sibilance, tone changes and general extra dose of low-end
The drums are Superior Drummer, with the Roots Brushes SDX, it provides lots of room/ambiance mics, up to you to use what you feel useful (don't feel forced to use them all!).
The bass is Spectrasonics Trillian VST, one of the the upright models
The keys are AAS Lounge lizard (Rhodes) and the Toy piano are samples from Kontakt.
The guitar(s) are done with a Variax JTV (a hollow body model) and my Kemper Profiling Amplifer, recorded direct into my RME interface.
Pay attention to
The drums shouldn't really be too compressed, it's a jazz ballad after all, so they should sound natural and not processed.
Still the kick is quite boomy and this is of course the nature of the beast, but it could give you some headaches especially if you're used to boosting 1/2khz to enhance the beater of a metal kick!
The vocal have tone issues and sibilance a-plenty, so a good deal of clean-up, compression and automation will be required.
The guitars and keys are all stereo, but you should make sure that each live in their own space and don't occupy too much of the stereo field.
The bass is an upright so it has quite a lot of transient noises, it's part of the charm but can be pretty disruptive of the dreamy mood.
The bgvs are really essential for the mood, they should be pretty soft and dreamy.
The chorus is driven by the bass and the vocals (including bgvs), but the guitar is pretty important in that it provides the main melody counterpoint, don't bury it, it's an important part!
What I would expect
As usual, very much up to you to follow or not, as long as your mix is coherent and express a vision that enhances the song and make it's message and mood pass through, you're on the right tracks...
This is a light song, so light touches are expected.
I'd like a mix that is quite ambient and I think you can push the reverb a bit on this one, it's a slow tune, and the dreamy vibe will match lush reverbs and delays...
I've said it, but will say it again, the drums are not metal ones, and the compression and limiting overall should be as transparent as possible.
Happy mixing!
Here are a few info about the song "Blue" that you might find useful when attempting to mix it:
General
To me this is a dreamy one, it's very much lyrics-oriented (probably one of the most lyrics-oriented that I've ever done), and the lyrics themselves are painting a dreamy figure in a not so real world... It's about my daughter, or rather fond memories of my daughter when she was little and how she was, now that she is very much a teenager, it would be a different story
So I suppose the vocal (however bad it is) should be king and the vibe dreamy and soft.
Recording
Recording in an untreated room, using a portable vocal booth that I use as a gobo to shield from computer noises, a sofa and a mattress and a SE Electronics Reflection filter for vocals.
For the vocals I've used a SM75 pretty close because I liked what the proximity effect was doing to my voice that my condenser wasn't really doing, it was tracked direct into the preamps of my RME Fireface UCX.
Turns out this was a really bad decision that created more issues than solved any. You will likely have to process the vocal for extra sibilance, tone changes and general extra dose of low-end
The drums are Superior Drummer, with the Roots Brushes SDX, it provides lots of room/ambiance mics, up to you to use what you feel useful (don't feel forced to use them all!).
The bass is Spectrasonics Trillian VST, one of the the upright models
The keys are AAS Lounge lizard (Rhodes) and the Toy piano are samples from Kontakt.
The guitar(s) are done with a Variax JTV (a hollow body model) and my Kemper Profiling Amplifer, recorded direct into my RME interface.
Pay attention to
The drums shouldn't really be too compressed, it's a jazz ballad after all, so they should sound natural and not processed.
Still the kick is quite boomy and this is of course the nature of the beast, but it could give you some headaches especially if you're used to boosting 1/2khz to enhance the beater of a metal kick!
The vocal have tone issues and sibilance a-plenty, so a good deal of clean-up, compression and automation will be required.
The guitars and keys are all stereo, but you should make sure that each live in their own space and don't occupy too much of the stereo field.
The bass is an upright so it has quite a lot of transient noises, it's part of the charm but can be pretty disruptive of the dreamy mood.
The bgvs are really essential for the mood, they should be pretty soft and dreamy.
The chorus is driven by the bass and the vocals (including bgvs), but the guitar is pretty important in that it provides the main melody counterpoint, don't bury it, it's an important part!
What I would expect
As usual, very much up to you to follow or not, as long as your mix is coherent and express a vision that enhances the song and make it's message and mood pass through, you're on the right tracks...
This is a light song, so light touches are expected.
I'd like a mix that is quite ambient and I think you can push the reverb a bit on this one, it's a slow tune, and the dreamy vibe will match lush reverbs and delays...
I've said it, but will say it again, the drums are not metal ones, and the compression and limiting overall should be as transparent as possible.
Happy mixing!
"Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something." - Frank Zappa
Some air moved here
Some air moved here