Wayfaring Stranger - HB Mix

[HbGuitar]

Having read Mike's notes about the recording process, I think that its incredible how good the raw multi-tracks sound and quite frankly a little bit intimidating having to try and match the elegant simplicity of the provided reference mix.

[Mike Senior]

Having read Mike's notes about the recording process, I think that its incredible how good the raw multi-tracks sound and quite frankly a little bit intimidating having to try and match the elegant simplicity of the provided reference mix.

Thanks! <blush> To be honest, I didn't want it to be intimidating -- my big thing with making this project available was just to try to demonstrate that it's perfectly possible to get a reasonable recording that doesn't need much mixing, even when you're not working in a 'proper' studio and you've only got project-studio gear. I also wanted to show that it's no disaster if there's a fair bit of spill going -- on the contrary, it can actually make things sound better.

Incidentally, I'm actually going to be talking about my own mixes of this project in next month's SOS, and as a part of that I'll be uploading a three-part video series showing the fundamentals of how I mixed this song, so that might help give some additional pointers. Not that you've done a bad job already, though! The only thing I'd say is that maybe the sax could be dried up a touch in the solo (try rebalancing the bass mic and DI signals to do this) and the ride stick noise is a bit forward (a transient processor will reduce this).

[HbGuitar]

Hi Mike...thanks for dropping by....i could have used the word inspiring instead of intimidating too.....i loved listening to the ref mix as i was setting up my session

Once i pushed the faders around a bit I'm thinking " this is sounding OK" so you are spot on about no need for a huge amount of mixing....and for the first time i really enjoyed working with the spill.....it seemed warm and supportive rather than overly discordant....which i find when mixing some telefunken sessions

Nice tip re bass mic/DI balance effecting sax wetness....it was something that was bothering me too slightly ... i'll dive back in and give it a shot.

cheers

Simon

[pauli]

Kick drum is coming through very nicely on on headphones, but something in the low is causing a bit of distortion... I can't listen on the monitors right now to see if it's still a problem on speakers, but I suspect not. Probably some sort of translation snag, due to bass buildup and small drivers... have you checked it on phones?

Overall balance is very nice. The ambience on the vocal isn't my taste, personally, but I'm not struggling with it... sounds pretty well blended into the live room ensemble.

RE: sax wetness... I caught this snag after printing and uploading version one. I fiddled with it a little bit an was having a hard time rebalancing the bass/di signals without hurting the bass more than I was helping the sax. So I tried an expander on the sidestick mic to reduce the spill and found that brought the sax forward without any real sacrifice. Fiddling with an automated EQ on the toms mic seems to help with this, too, but I'm not 100% sure it's necessary.

[HbGuitar]

hey pauli....I did check with phones...didn't notice anything untoward.

i treated myself to some Sen HD600s just after christmas....have to say that they've been brilliant...very smooth sounding using the headphone amp on my interface. Especially good for setting low frequency levels e.g. kick/bass balancing.

[pauli]

Hey dude, you'll have to forgive my comments regarding distortion. I've noticed it on quite a few mixes recently (and regrettably commented on such... now I have to go find every single one and correct it) but last night I traced it to a signal chain problem on my end, which I've since resolved. I really need to simplify the signal routing from the interface to my monitors... I have a temporary situation set up with a mini mixer after a cable went south on me... and I've been lazy about replacing it lol

I've heard similarly great things from others about those phones I wish they were within my budget at the mo, but that situation is improving considerably on my end of late.

[Obelix]

Some of you mentioned some distortion caused by the low end on kick drum. I mixed this song too, and I saw on my EQ that it has a strong fundamental around 30 Hz. Maybe it came from that.

[pauli]

In my case it was a bit of analog outboard clipping. Boomy bass can certainly eat up headroom in the manner that would cause that to clip, Simon has the low bass rubbish cleared out, so it's really just an issue of the outboard metering responding late to transients, which is to be expected.

Just for clarity's sake, so that others aren't misunderstanding your contributions, I'll point out that the 30 hz buildup you've lit onto isn't a fundamental, it's a room resonance. Musically useful fundamentals aren't generally going to occur beneath 50 hz, mainly because human ears aren't able to hear beneath that range very well. Even at 50, it's mainly a feel thing more than something you actively hear in the mix. I'm not really a stickler for terminology, but in this case the distinction is important, since fundamentals are musical and sub (usually) isn't.