Thread Rating:
  • 1 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Juliet's Rescue: 'Heartbeats' by LeZlee (WITH DETAILED WORKFLOW)
#1
Hi dear cambridgers!

After a lot of work on my stuff (recording, producing, mixing...) i finally found some time to excercise on some multitracks. Here`s my workflow on the Juliet`s Rescue "Heartbeats".

The Approach
After few listenings and after I`ve mixed a static mix i`ve realised, that it`ll be quite a challenge to match the "poppy" verses and the "rocky" choruses, especially the drums. But then i decided to not fight with it, but to go for the contrast, that was originally intended by the arranger of this song. A lot of automation here.

DRUMS
The first thing i did, was a heavy compression on the DrumsRoom track to make the rock drums pump (to give them a "house" feel). A quite big lift on 80-100hz made them sound agressive and punchy. After that i`ve started to clean up some things around, messed with the arrangment (deleted the 16th hat notes on the beginning, OH are only in the rock choruses, room track is minimised on the verses to give the pop sound some cleanness). There was a subkick track on the choruses that i liked much, so i`ve had to made a decission where the bass and kick will take place. I`ve decided that i mix the kick (rock) to give a punchy yet extra low beat (it takes place aprx. at 50hz with lifted harmonics at 100hz). The snare approach was quite straightforward - an 1176 clone. The whole drumset (except the pop drums) is feeded into a drum bus with one of the best freeware compressors in the world - DFPs BLOCKFISH, which i tend to use on the drum bus nearly always. There`s absolutely no reverb on the drums, the room track gave me sufficient amounts of ambience.

BASS
Becouse i`m a lazy person, i like to use tricks, that replace automation. There are 2 tracks of the bass - amp and direct. I gave the direct track some warmth by taking out all the frequencies above 500 hz, and using an exciter, to add some low end stuff (that i usually take out),the slightest amount of compression). Now, the amp track is playing only in the rock sections, and i`ve destroyed it as i could using TSE Bass overdrive. It gives a driving tone and fills in the gap in the center (becouse the hard panned guitars), and as i mentioned before, it replaces automation and makes the chorus jump out of speakers.

GUITARS
Every guitar needs HP filter. Always. On the verses i liked the appoggiatura style playing, there`s a decrescendo on the the resulting tones of the harmonic resolutions that is very artistic and i absolutely not wanted to loose that. So no compression on guitars. On the choruses I hard panned the guitars with some complementary EQ (take on one side give on the other), added a delay and reverb on the solo.

SYNTHS
Nothing special here, just make it work with the track. To make a bigger contrast, i decided to gave the synths a driving role on the verses and to be a BG in the choruses. That`s why the guitars are quite in the BG on verses. You know> Pop=synths, Rock=guitars. There are some FX too, mostly LP filters that are automated to give the uplifts more tension

VOX
The vocal tracks were quite satisfactory straight out of the mics, only a bit of lift on the presence region and taking out the mud around 400hz. BG vocals vere treated to be more on sides, and they are in the BG becouse they are BG vocals Big Grin (I hate when i can`t focus on the main vocals just becouse the harmonies are in the way. They have only a colouring function.) All the vox go into LA-2A clone comp/limiter. Vocal riding is mandatory (especially on the esses)
I used a reverb on the vocals - Lexicon 480L - tweaked the Thin Plate preset, also an automated delay on chosen portions of the track.

MASTERING
After the mix was complete (approx. 6 hours) I bounced down the tracks to 6 stereo tracks (drums, bass, guitars, synths, vox, bg vox). I`ve found out (after referencing it with commercial records) it was bass heavy, so I corrected that, toke out 400 hz of the guitars (it fought with the vox) added a dB of high shelfing boost on the drums, some NY style comp. on the master, multiband compression, to glue mid range without loosing clarity in the low end, a bit of analog saturation (vst plugin) and finally brickwall limiting. (radio mix/master approach). Although i`m educated in field of music on high level, i look on the mix (especially Pop) as would an everyday audience. So there`s no place to polemize about the tones or levels of the instrument, you have to make the mix work as a whole and make sure, that the lyrics are easily recognizable.

I`m sure that i`ve just scratched the surface of my workflow, but i`ll be very glad if you give me some opinions, ideas or just ask some questions.

P.S.: I know that there are some clicks on the 3/4 and on the end of the song from bad edits, or automation turning off, i apologize myself
Thanks!
LeZlee


.mp3    HearBeats.mp3 --  (Download: 7.47 MB)


Reply
#2
combining the verses with the chorus was a challenge and i think you came up with a good solution (i went for a more homogenous naturalistic approach). i like how the synths are nice and clean in the verses and the guitars and drums deliver on the chorus (maybe a little bit on the harsh side, but i guess that's the price you pay ;-). (comparing my mix with yours makes me realise i should cut in the low mids and lows in my own mix, but i do feel you could add some in yours). great mix!
Reply
#3
I love this mix has a nice stereo feel, just a bit too harsh for me on the cymbal and hats.
Reply
#4
This is one tune that you can take in several different directions and be right every time.

You're right about the vocal riding. I recall that was one of the things I addressed right off when I worked on this, trying to bring up the soft syllables and trimming a few abrupt edits.

I also agree that maybe 2k got a little out of control here at the climax. Might want to give that a listen.
Old West Audio
Reply
#5
Great mix it has some amazing depth in it. Also great job on the acoustic kit . Vocals stand out and are understandable .
Reply
#6
Great mix!
Reply