Eyes Mix (Chad Hollister Band)

[Mixinthecloud]

It is impossible to know how the dual mics were used. One may have been for recording the other for monitors, but that is just a guess. I tried to use them for the best rejection of the room. Not sure I was successful. I had a hard time getting a full bodied vocal without muddiness so I went for a more present vocal with as much expression as I could muster. And as you related, it also helped with the 'boxyness' of the snare and kit off the bleed.

All good!

You gave me quite a bit to think about - so I did about 30 minutes of "touch up"/rework (no more time than that) taking your thread's discussion into account as well. This was the result. I think it's at least a little better than where I was before given your advice.

Cheers,
Jay

Subtle differences between your mixes. What was you new approach on the vocal? Question: do you have a reverb in-line on the stereo buss? I sense the entire mix was put in a room. I do this frequently to add coherence to a mix. I did it on mixes 2 & 4 of this song, the last having a 3% mix and previous mix at 4%.

You are absolutely correct in that I put it in a "room". Specifically a modified medium room preset on the Lex PCM-92 (modified for RT as well as some other subtle stuff). It was not inline, however. A buss dedicated to the room reverb was used, and tracks "sent" to that buss in varying degrees. As we've already discussed, I wasn't investing too much 'brain power' in this project given its nature, so I made a fairly quick decision to situate it in a small to medium 'live' bar setting. Reverb time is .87 sec., btw.

I have mixed in a "hybrid" way for years - sending busses (and sometimes single tracks) outboard through hardware to be processed and summed. The resultant mix is 'printed' when I'm finished. I'm an old guy - so this approximates tape work without either the maintenance of a tape machine or the need for a large desk. I also like to work standing up and not completely static, so I have my mixing space setup in a fairly unique way to let me do that. Bonus is that there is nothing between me and the different monitor sets for wonky reflections, and tuning the room was made easier as well.

That aside, the room reverb buss is sent outboard to the Lex unit and then directly to the X-sum (Speck) where it is combined with everything else. I also have an old (but trusty) Yamaha rev. 7 that typically gets used for percussion plate duties as well as far as reverb goes. I handle it the same way (separate buss).

Subtle differences for sure on the last mix - the panning re-shuffle was the biggest thing as well as a change to the dynamic vocal mic - still stuck with one mic - and some quick but significant eq adjustments (mostly subtractive) in various regions for various tracks. I like the kit sound better (for my own ears) at this point. It's still affected by the bleed in various sources, but the snare, in particular, sounds more "cracky" than it did. The mandolin (following your lead) is just a touch more prominent - esp. during its solo - and some quick automation of the acoustic in the middle of the song allowed me to put it in the center of the stereo field while allowing the mandolin and electric to 'shine' - even if all this is (as I interpreted it) in the context of a live bar with everything stepping on everything else.

Cheers!

The one thing about your mix is that I feel I am listening to a mix in a room, not being in the room the band is playing in. A subtle difference but one which has one looking from the outside in, instead of being in the room with the band. Does that make sense. I try to bring the listener into the space.