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Actions! - South of the Water [Mix and Master]
#1
I mixed "Devil's Words" a while back, and always thought it was a cool little session - I revisited the forum as I wondered if there were more tracks... and here we are!

Another classic pop punk track, but a slightly different vibe, more considered and less "balls to the wall" let's say - you really have to work the instruments to create the excitement and energy for this mix.

A few things to note: 
I replaced the kick using some GGD samples, and also blended in some additional samples on the snare and toms, just to bring them into the same ball park as the kick. (May as well be consistent with the authenticity).

I found that bus compression was super key to getting this track to "pump"... but in a good way. Without it, there was no real explosiveness or pop punk energy to the raw recordings. I opted for Slate FG-Grey (not my go to) with a 4:1 ratio and a fast attack, grabbing the snare mainly, by as much as 3-4dB. I borrowed this idea off of one of Nolly's masterclass vides on YouTube (great stuff if you haven't checked it out). 

I opted to mute the acoustic guitars all together in this session, as they didn't add anything particularly in the chorus... if they were much brighter or possibly mirroring the rhythm guitars, then maybe I would've reconsidered - just didn't fit my vision of the overall production in my opinion.  

One of my favourite parts about this mix is that I used my old favourite SoundToys Crystallizer in the intro and break sections, just to add some top end energy to the clean guitars.

Normally, I would also apply some light auto-tune to the vocals, but considering the stems were already really heavily processed and compressed I opted to give it a miss.

If you guys have any questions about my mixing decisions, plugin chains, or any feedback, please feel free to drop me a line! 

I'll be checking into the other posts to see what I can learn from everyone else's mixes!

Here's a little idea of how I setup my session: 



Thanks for reading and listening,
Alex

Reference Track(s): Paramore - Misery Business
DAW: Logic Pro X (10.4.1)
Plug-ins: Waves, Slate Digital, Slate Trigger, iZotope, SoundToys

More from me:
Website: https://www.alexjeffriesproducer.com/
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.mp3    Actions! - South of the Water - MASTER.mp3 --  (Download: 6.82 MB)


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