13-01-2014, 12:50 AM
(This post was last modified: 13-01-2014, 12:59 AM by Pedaling Prince.)
I am self-taught both in video/film editing and audio engineering, having been experimenting with audio and video since my teen years back in the 1980s.
My guiding principle in mixing I call the "principle of least treatment."
Having heard the crystal clean sound of CDs from the earliest days of consumer digital sound in the 80s, comparing it to the overprocessed, overcompressed mess many commercial mixes are today, I have come to believe that current mixing techniques rely too heavily on processing, particularly in the use/abuse of compression in mastering.
In general, I go as gently as possible on all processing, using only the minimum EQ, automation and compression necessary to get everything to blend smoothly, and under no circumstances do I EVER apply processing or compression of ANY kind at the mastering stage; my goal is to preserve 100% of the dynamics of the original recording.
I joined this forum in order to get all of YOUR thoughts on what I've done with these multitracks. Criticism is welcome so long as its polite and constructive.
Prior to doing this I'd done PLENTY of sound mixes for my YouTube show "The Pedaling Prince's Podium" (see link to my channel in my signature) but this, Angels in Amplifiers' "I'm Alright" was my very first attempt at a music mix. It actually turned out a lot better than I had expected for a first effort.
The interesting thing is that when I went into this mix I went in with a plethora of technical knowledge and theory, certainly much more than a layperson's understanding of recording technology and technique. However, I discovered that understanding the theory doesn't always translate into being able to handle yourself in actual practice. One thing I screwed up royally on initially was drums. I had underestimated the importance of drums to the sound and, on my initial attempt to mix this, I had the drums WAY too low. My first attempt to mix this was very good in most other respects but the lack of drum punch really ruined the overall sound.
So I started over, this time STARTING WITH the sound of the drums and building the tracks on one by one. THIS time I came up with the mix you'll hear here. Even after all the experience I've gained mixing 124 recordings from this site there is very little I would change in my mix of this, except perhaps find something more creative to do with that electric guitar track than panning it back and forth as I did (not that I don't like the sound as it is but I could probably do something more interesting now with all this experience under my belt
).
I no longer have the original mix project for this, but I'd still love to hear some comments on what you all think I might've done differently here. Maybe someday I'll download the multitrack again and try doing it over again from scratch, who knows?
Either way, thanks for listening.
My guiding principle in mixing I call the "principle of least treatment."
Having heard the crystal clean sound of CDs from the earliest days of consumer digital sound in the 80s, comparing it to the overprocessed, overcompressed mess many commercial mixes are today, I have come to believe that current mixing techniques rely too heavily on processing, particularly in the use/abuse of compression in mastering.
In general, I go as gently as possible on all processing, using only the minimum EQ, automation and compression necessary to get everything to blend smoothly, and under no circumstances do I EVER apply processing or compression of ANY kind at the mastering stage; my goal is to preserve 100% of the dynamics of the original recording.
I joined this forum in order to get all of YOUR thoughts on what I've done with these multitracks. Criticism is welcome so long as its polite and constructive.
Prior to doing this I'd done PLENTY of sound mixes for my YouTube show "The Pedaling Prince's Podium" (see link to my channel in my signature) but this, Angels in Amplifiers' "I'm Alright" was my very first attempt at a music mix. It actually turned out a lot better than I had expected for a first effort.
The interesting thing is that when I went into this mix I went in with a plethora of technical knowledge and theory, certainly much more than a layperson's understanding of recording technology and technique. However, I discovered that understanding the theory doesn't always translate into being able to handle yourself in actual practice. One thing I screwed up royally on initially was drums. I had underestimated the importance of drums to the sound and, on my initial attempt to mix this, I had the drums WAY too low. My first attempt to mix this was very good in most other respects but the lack of drum punch really ruined the overall sound.
So I started over, this time STARTING WITH the sound of the drums and building the tracks on one by one. THIS time I came up with the mix you'll hear here. Even after all the experience I've gained mixing 124 recordings from this site there is very little I would change in my mix of this, except perhaps find something more creative to do with that electric guitar track than panning it back and forth as I did (not that I don't like the sound as it is but I could probably do something more interesting now with all this experience under my belt
).I no longer have the original mix project for this, but I'd still love to hear some comments on what you all think I might've done differently here. Maybe someday I'll download the multitrack again and try doing it over again from scratch, who knows?
Either way, thanks for listening.