Angela Thomas Wade - Milk Cow Blues

[mikej]

Hi,

Following on from JadeStudio's thread, I thought I'd best give it a go myself.

Cheers!

Updates:

Mix 1.0:

A bit less LCR. Edited a couple of vocal esses and things that bothered me. Reverb now on sends rather than on mixbus, and some minor eq changes.

Cheers!

[JadeStudio]

Wow, I love this version a lot. Is way cleaner than my messy mix, I particularly love the sound of the violin, very typical for this style of music.
Now hearing it, I can see that I have a loooot to learn.

[mikej]

Wow, I love this version a lot. Is way cleaner than my messy mix, I particularly love the sound of the violin, very typical for this style of music.

Thanks.  Although I think the LCR panning might be a touch too extreme and I could maybe bring things in a little.  I missed a couple of spots of "esses and t's" on the vocal too.  I thought it was only fair I gave it a go though as I'd not attempted this one previously.

If it helps, the violin is highpassed to around 350, and I notched out a couple of freqs I didn't like at 854 and 2838Hz, followed by some very light compression just to keep it in place.  Actually pretty much all the tracks are just high passed, with the odd resonance notched out.  Very little else going on.

Now hearing it, I can see that I have a loooot to learn.

Me too, having now read Mike Senior's notes on the track!  To be honest I didn't really pick up on the issues he mentions  .

I don't think your mix is that far off to be honest.  I think just panning things about a little, and maybe not so much compression would likely do the trick.

One thing I did that I don't usually do - I didn't put reverb on the individual tracks.  I just put some very light reverb on the mix bus, just enough to add some glue. (I did cut some highs and lows on the reverb signal).  I think I've only done that on one other mix.  Normally I'd use individual sends on each instrument as per usual.

For inspiration I love listening to Chuck Ainlay's mixes, for example Mark Knopfler's Shangri-La album, etc.

I'm by no means an expert but do let me know if you have any further questions, etc.

Cheers!

[mikej]

Added mix 1.0 - tweaked a few things.

Cheers!

[Rob Cummings (Hot Milk Studio)]

I like your mix, you brightened up stuff considerably. However the vocals does get too strident in the 2.5-3k range on some ranges, maybe try using a dynamic EQ on those? And as you mentioned, there are some harsh esses.
In terms of panning, I think it's fine to spread the instruments around a fair bit because there is a certain density to the instrumentation. In my mix, I attempted to use more front to back depth using different reverbs and treatments on some of the elements. All a matter of taste, of course.
One more thing, the solos (lap steel and fiddle) could come up a bit in my opinion.

Have fun mixing!

Best,
Rob Cummings (Hot Milk Studio)