This is my mix analysis of my mix, let me know what you think:
Like many of my other labs this semester, I chose to mix in the box on this lab. My mix process also mirrored my mixing process in previous labs. All in all, I wish I would have managed my studio time better for this class. I would have greatly benefited from using better plug ins provided on campus and of course the monitoring is superior.
My multitrack source for Lab 4 is from the band “The Brew.” The song is titled “What I Want.” I downloaded this multitrack from cambridge-mt.com. In fact, this multitrack was done in compliance with Telefunken microphones. They used a number of microphones to mic this band. Originally this session contained 37 tracks, but I reduced it down to a little over 20. Obviously, the reasoning for this multitrack is to showcase some of Telefunken’s new microphones, and they were not all intended to be used.
When I imported all of the audio files into Pro Tools, I began organizing the session with groups, color coding, and bus assignments. After I finished all of the laborious work, I began to compare, using the solo mode X-OR, different microphone combinations. I had to pick and choose between a kick sound, a bass cabinet sound, an overhead sound, a guitar sound, a lead vocal sound, and BGV sound. After comparing what I had to work with, I tended to choose the tracks that had a relatively flat frequency response. After I consolidated my session into the tracks I would be mixing with, I began getting drum sounds.
I began by gating all of the kick tracks, which at the time were all three tracks. I later decided to get rid of one of the kick drum tracks. After gating them I applied EQ. I repeated this process for the snare and tom sounds. I was happy with the weight I added to the toms. I was much more judicious in my EQ approach overall. I tended to boost and cut more than I had done on my previous mixes. I then applied EQ only to all of the cymbal, overhead, and room tracks. I tended to boost some high frequency content on all of these tracks. Another issue that I am not pleased with, even now listening back to my final mix is the lack of body the snare has. I did boost around 200 Hz to give the snare more body, but the crack of the snare still seems to cut through. Overall I had trouble controlling the level of the drums. After I went through all of my tracks and applied EQ settings, I parallel compressed the drums. This parallel processing added a nice punch, but the overall level of the drums is inconsistent and they tend to pop out at times. I could have maintained this dynamic range by possibly compressing the individual tracks themselves, especially the kick, snare, and toms.
After applying EQ to the drums, I moved on down the line to the bass. The bass on this track contained a lot of low frequency content that seemed to overload the track. In fact, my final mix has too much bass. However, I tried to take out some of the fret noise in the upper mids, while still trying to brighten up the tone of the bass by boosting some of the high frequencies around 4 or 5 kHz. The brunt of my bass tone resided from the bass cabinet track, and not the DI, even though the DI provided a much better high end tone. Unlike my previous mixes, I did not compress the bass in this mix. I felt like the bass could hold its own, in fact, it may have been compressed to tape.
After the bass, I moved to the guitars. The guitar tone was tough to dial in. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to distinguish which frequencies are overpowering the guitar sound in the upper mid-range. I spent a long time trying to cut the right frequency. However, hearing the guitar sound back on the final mix, I feel like the upper mids still stick out a little bit. But overall, once reverb and delay were added to the guitar sound, they sounded pretty good. I also chose to use the guitar room track to give the guitar sound a larger sense of depth.
After applying EQ to the guitar tracks, I used the John Merchant signal chain for my lead vocal and my background vocals. This didn’t take too long to dial in. The microphone used was ideal in my opinion. I chose to add a little bit of high end, and cut some upper mids and lower mids around 2 kHz and 315 Hz respectively. I struggled to send the appropriate level to my post fader processing. The unfortunate thing about parallel processing is that the sound changes when the source tracks fader is moved. I know it is a common inconvenience, but I felt like I had to revamp my mix at least three times due to this issue.
After I had successfully processed the vocal tracks, I began panning and balancing levels, similar to my previous mix approach. I did process everything in solo within their respective groups. I know this is frowned upon. Great mix engineers shape the sound of each instrument within the track, but I like to at least get a preliminary sound before I compare it to the rest of the track. Trusting that I have the right sound within the context of the mix is a bit troubling to me still. I still feel like I need to check the sound in solo before I compare it with the rest of the mix, but I digress. Balancing the track went well at first, but like I had stated in the last paragraph changing fader levels on tracks that had parallel processing (i.e. all of the vocals and the drums) dramatically changed my mix, even though I barely tweaked the level. I keep forgetting to adjust level at the compressor. Also, I failed miserably at having proper gain staging. I intended to, as you can see from my trim plug-ins, but time became a factor, and my faders ended up low in level. I turned up the aux sends instead, since that wouldn’t affect my parallel processing.
Then, I added delays and reverbs to the keys, guitar, snare, toms, and vocals. I began by determining the proper delay times needed for the vocals and the guitar. I tried to set the delay time to the tempo of the song and what sounded good to my ear. In the chorus, I actually automated the lead vocal delay from 136 ms to 604 ms since the vocal line goes back and forth between the lead vocal and the background vocals. I am pleased with my reverb choices. I used the default D-Verb preset “Long Plate” for the guitar, keys, and vocal. However, on the vocal reverb, I shortened the decay time to 1.5 seconds instead of 4.5. After listening to the final mix, I think automating the delay level on the lead vocal between the verse and the chorus needs to be done. The delay seems to be a little too hot during the verse. Also, I love the space the guitars are in, but it’s a bit too much. The reverb send needs to be dialed back.
After messing with reverb as well as panning and level balancing, I chose to take out around 160 Hz on the overall mix. There seemed to be a low end build up between the kick and the bass guitar. I did not want to limit or compress the final mix because I was running out of time and I did not have access to a legitimate bus compressor plug in.
When analyzing my final mix, a few things jump out at me. Like I stated earlier, the drums overall level seems too inconsistent. They need to be controlled better dynamically. Serial compressing individual tracks would hopefully yield a better result. Also, the vocal level should be automated, especially between the verse and chorus. Like many vocal performances, the verse level is a little quieter than its chorus counterpart. This vocal wasn’t the most dynamic I have heard, may have been compressed a little bit to tape, but a little automation would go a long way in making the vocal level more consistent. Also, and I apologize for not fixing these issues, but timing was an issue in a couple of transitional areas, most notably in the background vocals. A couple of these are glaring, but there are only a few spots that I would want to touch up. The bass level is also too hot. When printing my final mix I actually turned down the bass, but not enough. I really want the low end of the keys sound to come through during the choruses, and I feel the bass tone covers it right up. I actually added some nice weight to the keyboard sound, and unfortunately it gets buried in the mixed. The sounds, for the most part, are good I will have to tweak a couple that I mentioned earlier on. But, automation moves and send levels are the predominant lacking element. Also, my mix is very quiet; I need to run it through a limiter of some kind so it can compete at a relatively competent level.
P.S. I added an improved mix as of 4:16 PM
Like many of my other labs this semester, I chose to mix in the box on this lab. My mix process also mirrored my mixing process in previous labs. All in all, I wish I would have managed my studio time better for this class. I would have greatly benefited from using better plug ins provided on campus and of course the monitoring is superior.
My multitrack source for Lab 4 is from the band “The Brew.” The song is titled “What I Want.” I downloaded this multitrack from cambridge-mt.com. In fact, this multitrack was done in compliance with Telefunken microphones. They used a number of microphones to mic this band. Originally this session contained 37 tracks, but I reduced it down to a little over 20. Obviously, the reasoning for this multitrack is to showcase some of Telefunken’s new microphones, and they were not all intended to be used.
When I imported all of the audio files into Pro Tools, I began organizing the session with groups, color coding, and bus assignments. After I finished all of the laborious work, I began to compare, using the solo mode X-OR, different microphone combinations. I had to pick and choose between a kick sound, a bass cabinet sound, an overhead sound, a guitar sound, a lead vocal sound, and BGV sound. After comparing what I had to work with, I tended to choose the tracks that had a relatively flat frequency response. After I consolidated my session into the tracks I would be mixing with, I began getting drum sounds.
I began by gating all of the kick tracks, which at the time were all three tracks. I later decided to get rid of one of the kick drum tracks. After gating them I applied EQ. I repeated this process for the snare and tom sounds. I was happy with the weight I added to the toms. I was much more judicious in my EQ approach overall. I tended to boost and cut more than I had done on my previous mixes. I then applied EQ only to all of the cymbal, overhead, and room tracks. I tended to boost some high frequency content on all of these tracks. Another issue that I am not pleased with, even now listening back to my final mix is the lack of body the snare has. I did boost around 200 Hz to give the snare more body, but the crack of the snare still seems to cut through. Overall I had trouble controlling the level of the drums. After I went through all of my tracks and applied EQ settings, I parallel compressed the drums. This parallel processing added a nice punch, but the overall level of the drums is inconsistent and they tend to pop out at times. I could have maintained this dynamic range by possibly compressing the individual tracks themselves, especially the kick, snare, and toms.
After applying EQ to the drums, I moved on down the line to the bass. The bass on this track contained a lot of low frequency content that seemed to overload the track. In fact, my final mix has too much bass. However, I tried to take out some of the fret noise in the upper mids, while still trying to brighten up the tone of the bass by boosting some of the high frequencies around 4 or 5 kHz. The brunt of my bass tone resided from the bass cabinet track, and not the DI, even though the DI provided a much better high end tone. Unlike my previous mixes, I did not compress the bass in this mix. I felt like the bass could hold its own, in fact, it may have been compressed to tape.
After the bass, I moved to the guitars. The guitar tone was tough to dial in. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to distinguish which frequencies are overpowering the guitar sound in the upper mid-range. I spent a long time trying to cut the right frequency. However, hearing the guitar sound back on the final mix, I feel like the upper mids still stick out a little bit. But overall, once reverb and delay were added to the guitar sound, they sounded pretty good. I also chose to use the guitar room track to give the guitar sound a larger sense of depth.
After applying EQ to the guitar tracks, I used the John Merchant signal chain for my lead vocal and my background vocals. This didn’t take too long to dial in. The microphone used was ideal in my opinion. I chose to add a little bit of high end, and cut some upper mids and lower mids around 2 kHz and 315 Hz respectively. I struggled to send the appropriate level to my post fader processing. The unfortunate thing about parallel processing is that the sound changes when the source tracks fader is moved. I know it is a common inconvenience, but I felt like I had to revamp my mix at least three times due to this issue.
After I had successfully processed the vocal tracks, I began panning and balancing levels, similar to my previous mix approach. I did process everything in solo within their respective groups. I know this is frowned upon. Great mix engineers shape the sound of each instrument within the track, but I like to at least get a preliminary sound before I compare it to the rest of the track. Trusting that I have the right sound within the context of the mix is a bit troubling to me still. I still feel like I need to check the sound in solo before I compare it with the rest of the mix, but I digress. Balancing the track went well at first, but like I had stated in the last paragraph changing fader levels on tracks that had parallel processing (i.e. all of the vocals and the drums) dramatically changed my mix, even though I barely tweaked the level. I keep forgetting to adjust level at the compressor. Also, I failed miserably at having proper gain staging. I intended to, as you can see from my trim plug-ins, but time became a factor, and my faders ended up low in level. I turned up the aux sends instead, since that wouldn’t affect my parallel processing.
Then, I added delays and reverbs to the keys, guitar, snare, toms, and vocals. I began by determining the proper delay times needed for the vocals and the guitar. I tried to set the delay time to the tempo of the song and what sounded good to my ear. In the chorus, I actually automated the lead vocal delay from 136 ms to 604 ms since the vocal line goes back and forth between the lead vocal and the background vocals. I am pleased with my reverb choices. I used the default D-Verb preset “Long Plate” for the guitar, keys, and vocal. However, on the vocal reverb, I shortened the decay time to 1.5 seconds instead of 4.5. After listening to the final mix, I think automating the delay level on the lead vocal between the verse and the chorus needs to be done. The delay seems to be a little too hot during the verse. Also, I love the space the guitars are in, but it’s a bit too much. The reverb send needs to be dialed back.
After messing with reverb as well as panning and level balancing, I chose to take out around 160 Hz on the overall mix. There seemed to be a low end build up between the kick and the bass guitar. I did not want to limit or compress the final mix because I was running out of time and I did not have access to a legitimate bus compressor plug in.
When analyzing my final mix, a few things jump out at me. Like I stated earlier, the drums overall level seems too inconsistent. They need to be controlled better dynamically. Serial compressing individual tracks would hopefully yield a better result. Also, the vocal level should be automated, especially between the verse and chorus. Like many vocal performances, the verse level is a little quieter than its chorus counterpart. This vocal wasn’t the most dynamic I have heard, may have been compressed a little bit to tape, but a little automation would go a long way in making the vocal level more consistent. Also, and I apologize for not fixing these issues, but timing was an issue in a couple of transitional areas, most notably in the background vocals. A couple of these are glaring, but there are only a few spots that I would want to touch up. The bass level is also too hot. When printing my final mix I actually turned down the bass, but not enough. I really want the low end of the keys sound to come through during the choruses, and I feel the bass tone covers it right up. I actually added some nice weight to the keyboard sound, and unfortunately it gets buried in the mixed. The sounds, for the most part, are good I will have to tweak a couple that I mentioned earlier on. But, automation moves and send levels are the predominant lacking element. Also, my mix is very quiet; I need to run it through a limiter of some kind so it can compete at a relatively competent level.
P.S. I added an improved mix as of 4:16 PM
