Blue - FAQ by the author

[The_Metallurgist]

...the kick is quite boomy and this is of course the nature of the beast, but it could give you some headaches especially if you're used to boosting 1/2khz to enhance the beater of a metal kick!

all the supplied kick samples suggest they've been EQ'd to lose their natural harmonics; the skewed frequency response associated with the resultant material, might suggest this? could you confirm, just to satisfy my curiosity?

The vocal have tone issues and sibilance a-plenty, so a good deal of clean-up, compression and automation will be required.

i'm tending to disagree with the need for compression. the mike is already contributing a good deal to the compressive nature on the vocal owing to the mike's inherent attributes which don't serve the purpose of recording vocals - the air has no freedom to escape from the capsule which also makes for a "percussive" effect on some word structures as well as tending to cause an abundance of nasal character in the voice which cannot be fixed in the mix. the slight changes in mike address also results in tonal and indeed balance issues generally which sadly has consequences which further detracts from quality. if compression is applied under these conditions, the outcome will further compromise the vocal, to my mind. additionally, i suspect the compression applied during tracking might not have helped things, but i'm speculating owing to the problems the SM57 creates with vocals anyway. after some experimentation, i found dynamic EQ with some quite radical static EQ worked marvels in the circumstances with a slight touch of compression to tame the balance (transparently). my approach, if this helps, was to think of the mike's frequency response coupled with the characteristics of proximity, then dialled in the EQ to fight it. i had to get pretty radical, so think out of the box and see what it brings you....dial in whatever it takes and ignore the parameters you end up with - they won't be pretty because of the extent of the problem.

still on the subject of vocals, the BV's were similarly tracked with the same approach as the LV. placing BV's with proximity inherently contained in the signature of the tracking makes placement behind the LV exceedingly difficult, but not impossible. perhaps backing away from any microphone for BV's would make mixing them less of a hack. even changing the mike can be a valid strategy...if it's the right mike, of course.

the best compressor is the natural one - air. proximity in the LV can be achieved via mixing strategies (playing around with spectral balance with EQ can change the psychoacoustic illusion between proximity and depth), so i wouldn't personally aim for proximity at the time of tracking, per se...and especially not with anything like an SM57/58 etc. for studio tracking use a studio grade mike...or the song will suffer, especially if the song, like this one, depends so much on the vocal's quality if it is to communicate the desired emotion. the trouble is, EVERYONE has an SM57, so it tends to get used'n abused. there's a similar song in the library....Speak Softly Like Horses which has similar attributes (there are others...but this one reduced me to tears!). it's one of the fastest ways to lose an audience!

hope this helps, folks.

a sincere thanks Patrick for your time and contributions, not only in this Thread but in the forum generally...totally awesome.
Dave

PS regarding the stereo material: only the effects applied to the instruments are stereo. by mixing down to mono one can lose a good part of the applied effects which gives far more options and creative freedom in the mix, if this is a vision one would rather pursue, of course. the danger with having an effect running all the way through a song, especially one lasting 4:30, is that it can lose appeal by becoming overly monotonous. something to watch out for, perhaps.