Raw tracks for mixing practice.

Massive Master

www.massivemastering.com
I'm sure it's been posted somewhere before, but:

Multitracks - TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik

Some months back, I had to put together a "mixing boot camp" for a crew of theatre technicians. Stumbled across this source of raw tracks. As someone who has worked on several recordings done at Telefunken studios, I can't even begin to relay what an amazing source of material is sitting here for anyone to use.

"Real world" stuff. With no need for a 2" deck, for free. Damn near insane to even think about it. "Real" tracks, from real musicians, with real problems and issues (but overall, some really decent source material).

I had so much fun doing the "bootcamp" stuff that I DL'd a few just to mess with during slow periods. What a blast. I even rebooted my old "Seconds from Sessions" series - with mixing stuff. There's rock, acoustic, bluegrass, funk, R&B -- I ended up using a few to cover a gamut -- Acoustic vocal, funk rock, live alcohol.

If you're feeling bored, my first three (at the moment) are here: YouTube -- They're pretty fast, nothing fancy, mostly "stock" (Samplitude) plugins and a little analog buss processing (set up in advance and unchanged). Brought me back. I almost want to start mixing again. I still do a fair amount of live work - and as these are generally captured live, I sort of treated them like a soundcheck by a band that wouldn't give me a chance (another "real world" scenario in some cases).

But for the (dare I say) somewhat inexperienced home recordist, this is an absolute treasure trove of material to mess with. Well-performed, well-recorded source material, pimples and all. Leakage (what some would call "ambience"), ambience (what some would call "leakage"), vocalists too close to their acoustic guitars, guitars too close to the vocalists, 2 or 3 different bass sources to choose from on some, stereo overheads, mono overheads, DI acoustic, mic'd acoustic, room mics that are sometimes worthless and sometimes the saving grace.

Blah, blah, blah - If you've always wondered if you were getting things right, these will either make you proud or make you panic.

What I would've given for "practice" material like this 35 years ago...
 
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