Been a long time since I have posted a mix!

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sonusman

sonusman

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Here is something I mixed last night. The lead guitar player and owner of the studio recorded everything but the drums, which I tracked the other day, and co-mixed this with me. We spent about 9 hours on the mix. The tracking was sort of backwards. The drummer is new in the band and had to track to all the other parts that were already tracked which were done to the old drummer. NOT the way to go about it, but what the heck, this is just a pre-production demo for the bands CD that we will start tracking in a few months.

Mixed on a Yamaha O2R with the analog outs to a Drawmer 1960 tube compressor with no compression and into the analog in's on a Alesis Masterlink at 24/88.2 . I used the Resampler in Wavelab to sample down and used Wavelab's Peak Master to get 1.8 dB of gain as a sort of "mastering". Encoded at 192kbs using a Fraunhofer codec.

Oh, mixed on Yamaha NS 10's with a Polk Audio sub box crossed over at about 90Hz.

Listen today, I suppose I would have done a few things different, but the tracking sounds weren't all that, and that was something both the other guy and I agreed on. We both felt that this sounds a lot better than we thought we could get out of the tracks, so it is a success in that the client was very happy! :)



Enjoy.

Ed
 
Fantastic maaate!! oops we aren't allowed to be tooo enthusiastic in the clinic are we. :D:D

Loved the song, the mix, the bridge, aaaalllll of it . That's a hit!!

cheers
john
 
Heh heh. I suppose this will make me eat the words I posted in the Cave. :)

I had to listen to this (quite) a few times to find something that stood out. The only thing that my ears didn't like a lot was that the choruses and intro are so thick sounding that I can't really tell whats going on. The end, too.

There are a couple places in the second verse where the lead vocals seem a little peaky on the first sylables, as well.

Is this a Portland band, Ed? I like the tune. And for a WTF recording for pre-production...well, if my tunes sounded on the par with this one I would probably (finally) stop fiddling with them.

Good stuff!
 
Pretty good stuff ed. Very big and I like the vocals (even though the song sucks, but that's not your fault, hehe).

That china or whatever it is is pretty loud in the right channel. The bottom end is also not as defined as it usually is in your stuff...and there are a whole lot of upper mids. If I knew what I was talking about I'd be able to describe it better. Like the outro lead guitar...right at those frequencies...

I know you worked quick & late on this. Glad to see you back at it!

Slackmaster 2000
 
Ed,

Always good to hear one of your mixes. One question, where did you get the magic number of 1.8db of gain for your Wavelab "mastering.?" Was this what you decided after checking the peaks, or is that number something you typically shoot for?

Great mix. Good band too...
 
Hey John, thanks for the thumbs up on this. Hearing that from YOU is indeed a valued compliment. :)

Chris, I agree that it get's a bit thick in the chorus stuff. It is sort of the sound the band is after right now. For better or worse, that is what they wanted and how it was tracked. I agree with the "spikey" vocal stuff. The other engineer more or less dealt with the vocal processing for this song. I had something that downplayed that stuff, but he was after something else, and it IS his tune. ;) I think what you are hearing is a combination of two things. 1 - The Antares Auto Tune that the track was ran through seemed to do some funny stuff. 2 - We usually use a processor on the O2R called a Companer. It is a combination of an expander and compressor. When used a little extreme than this it is a fairly decent effect, but it does create that "clipped" sound on certain word starts that you hear when used really hard like it was here. Oh well.....Wasn't my call. Not making excuses for it, just telling how it was. Yes, the band is from Portland and their name is The Red Sector. I have worked with them for almost a year now as their live and studio engineer. The lead guitar player owns the studio so we work on the stuff together.

Slack, your speakers are backwards! That "crash" is supposed to be in the left channel! :) I agree after hearing the mix today that the lows are a bit lacking. One of the things that seems to be hard to get on the O2R is a great balance between low's and high's for some reason. I hear the same problem in many other lower end digital mixers too (usually people mixing in software) and I just chalk it up to the low internal bit processing or something. I don't know really. I pretty much knew you wouldn't like the song....:)

Sonic. That was the highest I could go before I started hearing serious pumping with Peak Master. I just reinstalled Wavelab on my computer and haven't installed my Waves plug in's, so Peak Master was what was quickly available. I would usually use the L1 on a mix, and probably could have got 2.5dB of boost with it. But, the song is pretty darn loud as is. There is a couple of spots where I hear the Peak Master pumping, but I did that at 6am, after spending all day in the studio, so I just didn't care....;)

Ed
 
Ed - so you did this through an O2R - I know what you mean about the bottom end/high thing. I did an album using one and I was totally confused mixing on it, but I liked the options it gives - but I'd made that decision so I had to stay with it - but I know what you mean ...I don't think it's a DAW thing as you say but an O2R thingy. But hey I liked where you are going on this, keep at it, you are doing great, it's the music that counts :)

cheers
John
 
Good job Ed... cool tune!

Only one issue I have -- I listened several times now and can't get my ears around the guitar tones on the intro and the choruses... no doubt a tracking thing as opposed to a mixing issue, but they sound very "mushy" to me....

Which do you like better for mixing on, the Ghost or the O2R?
 
first second sounded good, then I had to turn it off to avoid puking on my keyboard...

Good to see you in the clinic again. :)
 
might be worth $0.02

.....I'm not sure if it's the mic'ing or the mixing, but the tom's are aweful flat. (or maybe it's the toms?)
 
Well, I don't know if I am qualified enough to even post a respone here, but I thought the mix sounded really good.

Vice
 
Good sound. The first time through I thought it was slamming a bit hard, but sounds good to me after a few listens. This tune reminds me of Enuff-Znuff, who in turn reminds me of Cheap Trick, who in turn reminds me of the Beatles... you get the idea. Thanks for posting a mix, good to hear what you've been up to.
 
FUCK THAT'S LOUD!

What's that subterranean oscillating sound? I like it.

Also, what's the deal with autotune? Do clients ask for it? What do you say to a client who says 'no autotone - leave the warts where they are'?

You make it sound easy. :)
 
Yeah, Ed, you make it sound good.

Song still sucks. Whiny ass little bastard... Yeah, "Open Wide," heh heh. I got somethin' for ya...

I like the drumming... that drummer knows how to keep space (makes the syncopation so much better).

And what's with the name THE RED SECTOR? I get visions of 1980's-era TAMPONS after hearing this song (not because of the song, though).

Dig it. :)
 
I like it all the way around. Ed, tell me about the vocal chain. Mic, pre, etc.
 
dobro, I thought the un-AutoTuned tracked sounded just fine to me. But the other engineer wanted to do it, and hey, it is his band ya know! We used the rack mount version of it. Ran the analog out of a XT-20 to the AutoTune, then into the analog input on an Alesis HD24.

Track Rat. It was a ADK A51 TC tube mic, Monster Studio Pro 1000 mic cable, Oram MWS preamp/eq, Monster Studio Link 500 cable, Drawmer 1960 tube compressor, Monster Studio Link 500 cable, Alesis ADAT XT-20. At mix we just used the Compander on the O2R for expansion/compression. We use a little trick via a Eventide Harmonizer (it is a pitch shift setting that add's a sort of chorusy sound). The mic to recorder path costs about $7000! Not too bad for that kind of moola.

Or maybe you don't like that vocal? ;)

Kelly, not everybody can be a musical genius like you!!! :D

Thanks to everybody else for their encouraging comments. I am sure the band will be pleased to hear that some even like their song. We are all excited to get going on a full length CD here in the near future. The band just played their last gig last night until the CD is in the bag, so the next couple of months will be pre-production, then probably a couple months of tracking/editing/mixing. Hell, we might even master the damn thing! :) This will prove to be one of the most intensive projects I have worked on to date and I am look forward to the challenge. The band really wants to make a stab at recording a CD that can stand up to big label released stuff. We will see....:eek: The pressure is on!

Ed
 
Dang Sonusman,

That intro nearly cut my dang head off.

I'm going to say this right now. This mic of yours, it sounds considerably better than any tlm103 I've heard. I did not want to say it the last time, but I am sure now.

Man, this track is Loud. I think the guitars ,esp in the chorus are a bit midrangey, a little bit harsh.

I'm comparing it to "in my hands right" by fuel right now. Dang, you got that vocal sound really close.

I love the snare sound. It sizzles.
 
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