"Food of Love" (Live)

[cpl_crud]

Okay, I posted this in the Mics thread as a demo for the shinybox 23, but i'd also like to hear what everyone around here thinks as well.

The track is taken straight from a 3-hour harp/vox performance. This is jsut a "draft" mixdown, something to show the artist to get their opinion on how it sounded in general etc.

I don't expect to do much more to it, except maybe a bit of revrb on the vox, and some overall compression and possibly some EQ on the low end, but any tips would be appreciated (I normally mix live)

Set up was as follows:
Vox: KMS 105
Harp:
- Mid Field: SB23
- Near Feild MK 012 pair X/Y
Audience: NT 4
Onyx pres, Blue Max comps


Yeah.
Thanks in advance..

 

[rayc]

Nice to hear something that's not Nu/old/NWOBH/metal.
What was the venue for the recording?
The bass strings are a tad muddy.
Is the vocal intentionally off centre in the stereo image?
You need to ride the faders to reduce/eliminate the drawing of breath as it gets a bit louder as the pice progresses.
There's a touch of hoarseness in the voice - smokes or a long night?
Please post your final mix.
Cheers
Oh & carn the eels! In a culturally inclusive way of course. Good to hear something from the geographic heart of Sydney.
rayC

 

[cpl_crud]

Yeah, I knew about the mud in the bass strings, the Shinybox was little over-excited in that region due to the proximity to the harp. A touch of EQ cleared that right up.

Yes, the vocals are off centre for two reasons. Firstly, it's to "synch" with the video, which has the vocalist on the left. When "mixing to picture" I like to have the sound coming from where the artist sits on the screen. Secondly, and less importantly, when the harp and vocalist were centered in the mix, it sounded too crowded, so the MK012s were summed+panned to the outside, and dropped by about 15dBFS, the SB panned slightly to the right and vocalist a touch to the left. After doing a "car test" it appears that maybe it was a bit too far, but the vocalist liked it that way, so I'm going to halve the difference and see what happens.
The breathing is a constant source of annoyance, but that's why we have automation...

It was recorded at the Stables in Kings Cross- for those of you not familiar with the venue it's a weird, triangular room, with the stage set in the middle of the base of the triange. The audience flanks the stage, making mic placement a bit of a pain. However, there are pretty much no parallel surfaces- not even the ceiling and floor. A vey interesing room, however the back corner does trap a lot of bass.