Live in-studio, 2 tracks - "I'm One" by The Who

[Brian Miller]

Hey guys,

My girlfriend found an acoustic guitar she bought a few years back with the intention of learning to play and then never followed through. I wanted to see how it sounded, so I recorded a live in-studio cover of The Who's "I'm One". It is two tracks, two mics: one on the vox, and one on the guitar, recorded live.

I have often found it easier to mix full bands and dense sonic material than singer songwriter stuff, and I know many have the same experience. Thus I thought it'd be a good learning experience for everyone to try this!

My mix (and master): https://soundcloud.com/brianmillermagic/im-one-master-v2-half-enigma-productions

Stems: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mv6eiwokagacgdc/AACFBDPXDBY1RVgmJg-wrQ9ia?dl=0

~Brian

 

[Btyre2013]

my mix

here is my mix. View attachment 90601

I tried to keep it as dynamic as possible and close to the original, for reverb I used the lexicon PCM native plate for a more vintage 70s sound, then lots of other fx like soundtoys decapitator to give it some more character, and the neve portico 5033 EQ and 5044 compression plug-ins for all EQ and compression, then on the master bus u-he Satin tape saturation and Voxengo Elephant for limiting, all on quite subtle settings.

I love the song, great performance and cover, really enjoyed doing this as it's one of my favourite songs of all time.

Let me know what you think! cheers,

Ben.

 

[Brian Miller]

Ben, thanks so much for taking the time to do a mix. Your mix has a lovely warm sound to it, and more low end than mine. You also chose to go straight up the center with both tracks. I wondered what people would do. Usually I'm inclined to straight centered on a track like this, but in this instance I chose to pan slightly for separation.

The dynamics are well maintained in your mix without getting unruly. Choosing the input gain for the mics on this recording was very difficult because of the huge dynamic range in the song.

Sounds like you pulled more of the mids out of the acoustic than I did. Very nice tone.

Thanks for not killing it with reverb.

That cheap $300 Yamaha acoustic sounds surprisingly good, doesn't it?

 

[bartekkck]

my try

 

[Brian Miller]

bartekkck,

Thanks for giving this a shot, and I appreciate the effort. Did you intend for your mix to come out as bright and tinny as the mp3 you uploaded is, or was it a mistake? I only ask because it sounds like the entire mix was high pass filtered up to 1k, like the thing is being played out of a cheap laptop speaker with the treble cranked to 10. There doesn't appear to be any frequency in the bass or even the mids.

You may want to head back to the drawing board with this, and do some more studying about mixing and frequencies.

 

[bartekkck]

sorry my mistake
no, it wasn't intended to sound that bright,
i was in hurry and uploaded wrong file
here's it

 

[Brian Miller]

Inspired by Ben's mix, I've mixed a final version of the song. I poured on some more tube saturation and brought a little more reverb in. I'm very happy with the final result. What do you guys think? Any more versions?




UPDATE: Just listened to the Sound Cloud upload vs the mp3 through my system. Holy awful compression man! I've attached the mp3 in case anyone wants to listen at its intended quality.

 

[Psycho Clown]

Gosh, I've not been here for a long time and I love this (new to me) section of the forum.

Thought I'd dip my toe back in the water with a quick mix of this.
It's beautifully played, sung and recorded so I hope I've done it justice.
I've attempted to get a bigger sound, but you guys will know better than me if I've managed or simply overdone it.

 

[Psycho Clown]

OK.... So.... Speechless?

Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but I'm not going to learn much if no one gives any feedback lol.

 

[Brian Miller]

Hey man, sorry about that! I heard your version in the car while I was coming home from a gig and forgot to respond once I got home. Thanks for doing a mix, and the kind remarks. Here are my thoughts:

-The entire song seems off center to the right. Why is that?
-Is there a phaser or flanger on the guitar? Something is modulating and I find it distracting.
-Guitar sounds overly bright to me when the heavy playing comes in.
-Voice is mixed at the right level in the soft parts, but gets buried in the loud parts.