Mixing Acoustic instruments with electronic elements

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Chewy Bluey

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Hi guys,

I am currently in the process of recording an albums worth of material. For a few of the songs I was hoping to have a mixture of both acoustic instruments with electronic elements. The tracks will have guitars, vocals, bass and drum parts down by the time im going to add the electronic parts. The electronic parts will mostly be synths, drum machines etc. I was just hoping for a bit of advice about what's the best way to go about doing this as I have little to non experience of mixing the two. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
 
The biggest thing you will run into is the factr that the acoustic instruments will all have a sense of space and 'air' around them, while the electronic instruments most likely won't. So you will need to find a way to use that to your artistic advantage, or add effects to the electronic instruments to get them in the same 'space' as the acoustic instruments.

Other than that, there isn't a whole lot to it that's different from mixing anything else.
 
Farview said:
The biggest thing you will run into is the factr that the acoustic instruments will all have a sense of space and 'air' around them, while the electronic instruments most likely won't. So you will need to find a way to use that to your artistic advantage, or add effects to the electronic instruments to get them in the same 'space' as the acoustic instruments.

Other than that, there isn't a whole lot to it that's different from mixing anything else.
Click to expand...

I've definitely come across that before. One thing you could try is to record those sounds coming out of your speakers in the room you recorded everything else in to get the space and then use at as a low level reverb. I've done it for electronic drums before. It's fun if nothing else.
 
sixer2007 said:
I've definitely come across that before. One thing you could try is to record those sounds coming out of your speakers in the room you recorded everything else in to get the space and then use at as a low level reverb. I've done it for electronic drums before. It's fun if nothing else.
Click to expand...

May I ask why he can't just add a VST reverb?

His room might give him what he wants, so I'd like to know your thoughts, thanks!
 
Chewy Bluey said:
Hi guys,

I am currently in the process of recording an albums worth of material. For a few of the songs I was hoping to have a mixture of both acoustic instruments with electronic elements. The tracks will have guitars, vocals, bass and drum parts down by the time im going to add the electronic parts. The electronic parts will mostly be synths, drum machines etc. I was just hoping for a bit of advice about what's the best way to go about doing this as I have little to non experience of mixing the two. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
Click to expand...

Sounds like my old band LOL, We had Electric drum loops, keyboards, samplers, modules, then bass guitar, percussion rig (Congo, bongos, djembe), a lot of hand percussion(shakers, cabassa), acoustic guitar and electric guitar, then of course vocals. I used to just mix it, I found it refreshing and interesting having the deistically different sounds melded together. We used to also play live with this set up as we as recording.

Have a listen to Lamb, they mixed drum & bass with jazz and folk vocals also using live strings, double bass, guitars and piano. Great band.

Alan.
 
Paschalis I. said:
May I ask why he can't just add a VST reverb?

His room might give him what he wants, so I'd like to know your thoughts, thanks!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I use the same Reverb 'room' for VST drums, all instruments (acoustic, electric and electronic) and vocals, it puts them all in the same 'space'.
 
It's often helpful to take a look at the low end of electronic parts when mixing them with acoustic sources - I was pretty surprised by how much low end pad sounds etc have in them when compared to acoustic instruments, so low cuts and shelving EQ's might be something to look at.

I often find myself cutting top end out of synth drums (not sure if you're gonna be using them) as they often have extended HF response (up past 12k) in a way that can stick out and grate on the ears in a busy mix.

Otherwise, they're all sounds, mix 'em! :D
 
As a way to get the acoustic parts to sit with the other instruments, record your acoustic parts as dry as possible (try keeping the room out of the source), then as others have stated, bring everything back into the room with a VST, adjust as required to fit your ears.
 
Paschalis I. said:
May I ask why he can't just add a VST reverb?

His room might give him what he wants, so I'd like to know your thoughts, thanks!
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can do that too, sure. If you want the same sound all the way around sometimes recording the real room can be cool. Have you ever tried it? It can be fun if nothing else. It's interesting to hear how your room sounds too... And if the acoustic is wet with real room sound the reverb might sound nasty.
 
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Not sure hashing this out any further will help as the OP is a one poster and the question's 2 days old...still for posterity's sake, hash on.
 
Use a click track and get real friendly with it. Close mic the acoustic instruments to eliminate the room. Then mix it all as you would any other sound.
 
I'm not sure how can one give advice here ,it sounds a but to general to me...
Electronic can be everything from leads to pads to bass, any particular sounds you are trying to mix together?
 
My advice is to just mix it, treat it the same as any other collection of instruments.

By the way, has Chewy Bluey gone already? Posted a question and not heard of since? Are we wasting our time?

Alan.

 
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