In my previous post I analysed my mixing process of 'Spin' the first track in the EP and refer back to the research I had done in order to complete the mix. In this post I will reflect on the mixing of 'Alter My Ego' and 'Leave It To Ian'
LEAVE IT TO IAN
VOCALS
This is my favourite song of the EP I think, it was so fun to mix.
I started with the vocals as I knew they would be the toughest part due to the harmonies and vocal layering (as all the songs). I started with automating any sections that were too soft or too loud compared to the rest of the vocal phrase.
I then went to the verses and add CLA vocal processor and used the 'rock man' preset then added the delay to 8th notes. I did the same for the chorus only it was double tracked so I also panned them where I needed to. This double tracking was a cool effect and works well with the addition of harmonies.
This the main vocal tracks as you can see I only used the CLA vocals and the compressor in the plug in as I didn't need to compress the verses. The initial signal was pretty spot on and just used a little but of compression to tidy them up. I used a compressor for the verse because I needed this compressor while we recorded to catch any clips. I sent them all to a REVERB Aux and adjusted as I needed. There is a reverb in the CLA vocals but I didn't' think it suited the aesthetic of this song.
This is a delay bus I set up purely to add a copied track for the last word in a vocal phases just before the chorus. I wanted to make the vocal delay into the guitar solo and I found this choice to be the most dramatic and effective. I could have automated it but due to the fact that there is already a different delay on the track I thought this would be the best option for the effect I wanted to achieve.
This is a more detailed photo of the automation for the chorus main vocal. Where I have increased the volume is when the backing vocals drop out. So by increasing the volume here it made up for the space that was in this section of the phrase.
I used a backing vocal setting on CLA vocals for the harmonies. This made them so clean and clear. I then de activated the reverb in the CAL vocal processor and sent them to the same reverb as the main vocal track to have a consistent reverb sound through the song. The backing vocal settings are very useful as I didn't really know how to process them but this made them sound operatic almost.
This is the EQ I used to boost the mid range of the chorus harmonies as they were sounding a little bit thin around this range.
GUITAR
The guitars were very easy to mix in all these songs due to the guitarist knowing exactly how he wanted them to sound. there for when we recorded them it was almost a matter of getting the levels right.
This is the EQ I used for the guitar solo however these bell EQ's are where most of the 'juicy' tones are and I thought that this would make them pop that little bit more. I put in a slight cut on the low end and boosted the high end. I also sent this track to a reverb channel as the guitar was fully clean and I though that some reverb would be a nice little creative choice. I used a hall setting to make it sound huge.
I used this compressor on the distorted electric guitar layers as the signal was quiet harsh and was peaking as we were recording. This took the edge off the over all loudness and made the tracks consistent in the mix.
I also applied this EQ to dull the high end of the distorted layered tracks and the high frequencies that were too loud.
Mixing the rest of the guitars was mostly level related. The recordings were all perfect except for a few unfitting frequencies which I eliminated with EQ.
DRUMS
For the drums I didn't used a lot of EQ or compression they were sounding great apart from the (freak'n) snare. I sent all the drums to a bus and add the Ekramer to the bus.
I set this to room and played around with the bass and treble settings till I felt I had a nice over all sound. Oh and of course I mixed the levels before I did this which was was seemed to take the longest and I still keep tweaking it. So I use the compressor in there to level out the over all sound of the kit, and kept the bass and treble lower. Just adding this to the drum bus made such as huge difference to the over all sound.
This is the EQ I used on the snare. there is a bad frequency around 1.4 Khz that I dulled. and I cut the low and high end to make it sound tight .
I used this EQ on the kick. I cut the very low end to make the fundamental frequencies pop out more and boosted 125hz to get a nice fat sound around the mid range of the kick frequencies.
I also automated the drums at the end of this track. When the vocals aren't in the mix I boosted the ending of the track on the the instrumental. This was effective as it made the mix sound full even though there is no vocals it still sounded huge!
BASS
The bass DI is pretty consiatnt through the three songs. I used this EQ to boost the fundamental frequencies and cut the high end. I also automated the bass at the end for the instrumental to boost the levels of the over all track.
I also had a compressor active while recording to make sure that the track didn't peak. I set the attack to mid and the release to pretty slow. The ratio is quiet even and I thought that this made the higher frequencies sound nicer.
ALTER MY EGO
VOCALS
This song has so many harmonies and vocal layering in it I had anxiety like the whole time I was mixing them because I kept wanting to change it. In the first mix I had the vocals too far forward in the mix I think it was because there is so many layers and I was trying to get the levels right with in the vocals. Then I tried to just have them be the main focus of the song because I was trying to get them to sound so perfect. I had the harmonies almost as loud as the main vocal because I thought they were going for an orchestral vocal vibe. when when they said they wanted the BV's back in the mix I altered to that but I think I went abit too far. The feed back I received from Tyson was that there should be more, I needed to work out a middle ground. He said that the tones however were great so that was good feedback.
I tired this EQ on the main verse vocals to boost them as compared to the chorus which has all the vocal layers it sounded a bit thin. This boosted the main frequencies of the mid range of this voice to fix this issue. I also duplicated the track and panned one left and one right to create a stereo image. I used the slap back delay in CLA vocals for this vocal line to create a clean sound. I didn't want to over process this song as it sounds so beautiful as is they really nailed the recording which made it so nice to mix.
In the layered sections I really had to listen out for where the layers needed to sit.
I sent all the back ing vocals to this reverb track to make them swell almost. I just got this reverb and the presets are really really nice so I went with a hall for the choir effect they wanted me to create. I made it a quiet long to make the voices blend nicely as there is a a fair bit of a jump between the first and 5th (!!) harmony in the layers.
I thought I show this screen shot of the vocals in the session show show just what I am working with here. The 'layer' sections are "oohs" and are the minor 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th above the main vocal line. These were pretty damn clean when I recorded them so I just added a big reverb on them to fill out the sound.
I also used the CLA vocals of the backing Vox as well as EQ and compression to make a wide stereo image with the takes I had.
GUITARS
Moreover, the processing of the guitars was pretty interesting as the dynamic range throughout the song is huge. I needed to do a fair bit of automation levelling even within sections. the song begins with a clean guitar that picks through the chords of the verse. I needed to boost this heaps so that when the song builds up there isn't a crazy amount of difference in the volume.
This is the EQ I used for the guitar solo. I really tried to make this part have a lot of dynamics in it and make it a feature of the song. There is a section after the solo where the vocals come back in and I needed a way to make the levels even but the whole ending to sound huge. I used this EQ to get rid of the really tinny sounding high end.
I automated the last half of the solo up and down 1db for certain areas and had the different tracks panned L and R to created a nice sweeping stereo effect. I used a curved long fade when the vocals come back in the make the mix have some nice dynamic content around this section.
I also used this EQ in the solo for where most of the harmonic content sits. I used this in addition to the other EQ in the mix to boost the mid range.
I put this EQ over the guitar bus track just to get rid of any low or high frequencies that weren't needed in the mix to tighten all the tracks up.
This is all the guitar tracks that I had to mix as you can see the highlighted ones are all guitars! I still have a little bit of work to do regarding EQ and compression for the 'DIRTY' tracks. As I mentioned previously all the tracks were recorded very well and the guitarist Henry had all his guitar tones pre decided and used his pedals to just get in there and make the tones he wanted. My job for the mixing of these tracks is mostly level related and making sure there is nothing that stands out too much in the mix as being out of place when working with this many layers. I also just needed to make sure the recordings were true to the tone that Henry intended during the recording process and keeping it faithful to the recording.
DURMS
I did a lot of drum processing for this tracks there is quiet a lot of range in the drums.
This is the set up I used to make the kick nice and punchy. The kick really drives this song and I wanted it to stand out along with the bass. Tyson said I needed to to do a bit of boosting for the kick in the mix I sent him so I added an EQ after this effects unit to boots the mids and low end. This is a preset on the processor used for rock kick drums and works nicely to achieve a punchy sounding kick. As for the rest of the drums I ended up applying this processor to all the drum tracks to make them very clear as they play a huge part in the dynamic range and over all tone of the song. Tyson recommend that I find a reference track particularly for the drum and bass reference. I went with Ocean Alleys' 'Confidence' as this is one fo the original songs that the band sent me as a reference for the over all mix so I really focused in on the drums for this section of the mix.
This is the EQ I mentions that I added after Tysons recommendation to make the kick pop out. I just boosted the sub end to make it have a more boomy effect. this works nicely with the bass guitar tones also which was something I needed to fix in the levels. The mix I sent Tyson was a fair bit unbalanced when to came to the kick and bass sections I did a little more research about mixing bass and drums together to make the sound like they are working together in a song to drive it. https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-tips-kick-bass. This article was very helpful and I referred back it a lot. The main point I took form it was to alway use a spectrum analyser when mixing drums and bass so you can see where the fundament frequencies sit. Another thing it mentions was to be careful of phase issues. I didn't seem to hear any in this mix regarding the drums and bass. I think this is due to the bass being played quiet high in some parts and there for not being in the same frequency range as the drums. The main thing was making sure the levels between the two were similar and they blended when they needed to.
For the rest of the drum tracks I used EQ and compression to make the over heads and under heads sound nice a sparkly. This was something thought would be a nice creative touch as the song has a dreamy vibe about it and the hats sounded really nice with a lot of treble on them. I used an EQ to boost the high end in the over heads and left it with the baser tones for the under heads. This little bit of adjusting to the Eq made a fair bit of difference. Something I wanted to learn more about is how to mix drums. I think using this Ekarmer plug in although is an easy alternative to multiple plug ins has taught me how to mix drums a lot better then I could before as I can see all the different sections needed to make the drums sound clean. While experimenting this this plug in as well as using other EQ's I think I have achieved the over all sound to be true to the song and the band.
Thats about all for this one!
Comments