100% Analog Metal Mix

[loki_s_anger]

Hi Guys!

I produced/mixed that song a few month ago at my AE school in Paris, France.
Although the band were recorded and edited in the digital domain with ProTools, all the mix has been done with analog outboard gear.
The console used was an SSL AWS 900+.

This a big premiere since this is my first Metal Mix, and first real Clients.
I had a great time doing it, so I hope you'll enjoy it.

Feel free to ask about the signal flow, I'll be glad to answer.

Igor

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc_e575JQU8&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

 

[Raptor7]

sounds awesome man, good job indeed.

 

[hks350d]

I really just can't imagine how hard that would've been

 

[AllanD]

Sounds dark, other than that it's very clear, good job!

 

[TomIreland]

Sounds fantastic Igor!

 

[Ermz]

Good work man. A bit dark as mentioned - but there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[SimonTaddio_Qc]

Yeah!

 

[jimwilbourne]

sounds great!

 

[AllanD]

Want to give the general overview of the mix? What was used on each bus/track?

 

[amarshism]

Well produced film clip. Didn't like the music at all but nice clear mix. Andy recently mixed on an ssl aws and I left him a question so I might as well ask you as well: 'How did the mix go on the ssl? Do you mix down to 24 tracks itb and then complete on the board? I assume this isn't for ease of integrating outboard as most would have to be done before everythings comped down to only 24 faders. Really interested in this as I'm considering employing a hybrid workflow and would love to hear how you have integrated it into your workflow.'

 

[BLUElightCory]

Ahhh man the thread title is misleading. "100% Analog" should mean it was tracked/mixed using tape/console/outboard - this is more "75% analog" or so, ha ha.

It sounds really good though.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Great sounding indeed.
Would rather hear a smoothed off, darkish sounding production than an overly bright one any day of the week. The analog gear gives a nice quality to the mix.

 

[Ermz]

Well produced film clip. Didn't like the music at all but nice clear mix. Andy recently mixed on an ssl aws and I left him a question so I might as well ask you as well: 'How did the mix go on the ssl? Do you mix down to 24 tracks itb and then complete on the board? I assume this isn't for ease of integrating outboard as most would have to be done before everythings comped down to only 24 faders. Really interested in this as I'm considering employing a hybrid workflow and would love to hear how you have integrated it into your workflow.'

You'd just stem groups out of the box and across the SSL channels. You'd probably divide it into important stuff. Kick, snare, stereo toms, ohs, bass group, rhythm guitar group, lead guitar group, main vox group, backing vox group and then extra shit like FX returns or whatnot

You'd mix in real-time with the desk.

I'd love to do that more than anything, but it's just not practical nor bang for buck. I might get a 2% improvement in mix quality over using Nebula and the shit just isn't worth it.

 

[fitzrangerhoodngarb]

Is Don, Is Good. Nice one.

 

[loki_s_anger]

Thanks for your comments guys!

I'm going to the studio right now (african band from congo recording... Not metal at all, as you can guess.)

I'll explain everything when i come back tonight.

Igor

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Sounds really good, nice job!

 

[RiF]

Thanks for your comments guys!

I'm going to the studio right now (african band from congo recording... Not metal at all, as you can guess.)

I'll explain everything when i come back tonight.

Igor

I'd love to hear which outboard compressors, reverbs and stuff you have used for what!
I am currently breaking out of the box and by the end of the week, I should have most of my outboard arrived ;-)

 

[loki_s_anger]

(I just watched the video again and I'm quite surprised by the differences in audio quality between youTube different settings. The 720p version sounds the best by far, although this is really not as good as the original sound file.
In comparison, the 360p version sounds way "darker", and, well... shitier...)

Ok. Time for replies!

One of the challenges of that mix was to do everything with the console and the outboard gear. As you know, the AWS900 has only 24 channels, so I needed to find a solution to process all the tracks (too much of them, as always) in the ssl. I could have done pre-mixes in protools, equalising and compressing each track individualy and then sending each instrument to one channel (ie. Kick mics and samples on one channel, same for the snare...) and it would have been quite easy.

But I stayed complicated.

I had 4 songs to mix so I worked by instrument layers, all the songs at the same time
(It was possible because all the songs sounded quite the same) :

1- all the drums/samples and bass (I think it used 22 channels)
2- all the guitars
3- the synths and samples from outter space on some tracks
4- the voice

After each step, each direct output was sent again to Protool and recorded with the ssl eq or outboard gear.
I could have used the group outputs (let say all kick tracks in bus one...) but again, I wanted to have total control over the mix, and having all
the different processed tracks individually allowed me to change the balance till the end.

After that, I just had to route all the instrument to different buses on PT and to send them to dedicated channels on the ssl : channel 1 = Kick Channel 2 = Snare... and to do a final mixdown for each song.

And yes, it took twice the time than working with the hybrid plug-in/hardware method!
but doing so was like having an endless console, and that's what I wanted.


More tomorow night about the SSL AWS 900 and the processing of each track.

I hope it helped

Igor

 

[greyskull]

Ahhh man the thread title is misleading. "100% Analog" should mean it was tracked/mixed using tape/console/outboard - this is more "75% analog" or so, ha ha.

It sounds really good though.

ahem.... not to detract from your very good mix.. but errr +1

 

[if6was9]

Only thing that irks me about it is the toms seemed very hard panned, kinda distracting when they get hit, kinda like they pop outta nowhere. Other than that it sounds great. I prefer darker mixes over ultra bright ones, darker mixes seem heavier to me and you've kept it very clear which is the hardest thing with a mix that dark.