Filthy, filthy mix

[AEL89]

I tracked some stuff with a cool band over the weekend at a place I haven't worked at before. Sweet live room and some cool siemens and neumann mic amps which were really cool.

Went for the dirty approach - no click, no editing, no punch ins. Really happy so far - just done a quick balance and some EQ'ing on this mix. Tracked with a shit ton of compression to get it dirty and bring out ambience on some stuff (6dB gain reduction on the overheads on the way in!). Used some SE valve things on overheads which worked really nicely. D6 and something else on kick, 57s on snare top/bottom, some sennheiser things on toms, 184s on china/hats and some really old school ribbons on the room.

Guitars and bass are thunderverb 200 into a mesa cab and an orange cab for bass. Can't remember mics... used some weird round thing that was insanely dirty though and a weird ribbon mic for ambience. Some compression on the way in.

Vocals are an SM7b into an Empirical Labs channel strip. Insane compression on the way in of course.

Haven't started any automation and the vocals need some work. I'm probably going to reamp them and get some ambience with a room mic or something like that. No artificial reverb used on this mix either!

Let me know what you think/ideas/changes.

Cheers!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1041607/PR_Mix1.mp3

I also have drum samples from this session if anyone is interested.

EDIT: 2nd Mixes:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1041607/PR1_Mix2.mp3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1041607/PR2_Mix2.mp3

 

[keepingpacestudios]

i actually really dig this!
guitar could use a bit more push but just raising the levels early on the song probably be enough
and id love to have the samples for this

 

[theunknown1]

Sounds awesome dude! I really dig the raw feeling. It´s how this music shall sound! Good work. A little more punch in the guitars, some work with the vocals and some automation and your done!

 

[AEL89]

i actually really dig this!
guitar could use a bit more push but just raising the levels early on the song probably be enough
and id love to have the samples for this

Sounds awesome dude! I really dig the raw feeling. It´s how this music shall sound! Good work. A little more punch in the guitars, some work with the vocals and some automation and your done!

Hey dudes - cheers for listening. Yeh agreed - I think its just an automation thing to be honest. I cut a little bit of 200 from everything... maybe a bit too much in the guitars though. I'll get those samples together then.

 

[AEL89]

Nobody else?

Here's another track:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1041607/PR2_Mix1.mp3

 

[iraobryan]

Love the song, and the aesthetic you went for on the mix suits this music perfectly, to me anyway. One thing that jumped out at me was the solo towards the end of the song needs eq'd, and a little vibe. I know you haven't gotten that far yet, just throwin it out there

 

[Charles J]

FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Reminds me of early Glassjaw. Fucking love it. GOD.

would KILL to produce a band like this....

 

[MisSigsFan]

This is nasty! Stems?

Samples would be much appreciated as well.

 

[AEL89]

Love the song, and the aesthetic you went for on the mix suits this music perfectly, to me anyway. One thing that jumped out at me was the solo towards the end of the song needs eq'd, and a little vibe. I know you haven't gotten that far yet, just throwin it out there

Thanks man. Yep, this is pretty much a monitor mix - all I've really done is balanced it and done some EQ and compression to the main parts.

FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Reminds me of early Glassjaw. Fucking love it. GOD.

would KILL to produce a band like this....

Yeh the band is really cool. Thanks for listening man.

This is nasty! Stems?

Samples would be much appreciated as well.

Won't be posting stems dude, sorry. I'll get those samples up though!

I'll post the final mixes tomorrow - don't think I'll change too much to be honest. Thanks for listening!

 

[Mago]

Sounds really cool to me dude, especially thinking about the old school approach. Rocks people are still into it haha

The only thing that I don't like that much is the stereofield of the overheads...sounds really narrow to me...maybe is because the drummer always hits the cymbal in the middle the most.

 

[AEL89]

Sounds really cool to me dude, especially thinking about the old school approach. Rocks people are still into it haha

The only thing that I don't like that much is the stereofield of the overheads...sounds really narrow to me...maybe is because the drummer always hits the cymbal in the middle the most.

Yeh, for this kind of thing I probably wouldn't change it though. I compressed the overheads a lot on the way in and that won't help the stereo image but does add a lot of other cool stuff. The overheads solo'd sound incredible, almost like room mics.

I did mic the hats and china so I'll automate those a lot in the final mix.

 

[MarcMullingar92]

Awesome mix, love the dirty, live feeling.
Who are the band? Really liking the song.

 

[AEL89]

Awesome mix, love the dirty, live feeling.
Who are the band? Really liking the song.

Thanks. The band is called Palm Reader. They're really cool guys. One of the guitarists is now the guitarist in my band so they're looking for someone new. Hopefully things kick off for them after these tracks make it out.

 

[gabriel g.]

amazing!!!
sounds soooo good,wouldnt change a thing

 

[AEL89]

amazing!!!
sounds soooo good,wouldnt change a thing

Cheers man! Means a lot! The place I tracked this at was so awesome - perfect live room for this kind of stuff. There were Audient mic amps there which I used for some stuff. Still looking to sell mine though Lynx Aurora too! There isn't a huge difference between that and the audient conversion on individual tracks (from what I can tell anyway). It probably stacks up though.

 

[AEL89]

Hey dudes,

Here's the 2nd Mix. Let me know what you think. I brought the overheads up, automated the toms, china mic and hat mic. Added a bit more top to the guitars at the request of the band. The main change is the vocals - I reamped them through my Thunderverb into a mesa cab and just put a ribbon about 12 foot away from the cab. That went into my Empirical Labs channel strip and I compressed it a touch on the way in. There's automation going on with the vocals now and I added a few stages of compression too.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1041607/PR1_Mix2.mp3

EDIT: Holy fuck this mix is dirty. Solo sounds shitty still - needs a ton of automation!

EDIT 2: Here's the other track with similar changes made: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1041607/PR2_Mix2.mp3

 

[AEL89]

Final bump

 

[Calippo Tecks]

I'd cut some more in the kickdrum, there's some really low bass there that is a bit annoying. Can't say anything else, I like what I hear

 

[Ermz]

Really digging it!

Sounds analogue as hell.

 

[AEL89]

I'd cut some more in the kickdrum, there's some really low bass there that is a bit annoying. Can't say anything else, I like what I hear

You're right and I usually would - but that's what gives me some of the pump! The kick is pretty vacant apart from a FUCK load of 60hz. The fact that it's not eating too much headroom and didn't stop me getting normal loudness makes me not want to change it too. And its decent in mono.

Really digging it!

Sounds analogue as hell.

Thanks man, means a lot coming from you!

I tracked through some awesome mic amps with a lot of compression - telefunken/neumann and telefunken/siemens. Have you used a Thermonic Culture Phoenix before dude? I believe they're an English company so I don't know if many make it to Australia but I used it extensively on this. They're fairly slow so I just kept the release and attack as fast as it goes. 5dB reduction on OHs on the way in, 4dB on guitars on the way in, 8dB on bass on the way in.

Also the empirical labs channel strip just shines on anything. Used it on snare and vocals. The saturation it provides is just awesome. The snare pops more than using an 1176 with slowest attack/fastest release. Bold statement but I stand by it!

Reamping the vocals made a huge difference too, glad I've finally tried that now.

Mixed entirely ITB by the way.