Mixing a live gig...

Ola Englund

Ola Englund

Only gay in the village
Dec 1, 2001
3,998
2
38
Stockholm, Sweden
www.olaenglund.com
...Is damn much harder than I would ever expect...

We recorded a live gig and boy it is hell doing a decent mix.

First of all we are only one guitarist so there is no stereo spreading at all which really bothers me. Using a stereo spreader just makes it sound corny and fake so everything is instead mixed in the center. Only the audience and reverbs are in stereo.

Anyway here is a mono version of the gig. If you have any tips on how to improve the mix just let me know:





[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3C92pH3GgI&feature=related[/ame]



 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think all of YouTube is in mono anyway, unless you put it at 96k mp3, so we wouldn't notice that. I agree on that though, the latest Dream Theater live CD and probably the others too, I haven't heard them, has the guitars spread even though there's only Petrucci and it sounds terrible.

I would back off the compression on the snare a bit, or choose a different sample, and drop the volume on it a bit. The guitars COULD come up a bit but I think that might mask the drums.. the pains of mono, eh? I think that the snare and vocals could come down to bring everything else up.

Jeez your guitarist is good.. that was SO tight, just had to say it. At 2:20ish. Also it doesn't sound empty, like most live recordings (and some studio recordings, especially Sneap-esque ones with little room/overhead sound on the drums) do when the rhythm guitar cuts out. Good job.
 
Actually it sounds pretty nice for a live recording, and being that tight as a band only helps :rock:
If you're so concerned about the guitar just record another one as close to this one as you can (playing and sound). If someone asks, say you duplicated the track and moved it 10ms :P
 
Hell of a thing to mix a live gig, yeah. It doesn't sound half bad in mono from what I can hear.

Why don't you simply overdub a second rhythm guitar performance over the top so you get some stereo spread (in the non-youtube versions anyway)? Also, why not post the stereo mix without the video so people can give more accurate and objective critique?

But yeah, you and that Savage rock dude. That's about all I can say.
 
sounds good!
I'm about to mix a wacken-Live DVD.
the recorded tracks I got were so fucked up (totally distorted DI etc) that reamping is pretty much impossible. (one guitarist only as well)
I'm having a tough time here getting the sound halfway decent.

you did a good job
 
you thought about copying the guitars to another track, or using parallel compression and then 100/100'ing the tracks? [so you have a Left and Right signal]
then just EQing them a little differently,.. it might thicken up the sound a little and make it seem more stereo [there's nothing wrong with their sound, but the EQ will help to define each of the channels]
 
Thanks guys,

musickey: actually I don't know since it was the engineer that fixed everything and recorded with logic. But I bet it wasn't to expensive equipment.

Noodles: I've tried spreading the guitars in that way(and many other ways) but it always sounds unatural. The best is still to widening it a bit with a reverb.
 
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