For the last week a mix I've been working on has been absolutely slaughtering my will to live. I've been beating myself up, going round and round in circles, as I'm sure many here do from time to time when invested in a project.
So here I was in the midst of doing my best to get this project to sound as top-tier as possible, when it all suddenly broke and I was hit with yet another revelation. It wasn't possible to get the project to where I wanted it to be. Why? The source tones to two of the most important elements of the mix were botched. No matter how much EQ or processing was getting applied to them, they were not ever going to sound good.
In that spirit i want you to listen to an audio file I have here. It contains the bass guitar DI track to the aforementioned project, followed by two bass guitar DI tracks I recorded here, played by two different performers, through two different basses. I want you to listen for yourselves and understand the weight and importance of the starting point of your mix.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Forum/bassDI-comparison.wav
The first run of bass is obviously extremely muddy, boomy and otherwise indistinct due to lacking high-end. No matter how much processing is applied to this tone, it will *always* fall short. The 2nd tone was from a project that resulted in the best bass tone I ever got, which you can hear in near-final form here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Forum/Compressor Shoot-out/bass-6.mp3 . The 3rd tone is from a project that's currently being tracked and you should be able to hear sometime later this year. 2nd bass tone was a cheap BC Rich bass, and the 3rd was a Spector. Both running into a Millennia Origin, with the Spector also running into a Countryman Type85 prior to the Millennia. Keep in mind we're only talking about DIs here, something that subconsciously one might think is impossible to botch. Now add the near infinite varieties of mic placements when recording vocals, guitar, drums etc. and you have yourself a world of complexity, and a world of possibilities to make something sound bad from the very start.
Unless you can just pull the faders up and already hear where the project wants to go, you're just pushing it all uphill. The 'make or break' point is at the very start, when you first hear those tracks and truly understand where the potential of the project lies.
So with my mind eased a bit, and hopefully with your own impressions somewhat broadened, I'm gonna go lie down and prepare to start the whole frustrating procedure once again tomorrow.
So here I was in the midst of doing my best to get this project to sound as top-tier as possible, when it all suddenly broke and I was hit with yet another revelation. It wasn't possible to get the project to where I wanted it to be. Why? The source tones to two of the most important elements of the mix were botched. No matter how much EQ or processing was getting applied to them, they were not ever going to sound good.
In that spirit i want you to listen to an audio file I have here. It contains the bass guitar DI track to the aforementioned project, followed by two bass guitar DI tracks I recorded here, played by two different performers, through two different basses. I want you to listen for yourselves and understand the weight and importance of the starting point of your mix.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Forum/bassDI-comparison.wav
The first run of bass is obviously extremely muddy, boomy and otherwise indistinct due to lacking high-end. No matter how much processing is applied to this tone, it will *always* fall short. The 2nd tone was from a project that resulted in the best bass tone I ever got, which you can hear in near-final form here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Forum/Compressor Shoot-out/bass-6.mp3 . The 3rd tone is from a project that's currently being tracked and you should be able to hear sometime later this year. 2nd bass tone was a cheap BC Rich bass, and the 3rd was a Spector. Both running into a Millennia Origin, with the Spector also running into a Countryman Type85 prior to the Millennia. Keep in mind we're only talking about DIs here, something that subconsciously one might think is impossible to botch. Now add the near infinite varieties of mic placements when recording vocals, guitar, drums etc. and you have yourself a world of complexity, and a world of possibilities to make something sound bad from the very start.
Unless you can just pull the faders up and already hear where the project wants to go, you're just pushing it all uphill. The 'make or break' point is at the very start, when you first hear those tracks and truly understand where the potential of the project lies.
So with my mind eased a bit, and hopefully with your own impressions somewhat broadened, I'm gonna go lie down and prepare to start the whole frustrating procedure once again tomorrow.
