Mix Rescue: Pocket Lips | Audio Files : December 2008
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| Mix Rescue: Pocket Lips | Audio FilesHear For YourselfTechnique : Mixing The over-snare close mic track without any
processing -- there's a nice pronounced attack transient, but little in
the way of body or sustain to give the instrument power in such a busy
mix.
The same track with heavy processing aimed at
lengthening the amplitude envelope of the snare hits and bringing them
forward in the mix: tube overdrive and limiting from from Silverspike's
Ruby Tube; EQ boosts at 820Hz and 8kHz with Stillwell Audio's Vibe EQ
plug-in; and a dose of Aphex-style psychoacoustic enhancer.
A combination of parallel compression (created
using Buzzroom's Grancomp plug-in within Cockos Reaper's sophisticated
internal effects-routing system) and heavy emulated tape saturation
(from Jeroen Breebaart's Ferox) was used to add warmth to the overall
drumkit buss.
Without the parallel compression and tape
saturation processing (as used in the final remix) the drum balance
feels rather cold and empty, with excessive transient spikes.
Here's a section of the final mix (without the
vocals) to show how simply editing out the bass and synth parts during
the double-snare drum hook helps it pop forward in the mix. Compare
this with the SnareFillNoEdit example file.
When the bass and synth parts continue
uninterrupted underneath the snare fill, it doesn't come through as
clearly or sound as upfront. (Compare with the SnareFillWithEdit
example file to hear the difference.)
The raw recording of the filtered bass synth
layer, coming from an Access Virus keyboard. The extreme low end of
this synth was unnecessary because of the existance of a separate
subbass track, and the upper frequency balance varied wildly as the
filter swept, making it difficult to find a consistent mix level.
The filtered Virus synth patch was high-pass
filtered and EQ'd using Stillwell Audio's Vibe EQ and 1973 equaliser
plug-ins, as well as being treated with distortion care of
Silverspike's Rubytube valve limiter plug-in.
The Bass guitar's cab was recorded live alongside
the drums, but with good separation. Again, the extreme low end of the
sound was unnecessary given the separate subbass synth track, but
otherwise the sound had a lot of character.
Some equalisation from Cockos Reaper's built-in
ReaEQ plug-in and from the Antress Modern Booster (apparently modelled
on SSL console circuitry) helped focus the sound into the 1kHz region,
where it could cut through the rest of the arrangement.
One of the two lead vocal recordings, in its
edited form, but without any further processing. Because the mic was
handheld, you can hear that many of the consonants cause uncontrolled
low-frequency peaks. The Shure SM58 mic used is also lacking in
sensitivity when it comes to the important 'air' frequencies.
Two dynamics processors were used to even out the
vocal levels: the URS Console Strip Pro plug-in and George Yohng's
freeware W1 limiter (apparently a similar algorithm to the Waves L1).
Some filtering and EQ was used in Console Strip Pro to rein in the
subbass energy and add air with a shelving boost at 17kHz. The added
high frequencies did, however, overemphasise the vocal sibilants, so
these were taken in hand using Digital Fishphones' Spitfish.
This is the horns sample used for the middle
section of the song, without any processing, and it sounds rather small
and one-dimensional in its raw state.
The middle-section horns sample was treated with
Silverspike's great little Room Machine 844 room simulator to give it a
sense of real dimension, and was also treated with Cockos Reaper's
internal Dirtsqueeze and Exciter plug-ins to control the dynamics and
bring the sound more to the front of the mix.
In order to demonstrate the contribution of the
Silverspike Room Machine 844 room-simulation plug-in to the overall
sound of the middle-section horns sample, I've switched it off for this
file so that you can compare the sound with the SampleProcessed audio
file.
The mix of their track 'Rock Show' that Pocket Lips sent in to Mix Rescue.
My final remix of the same song, using not only
the original multitrack files, but also some extra material that the
band recorded in response to my first-draft remix.
Published in SOS December 2008 |
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