ldk
Joined: Nov 08, 2017
Posts: 367
San Francisco Bay Area
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Posted on Jul 14 2019 11:11 PM
Anyone interested in providing some mixing help?
I make a lot of backing tracks, and I've uploaded a few here. I usually record the rhythm and bass with some reverb, but nothing else. The drums are with Hydrogen, and I try to mix the snares so they don't sound too monotone with that machine gun sound.
I mix the tracks in Audacity, and I try using a few effects to get some depth in the sound, but my backing tracks usually end up sounding two dimensional.
I just uploaded to SG101 a backing track of Red Sunrise by The Space Cossacks. I have the rhythm, bass, and drum tracks here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15-SnFmSyeZ6Dsj5Jy-zrH_ReNnNw7u-h?usp=sharing. Anyone interested in taking these tracks, mixing them, posting the result here, and telling us what you did? I know I’d learn a lot from that.
Thanks, Lee
— If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.
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Redfeather
Joined: Jul 30, 2016
Posts: 883
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Posted on Jul 15 2019 06:46 PM
Here is your track recombined with no additional effects for reference.
Last edited: Jul 15, 2019 18:46:42
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Redfeather
Joined: Jul 30, 2016
Posts: 883
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Posted on Jul 15 2019 06:50 PM
And here it is with fairly minimal processing. All I did was run all three tracks to a master bus that had a single effect on it: DSP-2.
DSP-2
It's meant to be used for vocals but it offers a nice host of effects such as compression, saturation, room reverb, and "air". In this mix I just used the room reverb effect on a moderate setting. It's fairly subtle but what do you think?
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Redfeather
Joined: Jul 30, 2016
Posts: 883
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Posted on Jul 15 2019 06:52 PM
And just for fun, here's the backing track being put to nefarious use. I wrote my own melody over it with a baritone.
Since you can't copyright a chord progression or a song title, well...
https://soundcloud.com/user-395164699/stairway-to-heaven
Last edited: Jul 16, 2019 11:18:48
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ldk
Joined: Nov 08, 2017
Posts: 367
San Francisco Bay Area
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Posted on Jul 15 2019 07:19 PM
Very cool. You're very talented!
I'll study the plain mix and your DSP-2 mix, as well as the DSP-2 link you provided. On a quick listen, the DSP-2 mix is a lot better.
Thanks a bunch.
— If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.
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Redfeather
Joined: Jul 30, 2016
Posts: 883
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Posted on Jul 15 2019 08:16 PM
Here's another cool free VST to try out. I don't always love the results I get from it but I also haven't delved very deep into it.
I've tried to set it up so that it's a little different on each track with the purpose of achieving the sound of a single microphone in the middle of a room with all the instruments around it but so far I haven't nailed it. There's probably something out there more specifically intended for that purpose but I haven't heard of it.
Space360 VST
Last edited: Jul 15, 2019 20:18:56
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da-ron
Joined: Jan 02, 2009
Posts: 1305
The original Plymouth, UK.
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Posted on Aug 12 2019 05:49 AM
The best tip I ever had was to mix it mono first, then separate it out into stereo (LCR, spread, whatever) afterwards. If you can get each instrument into it's own sonic space in mono, then anything afterwards is much easier.
— http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/
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chillybilly
Joined: Jul 12, 2018
Posts: 38
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Posted on Dec 09 2019 09:58 AM
da-ron wrote:
The best tip I ever had was to mix it mono first, then separate it out into stereo (LCR, spread, whatever) afterwards. If you can get each instrument into it's own sonic space in mono, then anything afterwards is much easier.
A recent session with in a real studio with a real engineer/producer at the helm used this technique.
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ldk
Joined: Nov 08, 2017
Posts: 367
San Francisco Bay Area
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Posted on Dec 11 2019 12:27 AM
Thanks for the further tips. I'm actually having better luck with Audacity after playing around more with its reverb, compression, and limiter.
— If I'd stop buying old guitars to fix, I might actually learn to play.
Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.
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