Comments on: Show 67 – Mixing experiment & Interview with Nick Maxwell

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:47:53 +0000

The one thing that will give you the biggest and quickest results, which I am sure that you already aware, is EQ. I use a lot of deductive EQ, far more often the adding it.

The more elements that you have in a mix, the smaller that you need to make each one to all play well together… generally. Anything that does not need low information like a shaker, high hat, acoustic guitars in a dense mix, etc roll off the bass and even some mids if they are not useful. When you solo some of these things they may sound awful, but it is all about the mix right? I will even roll off highs on tracks that do not need that real estate. An example of this would be bass synths, low end samples, and bass guitars in some rare instances. A little sonic housekeeping is a good place to start.

By: Dave King

Dave King — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:23:41 +0000

My mix sounds very “boxy” compared to Ryan’s. Any tips on achieving mixes that are not “boxy” sounding?

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:09:21 +0000

@ Dave King
Show #32 covers Re-Amping
http://www.homerecordingshow.com/2009/04/show-32-re-amping-with-marcus-hedwig-vocal-recording-and-processing/

By: Dave King

Dave King — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:41:11 +0000

I would like to hear more about re-amping – the hows and whys and equipment needed. For my money, Ryan’s mix sounded the best and he reamped many of the parts for his mix. I’m wondering if this is why he mix excelled. Some elaboration on this method of recording and why would be great.

Thanks.

By: Cory

Cory — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:55:52 +0000

I say time for some videos you guys probably dont have time for.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:01:24 +0000

Hi Cory
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. My preference is to record real drums whenever possible (which is rare ☹ ). I know Ryan plays drums on some of his sessions. I prefer not to go straight to MIDI and samples for drums, but I do regularly call upon these when mixing which is 70% of the work I do.
I would love to go through properly aligning drum mics or checking/correcting after recording but its not really something I can explain without showing it in person. Maybe Ryan can. We’ve been planning on tackling this subject for a while, along with drum tuning, mic placement, damping and more.

By: Cory Frey

Cory Frey — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:40:57 +0000

I know the current trend is to copy and paste loop based midi info then trigger drum sounds but do any of you record much if any real drummers playing real drums?

Being a drummer and home recordist, I have self taught myself alot in this area. This is a blessing and a curse not being able to sit with other engineers to see how they get their sounds.

I get really goods sounds with my rig. I close mic everything except for room mics.

I was wondering if you guys had enough insight into this area to do a show or several shows detailing mic placement perhaps examples of what phase cancellation sounds like on drums. This aspect of recording seems to be falling to the waist side in favor of loop based authoring for final master takes. Probably cause all the hard work has been done already with the samples.

By: Rupert Brown

Rupert Brown — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:27:12 +0000

That was a great interview. Good stuff guys!

By: Mikey

Mikey — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:51:50 +0000

Great work guys! Loved the mix experiment – definately be great to have more of those.

By: Dave King

Dave King — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:26:59 +0000

Great episode!

Listening to the other mixes (and comparing them with mine) has been a valuable educational experience.

Thanks.