Colin Childs Mix Submission:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1thNNJT ... share_link
colinchildsmixing Inferno Submission MC89
Hope you guys enjoy the submission, its an honor to compete and check out the other tracks!
System:
Macbook Pro Retina 2018
2.6Ghz Intel Core i7
16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
DAW:
Presonus Studio One 5 Professional
Plugins Used:
Presonus
Waves
Slate Digital
Kilohearts
oeksound
LiquidSonics
Mercuriall
TC Electronic
My Process:
1)
Drums
I always start with drums. I attempt to get a super solid drum sound since it’s our entire back beat of the tune. I tend to start with my kick and snare sounds then move on to accessory pieces of the kit like toms and cymbals. I’ll finish with bussing and splicing in the room sound to add to the space of our percussion.
Kick: Using the Slate Digital Mixrack, I stuck primarily with an SSL style eq to shape my kick sound while going into an 1176 style 500 series compressor. I’m careful not to affect the transients of both the kick and snare and often go pretty slow on the attack setting. But by using a compressor, even on a midi drum kit like the one used in this production, I am able to achieve a familiar character and analog emulated energy.
Snare: I copied a similar chain on the kick track into my snare settings. And to simulate a bottom snare sound (since this song didn’t have one individually), I duplicated my snare track, eq’d out the lows and accentuated the highs, while adding a favorite distortion/fuzz plugin (Faturator by Kilohearts). I added a Waves Puitec plugin to add a warm wood snare sound, adding more body to the current snare sound. Going back later, I sent the main snare track to the Slate Digital reverb plugin to add snare space in the mix.
Overheads: Overheads are simple for me and I have an almost exact process every time. That is to roll off the low end. Use subtractive eq in the “boxy” range. And sometimes binaural pan for more width. In special cases I will invert one of the channels for an extra wide feel on cymbals. And second to last in my chain is an LA-2A emulated limiter. I use a dual mono compression to avoid anything in the left or right channel to become unintentionally limited if the opposing channel hits the unit’s threshold. This keeps things dynamic when they need to be… and held in place when they don’t. And to polish it off I’ll use Soothe 2 by Oeksound to clean up any harshness.
Toms: I use a linear digital eq to clean up low/high frequencies. And a limiter to hold the tom in place…
Bussing/Room Tracks: I’ll now set up my bussing which includes: 1 kick/snare buss, 1 overhead buss, 1 tom buss, and 1 room buss. In this certain scenario I didn’t apply any buss mixing to these individual busses but it does however allow me to easily move faders and keep things consolidated. Once I have a good balance, these separate busses are put into one single buss labeled “Drum Buss”. From here I’ll attempt to create some cohesion in the drums as a whole. In this case I used the CLA Mixhub by Waves and adjusted the “mic” parameter to add a console emulated saturation. Moving eq knobs around, I was able to bring out more depth in the kit. And by using the built-in compressor and percentage knob, I could create a parallel compression feel.
2)
Bass
Bass can be a tough one, but was able to bring out the best in these 2 tracks and even created an additional amp sound through a duplication of the DI track.
DI: This was used to hold low end in the mix and stay balanced without. I’m a fan of having dynamics but I’m also a fan of having consistency and that is exactly what I used this track for. Using compression and eq through the Slate Digital Mixrack I was able to hold down peaks, and subtract/add frequencies I wanted presence in a consistent bass tone.
Amp: This tone was awesome and it was even better when I applied saturation through a couple preamp modelers within the Slate Digital Mixrack.
DI Duplicate: I took this track and ran it through an Ampeg sim within the Presonus Ampire plugin. My goal was to obtain a really raw, clean, and realistic bass tone through an amp.
Bussing: All 3 tracks were added into a bass buss. From there, subtractive eq was applied to remove unwanted frequencies in the 200-500 range. And a roll off was applied around 50hz to remove sub which is where I wanted my kick drum to be felt. I still like the bass to be heavy and loud but I don’t want the kick to be buried. A little trick I’ve been using is side chain compression. I’ll compress the bass and use a send track within the kick to control it anytime the kick is present. Works wonderfully.
3)
Guitar
DI: Some of the guitar 1’s and 2’s was duplicates of each other so I time corrected one track then proceeded to pan left and right to create a stereo image. My amp sim was an Overloud modern amp head into 2 custom impulse responses.
Amp: I left these tracks alone with the exception of a similar process to the DI tracks to create a stereo image. All were balanced, panned, then included into a buss track.
Bussing: I rolled off any low and high end that I didn’t need and added soothe 2, a resonance suppressor plugin. Simple and effective.
4)
Bussing/Rough Mix
Once I had all instrument tracks consolidated and pre-mixed, I leveled in mono and continued to make small adjustments and tweaks to shape the sound I wanted and create space for each piece of the performance.
5)
Vocals
Went with a simple approach on any singing parts. I had to move certain vocals onto other lead vocal tracks to consolidate and make the process easier on myself. From there I cleaned up the vocals by using subtractive eq and added an Empirical Labs Distressor modelor with a DBX style de-esser.
Screams are tough for me but I was able to achieve a grittier and more distorted feel using the Presonus red distortion within their stock plugins. Compression was high and I increased sustain with a transient shaper. I also rolled off excess high and low end.
Everything was added to a bus where I was able to apply overall effects on the vocals including tape saturation, limiting, and reverb.
6)
Special Effects
I decided to be more creative with this tune especially since it called for it. I added a flanger to the beginning drum part. I reversed the guitars as a riser in the intro. I used automation for a cool effect in the initial drum fill. I used reversed and slowed vocals for the initial scream. I duplicated the main scream track and added a low pass filter and chorus for more width and depth. I sent certain vocal tracks to a delay fx send and/or a slapback fx send. I automated pitch effects within the screams to enhance energy and emotion. I used a stereo imaging doubler effect on some of the lead vocals. And I used a tape/stop effect for the ending of the production. I also used a transient shaper on various tracks to either soften the hit or increase it on drum parts or certain vocal sections.
