Hi everyone,
this is my second mix challenge!
Mix:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hGil2 ... gi0PnOzaJZ
Screenshots:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Bw1-N ... jf0XdHJ0n8 - they contain both session view and also individual plugins used for mix.
This was and interesting and fun track to mix. I am not very familiar with the genre, so I followed my gut instinct.
There is a lot of atmospheric sounds, it really captured my imagination - highs being like a bright sky and darker sounds showing occassionally like birds flying over.
The pads are dominant sound around which everything else revolves. I tried to approach it as ambient soundscape (large brush strokes) with very concrete rhytmic elements (sharper brush dots). I loved working with the ambient sounds to blend them in with the rest of the track. I tried to achieve maximum effect with track volume, EQ and per-track compression. Used sidechain only on sub-bass (Kick 808) triggered by kick.
Interesting was mixing Ambience 3 and 4. 3 sounded like rain and 4 like birds in zoo (for xsome reason I imagined big volier). I wanted to make these two sound like being under the roof when it rains and hearing birds outside.
I used my recently created mixing template. Active plugins are the ones with dark background in mixing view.
Track comments:
- Master track - Added *Volume Adjustment* plugin for fade-out. I prefer it to volume automation, as one can use many of them and layer the effect. Combining and modifying volume curves is not that easy.
- Apollo Pad - The original sound wideness did not click with me, so it has reduced side (M/S) by 10 dB and ValhallaShimmer instance on it. As siuggested, it is lowpassed in one of the easy passages and flanger effect (provided by ValhallaDelay) is occassionally brought in. It is mildly high-passed.
- Bell - Equalized, added delay and reverb to give it a bit of ambience and used a compressor to have it more present.
- Factory Pad (track Pads) - same as above
- Modular FXs - Added *ValhallaSpaceModulator* to give it a bit of movement and *ValhallaRoom* for ambience. Accidentally both after *Compensation* volume adjustment.
- Noise Chant - used *ValhallaDelay* as parallel processing on the track to be able to send there signal panned to other side than original sound was.
- Piano - same as above
- Drums (buss) - no processing, just *Compensation* (instance of *Volume Adjustment*)
- Break Break - This one was breaking the rule. In the song, it provides top of the excitement for the rhytm by being bright and loud. I tried to make it also obvious, but different to what it should be. It is darker color - distorted and EQed darker to bringenergy to frequency that is not much occupied in the song.
- Break - distorted a bit to give it body
- Dry Drums (buss) - no processing, just *Compensation* (instance of *Volume Adjustment*), it is track from my mixing template where I usually put everything except hi hats.
- Jingle Bells - Brought the highs with *SSQ*, then saturated with *Slick EQ* and to give it a sense of space, used Haas Effect with *Channel Time Delayer*.
- Crash - just EQ
- Crash 1 - Got a bit creative with it, added ambience
- Crash 2 - just *Compensation*
- Perc - As there is already a lot of things that are bright, I choose them to be a bit darker.
- Tamb Hi - Added highs and saturated with *Slick EQ*
- Tamb Lo - Saturated with *KONSOL* and with *Slick EQ*. Single saturation did not seem to be enough.
- Misc Perc - Made ambient and to add width, used Haas Effect with *Channel Time Delayer*.
- Clap (Pre Snare) - Made crunchier by adding delay (multiplying attacks) and added ambience with reverb. Saturated gently with *KONSOL*.
- Snare - Not sure if this is enough genre-specific snare. Might use some more work. Made it bigger with compressor, distortion, adding a bit of low-end and saturating.
- Kick 808 - sidechained with track Kick.
- Kick - Added more low-end to have more weight but also not to be much prominent. Added a bit of high-mids ot perform better on smaller speakers.
- Rev Crash-001 - just volume
- Rev Crash-002 - just volume
- Rev Kick - EQ and volume
- Hi Hat - brought up highs
- Ambience - buss, just volume
- Bong - EQ and volume
- Liquid Drops - Used *YALA* to level the noise at the beginning, brought high mids for the percussive part to cut through mix, increased attack of the transients (after level has been balanced by *YALA*)
- Ambience 1 - just volume
- Ambience 2 - EQ and volume
- Ambience 3 - rain - low cut and increased high mids to give impression this is light rain, used *YALA* to make it seem to be close, added close reverb to give impression it is under the roof ind it resonates in the room.
- Ambience 4 - redunced side (M/S) by 9 dB to give impression this happens outside and we are under the roof, cut a lot of low-end and low mids to give impression the birds are further away outside.
- S Dly - delay, where Apollo Pads were sent as well
- S AlgoReverbs - not used in this project
- S Vox Widener - not used in this project
Plugins used:
- Valhalla DSP:
-- ValhallaDelay
-- ValhallaRoom
-- ValhallaShimmer
- Analog Obsession
-- BritChannel - Neve-style equalizer
-- DoDoD - distortion pedal
-- FETISH - FET compressor
-- KONSOL - recording console emulation
-- LOVEND - sub harmonic processor
-- MERICA - API-style equalizer
-- SSQ - SSL-style equalizer
-- TRANSATURE - transformer saturation
-- VariMoon - some vari-mu compressor
-- YALA - probably emulation of LA-2A or LA-3A
- Tokyo Dawn Labs:
-- TDR Nova
-- TDR VOS SlickEQ
- REAPER's plugins:
-- Channel Mixer
-- Channel Router w/Polarity - for in-track multi-channel processing
-- Channel Time Delayer
-- Mid/Side Encoder
-- Mid/Side Decoder
-- Volume Adjustment
- Saike's Transience - REAPER plugin for manipulation of transients
- Sonarworks Reference (both for headphones and speakers)
The plugin instances named *Compensation* are *Volume ajdustment* instances, where track volume from fader to the plugin is saved and volume fader is back to 0dB. As fader has logarithmic scale, around 0dB is its most sensitive area. It is done by custom script and values from *Compensation* instances can be put back to faders by another script.
Following plugin names are also *Volume Adjustment*, just renamed for my better orientation:
- 1-2 Stereo Channel Volume
- 3-4 Delay Volume Adjustment
Following plugin names are *ValhallaRoom* instances:
- VR Small Ambience
- VR Large Chamber
- VR Big Hall
- Following sequence of plugins is used for M/S volume adjustment:
1. Mid/Side Encoder
2. Channel Mixer
3. Mid/Side Decoder
Good luck to everyone!
