Greetings everyone!
First of all, I have to say this is my first attempt at mix challenge, I hope I won't throw garbage in your ears
. Should it be the case, or not, I would truly appreciate any kind of feedback.
A warmfull thank to Patrick Lord, great material, very tasty and with a very personnal aesthetic. I can't see any obvious references indeed, I agree we could think to Dream Thater to some exent, but once again it sounds very personnal, and that's definitly great.
Please find my version here :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e63rjw ... sp=sharing
And the loudness level here :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CpOeRe ... sp=sharing
Regarding the mix, at first listen I felt in love with the guitar part. So dynamic and well executed. So as Patrik suggested I put a great focus on it. Then I tried to chain it with the motion synth (very interesting sonic feeling too), then the strings, in order to have the space filled with different instruments in different parts.
The bridge part was a bit empty for me, I decided to give a try at something. You'll read more details on that in the automation part.
I've worked with the dry audio when wet parts were provided, in order to keep fine control recreating the original intent. That's probably not a great success, and it sounds not so achieved compared to the original one, but I've learned much doing this way.
A few words on the process:
- Drums
Not much on drum part : a bit of frequency separation between kick and bass, a bit of compression, a bit of drum bus compression afterward
- Bass
A very few audio edits on the holded bass to smooth the end of the track
- A lot of EQing in the low mids and mids to separate guitars and synths
- Guitar
Work on guitar stereo effects, delay, verbs, ...
- Pads
EQing, a bit of modulation on Haunt H
- Synths
Motion synth stereo effect, in the same spirit as the guitar part
Sound crafting with delay, distortion and phaser on Lead, transient shaping on Tops
A bit of compression on Arpeggiator
- Strings
A bit of EQing and a light Chorus
- Voice
Very nice, punchy and in the mood of the track, not much to perform in my opinion
A few edits on gain starting on the second chorus to smooth the work of the compressor
Slight compression with CLA2A, and 2 reverbs : one to add air between the singer and the mic, and a plate for the colour
- FX
On top of guitars, synths and voices already listed, 2 additionnal reverb bus for the overall intruments placement
- Automation
Some adjustments to lead voice, motion synths and strings.
For the bridge part, I've tried to bring some dynamic distortion and filterging with a Saturn from FabFilter to give this part a stronger identity. Hope you won't feel offended with this harsh treatment Patrick
.
- Very gentle API compression on mix bus
I think I'm done with the summary, please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
Have a great day/evening/night everyone!