Hello everyone,
I participated in a couple of song competitions, this is my first entry to the mix challenge.
What a fun song to work with, dark atmosphere and cool beat !
I use Ableton Live 11. I have default audio tracks with the most critical parameters already set up: Ableton Drum Buss for drum tracks, EQ (+high pass and low pass macros), washout, delay, reverb, sidechain compression and gain. Then I can quickly tweak things with my Midi Twister Fighter auto-mapped to these controls for whichever track is selected, then fine tune the detail after.
The EQ, washout, delay, reverb, sidechain compression are all done with stock plugins. I use ducking a lot on the reverb and delay to keep the original signal clearer. I also have a default return track with a very subtle room reverb and all tracks send a very small amount to it. This I find makes the sounds seem ever so slightly more real.
Drum group
Given it's a Drum & Bass track, I first grouped together all the drums, and worked on getting the balance right between them.
Got the 2 kicks beefed up and punchy, and not stepping on each other with Ableton Drum Buss, grouped them.
Then worked on balance of other percussion depending on stage in the song, some of them less at the beginning and bringing more strongly later.
Perc drum was interesting, could get a good noisy tail on it and bring that out more over time as the track progressed.
Added some reverb to a few percussions to create illusion of more space, but not putting reverb on them all, would be too much.
Glue compressor on whole drum bus to gel together.
Made sure the 'signature fill' came through loud and clear (the author said it was important !)
Sub Bass group
Worked on the low end EQ, actually boosted the mids a bit, there's a lot of character in that part of the spectrum.
I also cut out a bit of the hiss from the second 'warm sub', but not all of it to keep the character.
Sidechained off the Bass Hit (left on its own track) so it cuts through them.
Sidechained off the kicks to get kicks punching through as tight as possible.
I automated lopass filter a bit to create some variation.
'Main' group
With the main 'drum and bass' part done, I then worked on getting the main pad, synth and vox atmos balanced. Sidechained pad&synth off vox so it sang through a bit more, cut down on a resonance at around 2k.
Added subtle Decapitator saturation and Fix Doubler to fatten the main synth a bit.
Sidechained the group off the kicks.
Boosted the low mids a bit.
Dub delays group
I grouped all tracks that the author wanted dub delays on, and sent to a return delay track that sent some of the output back to itself, and returns to a dedicated 'receive' track in the dub delays group. That gave a short term dub delay effect (with mid pass EQ to keep the rumble and tops out).
I then applied a longer term delay with Echoboy Jr to the Dialogue, the Scream and the Chant.
Volume automated the Dialogue to better hear the 'T' at the start of 'today' and increase volume in second part to be heard over the riser.
I sidechained the 'Main' group off this group so that the delays could be heard a bit more clearly in the mix, but not too strong.
Background noise
I got a bit more creative on this one. I put an Output Portal shimmer echo effect that created an unsettling alien critter sound. Then played with volume and washes to make it sound closer or further away at different parts of the track.
FX
I added reverbs and worked on making them flow from one to the next as they come in almost one after another.
Output portal smearing on the 'Impact Digital' to smooth out some crackles in the original audio.
The Fall 1 audio clip seemed to have a big phase issue, I had to correct that too.
Sidechained off the Dub delays group to help dub delays be heard through the various rises and downers later on in the track.
Here's the WAV - 48/24
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kj472hwb2nvqf ... d.wav?dl=0
,
Fun!