Hello Folks,
first things first. A big thank you to Mister Fox making this possible at all!
Likewise to David Talbot and Delucq for providing this nice Song.
Had quite a lot fun mixing it, I really like the rhythm guitar sound. Top quality!
It is my first submission ever, so here we go.
I mix in REAPER and mainly use Waves and FabFilter plugins.
I aimed for a fat punchy rock sound like David wanted it to be but payed attention to preserve clarity and don't going too "wet".
Drums
Nothing super special on Kick and Snare mics. "Kick in" and "Kick out" are summed to a bus. I cleand some 80hz on "kick in" to prevent clash with the bass and emphasized some 60hz on "kick out". The kick bus is sidechained to a dynamic eq on the bass guitar and ducks 60hz and 100hz to let the 'oomph' and punch through just a bit.
Snare mics are also routed to a bus on that I used Scheps Omni Channel for some tweaking. A little bit saturation, some noise gate to controll the 'sizzle' and I used a de-esser to controll some harsh frequencies around 3.7Khz. After that it is parallel compressed (just 30% wet mixed) to give it more attack and punch.
Some eq shaping on the toms and compression to make them more even among themeselves.
Overheads got another instance of Omni Channel for some saturation and a top end boost. I used a FabFilter eq to filter some nasty resonnances on 4Khz - 8Khz.
I treated the "drum bleed" like a room this and the room mic are compressed hard with CLA- 76 for a huge punchy sound.
I created an aux channel I send all close mics to. on this is a realy short reverb. often I use a 'slap reverb' or a 'tiled room' and tweak it for taste. Mixed underneath the drums it can give a nice spaceious sound and make it big without harming the 'in your face' punch.#
The drum bus got some sll bus compressor making the drums a little bit 'breathing' in time with the song.
Bass
My main bass sound is the DI track. I controlled some boominess around 120hz with dynamic eq. For more balanced volume I splitted the track in segments and balanced their input volume. This also helps to hit the compressor more evenly afterwards to create a solid sound. I createt an 'Re-amp' track and copied the DI on it this goes into an fx-chain where I created an heavily distorted bass amp with guitar rig. This is Hi-passed to only get the high sizzly sound and mixed in to taste for some definition in the bass tone.
Both tracks are summed on a bus got there some rBass and compression to work nicely with the kick and the dynamic eq i mentioned earlier.
Vocals
Didn't went to crazy with the Vocals. I wanted them to be focussed and upfront.
Again to controll volume I splitted the tracks and manulally adjusted their inputgain to even things out before i reach for compression.
Lead vocals go into Omni Channel (my new workhorse I guess haha) some de-essing and controlling of 'mud' around 200hz, eq and compression to bring them upfront but play well with the instruments.
Since the 'Chorus Ad Voc' 1 and 2 are identical I used them for widening with micro pitch technique. I also got a little bit creativ on them and gave them a 'telephone voice' sound to bring out some character.
Nothing special on the high background vocal, just some eq to blend with the rest.
the 'Ad Voc ending' is processed like the Leadvocal and takes over this role at the end.
The different vocals have sends to fx-chains for dealy and reverb.
Guitars
I used the recorded amp tracks straight away since I thought they're really well made and sound pretty nice.
I eq them with V-EQ for tone sculpting and fitting and controll some peaky resonances around 4Khz with dynamic eq.
Panned hard left and right to create a wide guitar wall. They also go to a reverb each which are panned to the opposit site of the panned guitar. the reverbs are mixed in quietly. this enhances the stereo positioning further and 'glues' them a little bit together even though they're hard panned.
the third rhythm guitar 'hi gain' which comes in at the end is panned dead center and got some slight volume automation.
The solo guitar was quite tricky to mix. I was more trying to clean it up in first place than mixing it to be honest. But I tried my best.
Did a tiny little bit of pitch correction on parts that I thought would be off too much but tried to preserve the 'dirty' feel of it.
Lots of resonance filtering and some noise gate to get the printed fx under controll.
I cutted a lot of the highs that sounded clipped and tried to get back some highs afterwards with an exciter, just a touch. createt one delay and a reverb for the solo to smooth it out.
On the guitar bus I got some tape saturation, an optical compresser and a dynamic eq that is triggered by the vocals ducking away 2Khz-4Khz only on the mid signal of the guitars to allow the vocals to cut through on guitar heavy parts.
Mix Bus
Just some light overral processing.
An API 560 graphical eq for tone balanceing and a ssl bus compressor to bring everything together are the main parts here.
Otherwise there is a Kramer Master Tape plugin and an FabFilter eq just to cut super lows and super highs.
One FabFilter compressor with the only purpose to catch sudden nasty peaks but otherwise don't touching the audio material.
Questions and constructive criticism are always welcome!
Files
Preview
WAV 48Khz 32bit