First of all, I want to say that it was a huge pleasure mixing this song. So many layers and musical moments that permeate the exciting lyrics and make it a great work. Kudos to the band for the beautiful work.
I didn't follow any esthetics and just mixed it according to my taste and as the sound became more cohesive.
As I always do, I grouped the elements according to their similarities. Despite liking the idea offered by Lewitt, I chose not to use the Polarizer plugin. But I used both recordings made by the LCT 640 TS.
My DAW for mixing is Reaper. Whenever I don't specify the plugin in the description, I'm referring to native plugins.
MIX:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BAq4Yw ... sp=sharing
DRUMS
—Kick:
Condenser: EQ for cleaning sub-bass and also around 200hz; the excellent Unfiltered Audio G8 for bleeding control;
Dynamic: just eq for a little cut at 225hz.
Kick sub-group: plus an eq cutting at 125 and 215hz; Lindell 50 for a bit of character, compression and EQ; I opted for a slightly fuller kick and, for that, I used bx_subfilter to boost the low-end; -8db of gain;
—Snare Lewitt 440: As always, it was a challenge; in the first eq, small cuts in the mid-bass and resonance control at 5khz and 6.8khz, in addition to a boost in the high-end; a second eq, the Eventide EQ45 for a small boost at 220hz and at 8.3k, plus a cut at 500hz; for the snare to grow a little, I put Eventide SP2016 (insert), program ROOM, short decay and mix at 100%; Eventide H910 to help with stereo imaging (Vocals preset - 01 - 0.99 Chorus Drift); compressed and saturated with Soundevice Digital Automformer; finally, a bit of peak control with softclipping (Apogee SoftLimit); -4.7db of gain;
—Overheads drums: eq cutting a bit at 200hz and cleaning up resonances at 4.7 and 8.9 kHz; Lindell 50 cutting a little in the mid-bass region and compressing a lot; soothe2 controlling the resonances in the 8k region and surroundings a little more; Eventide SplitEQ smoothing out transients between 1 and 5khz; Tone Empire Neural Q v2 putting some harmonic saturation and a little boost in the highs; -7.8 dB of gain;
—Floor tone: only eq cutting severely in the region between 340 and 450hz, plus a boost at 4.7khz; -6.2db fader gain;
—Rack tone: eq cutting a lot at 300hz and giving a small boost at 3khz; -4.8db of gain;
—Tambourine: eq with highpass at 850hz and cut at 5.5khz; Lindell 50 with a bit of gain in the 8khz region and compression; -2.6db gain;
—Cymbal scrapes: only high pass at 140hz; -3db of gain;
—Group channel: PSP E27 for slight cut at 14khz, small boost at 120hz; Lindell 50 giving gain at 8khz and 40hz (shelf), plus a cut at 500hz, and moderate compression; SPL Vitalizer to round out the bottom-end and bring some extra sparkle in the highs, as well as a bit of harmonic saturation; the excellent PSP Impressor for that glue; and the also excellent Neold U17a, for a little more compression and a very special harmonic saturation;
BASS:
—Condenser: eq cutting (low shelf curve) at 240hz, plus gain at 1khz; moderate compression; -5.4db of gain;
—DI: eq for low-end control (high pass at 80hz and low shelf cut at 400hz); a bit of chorus with the very good Acon Digital Multiply (free plugin), to insert a slight spatialization; -0.8db gain;
—Dynamic red: EQ cut at 1.4khz; dynamics control on fundamentals with soothe2 (emphasis on 125hz); -1.7db of gain;
—Group channel: Kirchhoff eq for dynamic control of side signal (112hz cutoff with wideband - low Q); cut at 540hz, high pass at 37 and low pass at 6khz; moderate compression with bx_townhouse; soothe2 for dynamics control in the fundamentals; Wavesfactory Trackspacer triggered by kick on external sidechain, to improve the kick/bass interaction, suddenly; -3.6db of gain;
KEYS:
—Piano near: no processing;
—Piano far: emphasis on transients at 2.5khz (wideband) with SplitEQ; AudioThing Type A to bring out a brighter glow;
—Piano far overdub: high pass at 100hz; -4.6db gain:
—Piano near overdub: -4.6db gain;
—Piano subgroup: Kirchhoff eq with a slight cut at 430hz on the mid signal and a small boost at 3.7khz on the side signal; Kazrog True Iron (1166A algorithm) for harmonic saturation; light compression with TDR Molot;
—No processing on individual Leslie channels, only -3db gain on bottom condenser channel;
—Leslie subgroup: high pass at 90hz; -6.5db of gain;
—Prophet 1: eq with high pass at 130hz, cut at 280hz and high shelf at 13.6khz; Eventide H910 for extra movement:
—Prophet 2: eq with high pass at 100hz and a wideband boost (low Q) at 1.5khz;
—Keys group channel; eq for a small cut at 680hz with broadband; BlackBox HG-2 with AIR function turned on for harmonic saturation;
GTRs:
—Electric has no processing on the individual channels, only on the subgroup;
—Electric guitar subgroup: Soothe2 controlling resonances around 3.8khz; eq with high pass at 140hz and low pass at 11.4khz; bx_saturatorV2 for independent harmonic saturation of mid/side signals; PSP Audioware SpringBox for a bit of ambience;
—Acoustic: processing also occurred only in the subgroup;
—Acoustic guitar subgroup: eq with low shelf at 880hz and a small boost at 5.8khz with wideband; Millennia NSEQ-2 with boost at 1.8khz and 16khz (high shelf); Vertigo VSM-3 for harmonic saturation; Native Instruments' excellent Raum reverb for ambience (Airy algorithm, mid-to-short decay, no feedback); Millennia TCL-2 for light compression (fast attack and release);
—Guitar group channel: no processing;
VOICES:
—I've split Gaz's voice channel into two, to treat the quieter and louder parts differently:
—Gaz lead vox Soft: UAD LA-2A Gray for moderate compression; in the part where Gaz sings the
'shots", I automated the pan control to give the impression that the shots were coming from several places;
—Gaz lead vox: UAD LA-2A Gray for moderate compression; the compressor setting varies between the two parts;
—Gaz lead vox (mic rear): I took advantage of this channel to insert some texture with the RC-20, from XLN Audio (crunch distortion, low bit rate effect in the Digital module, a little reverb and a little modulation wear in the module magnetic);
—Gaz voice subgroup: Accusonus ERA 6 De-esser;
—Radio FX: I created a channel just for processing the radio simulation: Soundtoys FilterFreak with low cut at 600hz and high cut at 2khz, with medium resonance; smashing compression with the Klanghelm MJUCjr;
—Radio FX backing vocals response: I also separated the vocals that respond to the radio's voice for dedicated processing, which were grouped into a single channel; eq with low cut at 120hz; Eventide Omnipressor for moderate compression; a little more compression with TDR Molot, now with faster attack and decay; Eventide Blackhole for apparent ambience;
—Backing vocals: both Frank's and Sion's voices have been grouped into specific channels; there was no processing on the individual channels; on both group channels, eq for sub-bass cleanup and strong compression with the Klanghelm MJUCjr;
—Group channel backing: the two sub-groups were routed to a main group, which received more compression with the Neold U17; the idea was to try to reduce dynamic variations in these voices as much as possible;
—Sion middle session yelps: trying to simulate a battlefield, in which screams of pain echoes, I applied a unique ambience, using Melda MConvolutionEZ (IR Small 1 from the Chambers folder) and Blackhoule (Dreamscape preset);
AMBIENCE:
—Five channels with ambience effects were used as send FX:
—Room: Eventide TVerb (preset 04 - Medium Chambers 06 - A Short Diffuse), which received sends from all group channels;
—Slapback: Soundtoys Echoboy (Classic Tape Slap preset 30 ips), which received the Radio FX subgroup;
—Long: Eventide Ultrareverb (preset 03 - Chambers - Diffuse Chamber), which received only Gaz's voice at a certain point in the song;
—Ping Pong: UAD Cooper Time Cube (Muted Echo preset), who received the Keys and Voices;
—Glue: Acon Digital Verberate 2 (Drum Room preset), which received the Drums, Bass, Gtrs and Vocals groups.
AUTOMATIONS:
—A few effect sends, the panorama and the gains of some elements were automated;
MIXDOWN PROJECT:
—I opened a new project in which I processed the mixdown of the initial project, to the final cohesion of the mix; UAD Oxide Tape; AMEK 200 to hold the bass and top end a bit; UAD SSL G Buss Comp Legacy for that final glue.
Thanks again for the opportunity and good luck to everybody!
Thanks to the band and to Mister Fox for continuing to host this and finding amazing music.