It has been another week and, in this time I have mixed the tracks. This EP is tied together with themes of death and sadness throughout. I wanted to simply enhance this through the mixing to allow the story to play out.
The first track which is young childhood is one of the simplest mixes. This is for multiple reasons. I wanted this song to capture the simplicity and innocence of childhood and reflect this in the mixing. I set this session up a little bit differently to my usual way by trying VCAs for the first time however they didn’t make much of a difference for this seeing as most of the tracks are solo elements. I placed Channel Strip on the Double Bass and put a low pass filter on at 2.3kHz as it stopped the small amount of sibilance in sound. I then boosted at 190Hz by 1dB with a wide Q. This just emphasised the warm reverberance of the bass slightly allowing it to stand out more. I considered put a slight compressor on this to control the dynamics, but it was too strong so instead I automated the volume. I did this on a C24 which allowed me to perform it and get a more natural transition. I sent this to a very light AIR Reverb. I made the room medium sized and made my ambience larger to 50% and put an 8ms Pre Delay. This simply gave the Double Bass room and melt into the spaces in the track. For the Piano Chord I also used Channel Strip. This is because I wanted to EQ and Compress this track. I put a slight 2dB boost about 450Hz with a very wide Q as it plays a large number of notes but was struggling to stand out against the melody. I then put a gluing compressor on with a ratio of 1.5:1 with a 12dB knee and slow attack. This gave control to the Piano Chord whilst keeping the dynamics which is seen in the Musical Theatre genre. I also put some slight automation at the beginning to make the scale louder. In comparison with the Piano Melody I put a high pass filter on and a slight boost of 1dB at around 3kHz. I wanted this clip to have all the dynamics it naturally had. I sent both of the Piano tracks to the same Studio Reverb. I had never used this and wanted to play. I set the room to small and placed a 9ms Pre Delay. I then turned the mix up to 10 so it was only reverb. With the Violin I placed Channel Strip on and boost the less than 1dB around 500Hz to emphasise the warm timbre. I then did a slight scoop where I had emphasised the Piano Melody. I also placed a slight compressor on with a ratio of 1.7:1. I also gave it a knee of 14dB and slowed to the attack to 112ms and the release to 120ms. This gave the Violin a more natural sound. I automated the volume the most on this track as I wanted it to drive the piece. This meant allowing it to get slowly louder as the abuser became more confident and quieter when the abuser felt annoyed at the main character joining in the melody. I also sent the Violin to a reverb. I first placed a band pass on the AUX as I wanted mainly the mids emphasised. I made the Dry Pre Delay 5ms, turned the width down to 34% and shortened the Reverb Time to 150ms. This added the space needed to blend it in with all the other tracks. My Master has an extremely light limiter on to increase the volume and a sound field plugin (both are Ozone). Most of the other tracks follow a similar mix process.
The second track follows a similar feel however, I only placed reverb on the VOX tracks as I wanted everything else to be clear. When it came to the VOX tracks, I used the same compressor and EQ. I first I used Dyn3 Compressor with a ration of 3:1. I puta 13dB knee on to smooth it out and put a fairly quick attack of 2ms. When it came to the EQ, I used Ozone 9 Dynamic EQ. I put a high pass filter on and then turned down at around 11kHz as that’s where the sibilance was prominent. I lowered the threshold to -43dB as it lowered the problematic sound more naturally. When I sent these tracks to the reverb, I put a band pass on and used Space. I used a church room as I wanted an obscene amount to make them seem dreamlike. I didn’t end up changing any of the other settings as I enjoyed how it died quickly. I automated panning from side to side throughout. Each line is on a different side. This emphasises the constant battle of thoughts. I also was inspired by a completely unrelated artist Taemin who uses extreme panning on so many of his tracks I struggle to listen to his music in mono (can be heard in Move at 2.30 with the backing vocals). I also automated the volume to emphasise certain words and phrases that are more prominent in the main character’s mind.
The third track is the fastest of the four. It is the only track with percussion and without a bassline. The kick although plays double time in some stops didn’t seem quite as chaotic as I wanted so I sent it to a delay which I automated on and off throughout the piece. I used AIR Dynamic Delay. I turned the rate down to 49ms, the feedback mode to cross and turned the mix up to 67%. This added just the right amount of chaos to the piece. I also automated the kick volume down slightly during the middle as it was too prominent in the moment. I used the same Strings Reverb as on the first track. When it came to the VOX tracks, I panned one hard left, one centred and one hard right. I then put a high pass filter on all of them. For the hyperventilation track I also put a slight low pass filter to cut some of the high air sounds. For the reverb I put a small band pass filter on the mids as I wanted as little of the high air sounds to be emphasised. I then used Space and put it on Eco-Plate medium as it gave the VOX tracks a little more life without making them overpower. I placed a small amount of automation on the volume of the tracks just to allow some phrases to seem more emphasised in the moment.
The last track follows the same EQ and compression style as the rest of the tracks. They simply remove unwanted airiness and emphasise the natural timbre of the instrument. I placed a slight gluing compressor on the cello to give it more control as it sometimes felt too strong without it. I also used a s-curve fade at the end to allow the final note to come through strong to finish the piece. I used the same reverb style as the VOX tracks in the third track. I did however, put some slight volume automation on the viola to allow the piccolo to stand out at times. I also swap the panning on the two depending on whether they were playing the inverted leitmotif of normal leitmotif.
I’m so happy with how it is sounding. It is kind of strange as I took a more natural approach to this mix. I wanted these tracks to not feel overly produced with strong compression and complex reverb as to give it a Musical Theatre sound (although in recent years these techniques are becoming more prevalent as seen in Lin Manuel Miranda’s musicals In The Heights and Hamilton).
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