NEW MIX , HUGE GUITAR TONE

[Pete Weaver]

Hey gang,

Here is the first mix from my newly purchased
Digi 001. We are really happy with it and it gives
a good example of the big guitar tone we've been shooting for. The song is
called "Let the World Right In" . . . it's heavy
alternative nu-rock.

This link will take you directly to the song.
Check it out!

www.halftheworld.cc

[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Slim Shady]

Hey, great sounding track. Check your mix in mono though, your guitars kinda dissapear - not entirely, but it sounds like there's some cancellation going on. My guess is that you just copied the original track, panned it, and then nudged it a little bit instead of doing true double tracking (just a guess mind you, other things could be causing the phase problems).

Nice work, it's a very punchy sound for an 001 - what kind of mic pres/converters did you use? Is that a pod or a real amp? I'll be even more impressed if that was all the 001 hardware without anything in front.

[citi]

The mix sounds REALLY good! Inquiring minds want to know. What did you use, recording stuff, etc.

Oh, did you have it mastered?

[Pete Weaver]

Hey all . . .

Thanks very much for your comments / feedback.
To answer your questions about this song, here's
the run down . . .

1. This was a 24 bit 44.1k session.

2. Everything was tracked through an Apogee
Trak 2 (which offers 2 channels of mic preamps and
2 channels of analog to digital conversion) then straight into PTLE through the SPDIF connection.

3. The only thing that was tracked using the Digi 001's A to D and built-in preamps was the drum overheads and rack tom.
Kick drum mic was an AKG D112 sent into the Apogee
and snare was an AKG C-414? (clip on) drum mic on the top head.

4. All guitars were recorded with 1 Studio Projects C1 microphone. This includes Martin acoustic guitar, Peavey 5150 half stack and Marshall Aniversary half stack. All guitars were done with a true double track . . . no copying nor nudging, no pods nor amp modelers of any kind.
(I'm a firm believer in true double tracking).

5. All vocals were tracked with 1 Studio Projects C1 mic into the Apogee Trak 2 and straight into PTLE.

6. All plugins used were entirely from the Waves Gold Bundle . . . nothing by Digidesign.

7. The only "mastering" to speak of was a Waves C4
slapped onto the master fader using the "Hard Multi" preset with a 3 db boost at 8k and a 4 db dip at 60hz . . . then on the next lower plugin insert on the master fader I put an L1 with a -4 threshhold setting to increase the overall volume.

8. I then sent the NON-Dithered 24 bit mix into
the Apogee Trak 2 and applied Apogee's UV22HR 16 bit dithering and then SPDIF out into my 16 bit DAT deck.

9. I then burned a cd via SPDIF connection from the DAT.

Hey Slim Shady . . . questions . . .
Since all guitars were done with true double tracking . . .

1. How do I perform the "mono test"?
2. How can I tell there's phasing problems?
3. What's the fix for phasing problems / cancellations?

Thanks . . .

Pete

[Kickin.da.speaker]

My ears are more awake now, and this is indeed an excellent mix. Congrats. Some nice gear you had here! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

OK, just one comment. Are you a guitar player? This sounds like a guitar player's mix (drums far behind, guitars in your face). Nothing wrong with that, it's just a choice. Personally, I like it. (I'm a guitar player [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ).

[Pete Weaver]

Ha! . . . Very funny Kickin! . . .

Believe it or not I'm a drummer!

I didn't think my drums were far back in the mix,
but I was definitely aware of wanting the guitars to be enormous, because we want to come across as having melodic hooks, and pop melodies, but be undeniably heavy.

I will be uploading a second song to our mp3 site
within a few days . . . by the way . . . can we get this song on the Digi 001 mp3 page?

Pete

[Slim Shady]

Hey Pete,

I have a mono switch on my mixing console, so for me it's easy, but I think you can probably acheive the same effect by running into 2 channels on your mixer, then just panning each channel dead center (instead of hard L/R). You'll know if you have phasing problems, because your sounds will either 'dissapear' or will sound very hollow and small.

For guitars, the way that I avoid phasing problems is to make sure that I have different tones on the left and right channels - i.e. a bright distortion on the left and a crappy fuzz on the right channel. Usually I'll change guitars and/or amps as well, just to thicken the sound up - it all depends on the song though, you gotta do what's going to best fit the sound you're imagining. If you double track but don't change your guitar tone, you're going to end up with phasing problems, unless you do some creative eq'ing, and maybe some time shifting.

I'm sure there are other ways, hopefully some more guitar players will chime in (kickin?) - Guitar is my 3rd instrument, so I don't claim to know everything by any means.

Congrats again on the mix. I was pretty sure those weren't the 001's pre's or converters i was hearing, glad to know I can still tell the difference [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Kickin.da.speaker]

I can't believe you're a drummer (sounds like a certain comercial... [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] )

Well, you're on the Digi001 station. I've bumped you to the top of the playlist but for some reason those things need time to update so you'll appear at the bottom for a little while.

[bassmac]

Pete,

Put the Waves S1 Stereo Imager on the last insert of your master fader, set the width to zero and you'll hear your mix in mono. Then just hit bypass to toggle it on/off as you tweek the geetars. Cool mix btw.

[John J.]

Pete,

Nice tune, nice mix!

As a drummer I'm sure you'll agree with my 1 (maybe 2) bits of .02cents.

As defined as everything is, the one big smack that's missing throughout your mix? Killer cymbal crashes! Where are your cymbals??

Missing some nice thick crashes is maybe what's making me notice the open hi-hat just a bit too much? If they're down because of bad bleed when the cymbals aren't being used, I would suggest:

1) take the time to automate every crash so that they cut through -or-
2) sequence in 2-3 nice Zildjian samples were they need to go, it'll definitely lift the tune

Good luck with the band!