KingAenarion
Resident Studio Nerd
So I'm coming to the end of an album cycle.
This is the biggest thing I've ever worked on, and like the masochist I am, it's my own band, which means I'm not getting paid. This track is the closing track from that album. It has:
80 Mono Tracks
22 Stereo Tracks
That doesn't include the MIDI instruments and things that have been rendered down (like the 8 synths combined to make the lead synth)
This thing is monstrous. I had to come up with a completely new approach to mixing it. There was just no way I could top down mix this, there's just too much going on and it would have been mush. Just when working on the production stages, I had to mute about half the tracks and leave most of the effects off just so we could hear that the correct notes and whatnot were being printed.
So basically the approach I had to take was:
- The sounds had to be perfect. They needed to not just be mix ready, but good enough to hold up in a simpler mix by themselves. This was a long cycle, started tracking guitars in January last year, so we were able to sculpt a lot of things as went.
- Keep everything at each stage, just in case I had to go back and change the approach or tonal palette, which was especially relevant with all the keyboard sounds. I think I changed piano sounds 3 times until I decided on a blend I liked (It usually ended up being an 80/20 split of the East West Steinway and Boesendorfer).
- Build the mix from the foundation, as opposed to my normal approach, which would have been a top-down whole mix approach (or in some cases the CLA approach of vocals first). So literally... kick drum, snare drum, rest of the drums, bass guitar, rhythm guitars, leads, cleans, keyboards, vocals, sound design, effects - in that order, painstakingly carving out as I went leaving room for what came next.
So the biggest issues have been needing to do a lot of Mid/Side EQ, and getting the bass to be SUPER even. I ended up using a bastardized version of Ermz' technique from 'The Systematic Mixing Guide' for the bass, and in particular for this track, lots of M/s between the guitars and vocals to stop them clashing, and a whole lot of micro panning to add a bit of separation (all those LCR only people can suck a giant fat one and go back to mixing easy stuff like Jazz)
ANYWAYS! The track:
mp3
Full res .wav
Prior warning: The track is 13 minutes long. If you're going to listen to the full resolution version, it's like 200mb
Obviously this is a first pass, and there's still a whole crap-tonne of automation to bring out lines. The low end is still a bit buggered, and I need to do some stuff with the kicks and whatnot to get them to shine clearly.
Feel free to make comments or provide insights you may be hearing that I haven't heard.
Also, if people are interested I can do write ups of the different stages of the recording process, including production choices, gear choices from amps to microphones and stuff about the studio we tracked in.
TL;DR - massive 13 minute epic is hard but fun to mix. Will do writeups on everything including all the amps and the studio and whatnot if people are interested.
This is the biggest thing I've ever worked on, and like the masochist I am, it's my own band, which means I'm not getting paid. This track is the closing track from that album. It has:
80 Mono Tracks
22 Stereo Tracks
That doesn't include the MIDI instruments and things that have been rendered down (like the 8 synths combined to make the lead synth)
This thing is monstrous. I had to come up with a completely new approach to mixing it. There was just no way I could top down mix this, there's just too much going on and it would have been mush. Just when working on the production stages, I had to mute about half the tracks and leave most of the effects off just so we could hear that the correct notes and whatnot were being printed.
So basically the approach I had to take was:
- The sounds had to be perfect. They needed to not just be mix ready, but good enough to hold up in a simpler mix by themselves. This was a long cycle, started tracking guitars in January last year, so we were able to sculpt a lot of things as went.
- Keep everything at each stage, just in case I had to go back and change the approach or tonal palette, which was especially relevant with all the keyboard sounds. I think I changed piano sounds 3 times until I decided on a blend I liked (It usually ended up being an 80/20 split of the East West Steinway and Boesendorfer).
- Build the mix from the foundation, as opposed to my normal approach, which would have been a top-down whole mix approach (or in some cases the CLA approach of vocals first). So literally... kick drum, snare drum, rest of the drums, bass guitar, rhythm guitars, leads, cleans, keyboards, vocals, sound design, effects - in that order, painstakingly carving out as I went leaving room for what came next.
So the biggest issues have been needing to do a lot of Mid/Side EQ, and getting the bass to be SUPER even. I ended up using a bastardized version of Ermz' technique from 'The Systematic Mixing Guide' for the bass, and in particular for this track, lots of M/s between the guitars and vocals to stop them clashing, and a whole lot of micro panning to add a bit of separation (all those LCR only people can suck a giant fat one and go back to mixing easy stuff like Jazz)
ANYWAYS! The track:
mp3
Full res .wav
Prior warning: The track is 13 minutes long. If you're going to listen to the full resolution version, it's like 200mb
Obviously this is a first pass, and there's still a whole crap-tonne of automation to bring out lines. The low end is still a bit buggered, and I need to do some stuff with the kicks and whatnot to get them to shine clearly.
Feel free to make comments or provide insights you may be hearing that I haven't heard.
Also, if people are interested I can do write ups of the different stages of the recording process, including production choices, gear choices from amps to microphones and stuff about the studio we tracked in.
TL;DR - massive 13 minute epic is hard but fun to mix. Will do writeups on everything including all the amps and the studio and whatnot if people are interested.
Also my favourite, and definitely the most non sequitur moment of the song. 
