Rise Up Singing

Just thought I’d share my latest mix with anyone who wants to hear it, as I feel I’ve progressed significantly in my mixing after two terms of Alchemea.

This song has proved hugely important in two ways, because it really taught me;

• Nailing the recording of a song is everything. This is a song by Jackie Green, which was tracked recently for a Telefunken event where they pitted various models of their mics against some old classics. As such, there were tens of thousands of pounds worth of mics, pres and compressors in that room and it allowed me to pick and choose the mics I wanted*. The outcome of this is that these source tracks were of just about the best quality possible for me to start off mixing with, and consequently the mix came together very easily indeed. I also found this recently with a track that I recorded at college onto tape – I spent plenty of time choosing mics carefully and positioning them as well as I know how, and that mix turned out great.
• Trust your ears, but only to an extent. The monitoring in the SSL control room is extremely hit and miss in the low end. This mix turned out a lot tubbier than I wanted, even after some careful mastering, but I guess I’ve got to get used to the room still. I knew from my own research and experience that the SSL room would be tricky to mix in and I’ve always been conservative with my low end in that room, but this time I let it slip. On the other hand, I find myself these days spending little time EQ’ing and being much less “by the book”, which is an affliction I’ve had for a long time. Theoretical knowledge is great, but if you’re not listening, what’s the point? Mixing, for me, seems to be turning into more of an instinctive, “feel” thing – which is great progress.

At any rate, all comments are welcome, and I know there are a couple of issues but I’ve still got a long way to go! The track was opened in Logic 9 before being bounced to 2″ Quantegy 456 and mixed on the SSL 4032 G+, and then massaged slightly in Pro Tools 9 in my home studio.