Got to mix14 tracks this week

PolarityMan

So my band has been doing Feb album writing month and if everything lands I'm going to have 14 tracks to mix by the end of Sunday.

My plan is to basically create a mix template that I can use to get to a basic mix for every track with very little work then tweak from there which ought to also help a bit with consistency as different people have recorded and tracked these.

Any tips on what to go for? Obviously I'm not expecting something done so quickly to match the stuff we've paid to have mix but I would like to get it as close as possible?

Also if anyone is up for providing some mix crits during this week that would be super valuable.

Musicwolf

By coincidence I've been revisiting a load of my own stuff (I got some new studio toys at Christmas and a new set of monitors are on order).  I’ve got 18 songs to re-mix.

How long it will take depends upon what sort of result you hope to achieve but I bet that I could easily put something reasonable together by the end of this month – because I don’t have to (so I’m under no pressure).  I’d suggest that the first thing you need to do is to get your head around it.  You’ve set a target of completion by end of Feb but, from your description, that sounds like it’s a ‘bit of fun’.  Accept that it won’t be perfect and enjoy the experience.  Other than that;

Don’t worry about the first tracks taking longer, you will speed up as you go along and, depending upon how the songs were tracked, you might find that some solutions / templates carry over.

Take lots of breaks

Listen back on different systems.

Remember that The Rutles recorded their first album in 20 minutes, the second took even longer.

PolarityMan

Oh yeah its def like a project to challenge ourselves with the deadline but I still want to make it as decent as possible

I prob forgot to mentioned I prob only have about 2-3 hours per day between then and now to work on it and theres also some compositions that needs finalised (some songs have template drums or need the odd bits tweaked to fit after the vocals were added and stuff like that.)

Musicwolf

One other tip.  When the tracks do arrive, don't get distracted by posting on here

Seriously.  Whilst people on here may be very experienced and able to offer constructive criticism you have to balance this against the fact that you could end up chasing your tail on what is a time limited project.  You can always post the final result on here then go back and look at how much better, or worse, it could be with extra time after the event.

Back yourself.  Just do it and we’ll see you back here in a couple of weeks.

andy_k

What DAW are you using?
I have done a few larger projects in Reaper by using a single project for all the tracks, this helps me to get a more cohesive mix across the project, but can be difficult if there are a lot of tracks per song.
In that case, I have pre-mixed stems to simplify the songs, and worked with 5 or 6 stems per song, this is then arranged as a single project.
Levels can be balanced across the songs, and the order can be played about with.
These are then all going through the same mixbus, effects and mastering to get a quick final full project mix.
You don't give yourself much time, but some time spent early in the process could save a lot of headaches later.
Happy to have a listen to anything here.

Stuckfast

The template thing can work as long as the instrumentation is reasonably similar across all the tracks.

A tip I would give is to start with the most dense arrangement section as that will be the hardest part to get right. If you do it the other way round, it's easy to box yourself in by creating a massive sounding verse or intro and then leaving yourself nowhere to go in the busy sections.

PolarityMan

andy_k said:

What DAW are you using?
I have done a few larger projects in Reaper by using a single project for all the tracks, this helps me to get a more cohesive mix across the project, but can be difficult if there are a lot of tracks per song.
In that case, I have pre-mixed stems to simplify the songs, and worked with 5 or 6 stems per song, this is then arranged as a single project.
Levels can be balanced across the songs, and the order can be played about with.
These are then all going through the same mixbus, effects and mastering to get a quick final full project mix.
You don't give yourself much time, but some time spent early in the process could save a lot of headaches later.
Happy to have a listen to anything here.

Yep, Reaper.

Im in 2 minds about 1 single project. Mostly in case I want to do delay stuff on the vocals as that will want to be tempo sync'ed which means adding time sig markers and general faffery. Of course given the timeline I may not get to that level of automation.

My general plan is a first stage of mix prep where I render out VSTs and drum stems getting as close as posisble to fixed gainstaging across all the projects and from there do a first pass on a static mix on a single song.

After that I'll get a single round of feedback from the band and as many others as I can solicit it from and tweak the static mix. From there I'll apply the static mix to every project and do a single pass on faders, again static to balance any unique elements or to account for differences in tracking / tone etc.

Finally after the static mixes are all there I'll do a pass with automation and if time a single revision on that pass across all tracks.

I'm aiming to put the largest amount of effort into that first static mix on the first track. 

PolarityMan

Musicwolf said:

One other tip.  When the tracks do arrive, don't get distracted by posting on here

Expect me to be pretty quiet on here between about 9PM and 11-11:30 PM. I try to call it a day close tot hat time to allow 30 mins of unwind time watchign you tube or palying rocket league or something before bed.


This whole scheme could also get blown out of the water by the fact Im holding the callout phone at work too but hopefully the plan I outline above means I wont end up with 1 finished song and 13 that are a shambles but instead they will all kinda progress as a whole through the stages.


Thats the plan anyway...lets see how it works in practice

andy_k

PolarityMan said:

andy_k said:

What DAW are you using?
I have done a few larger projects in Reaper by using a single project for all the tracks, this helps me to get a more cohesive mix across the project, but can be difficult if there are a lot of tracks per song.
In that case, I have pre-mixed stems to simplify the songs, and worked with 5 or 6 stems per song, this is then arranged as a single project.
Levels can be balanced across the songs, and the order can be played about with.
These are then all going through the same mixbus, effects and mastering to get a quick final full project mix.
You don't give yourself much time, but some time spent early in the process could save a lot of headaches later.
Happy to have a listen to anything here.

Yep, Reaper.

Im in 2 minds about 1 single project. Mostly in case I want to do delay stuff on the vocals as that will want to be tempo sync'ed which means adding time sig markers and general faffery. Of course given the timeline I may not get to that level of automation.

My general plan is a first stage of mix prep where I render out VSTs and drum stems getting as close as posisble to fixed gainstaging across all the projects and from there do a first pass on a static mix on a single song.

After that I'll get a single round of feedback from the band and as many others as I can solicit it from and tweak the static mix. From there I'll apply the static mix to every project and do a single pass on faders, again static to balance any unique elements or to account for differences in tracking / tone etc.

Finally after the static mixes are all there I'll do a pass with automation and if time a single revision on that pass across all tracks.

I'm aiming to put the largest amount of effort into that first static mix on the first track. 

My own experience, was to get things like drum stems gain staged across the project, using clip gain.
Its not easy to imagine anothers workflow, but if you are writing in automation with faders, the project method would be aiming for setting all tracks to a baseline, then it is a case of writing automation across all 14 tracks-per instrument, it's a massive task really in a short time.
The alternative, of simply mixing 14  independent tracks, to a finished state can also be improved on by re-imported the finished tracks into a mixing / mastering session, with just the vocals as separate tracks for example, which would allow for some further processing. Kind of stem mixing, but with a final mastering stage- which would help with cohesion across the final project.
I would use something with a bit of character on the mix bus, like a Slate bus compressor and a tape VST to glue the project together.
If you could work towards that as a final step-allowing for a final monster mixing session, it could work well.
It's always good to have a break, so leave some room for a final mastering session, which will be hefty for 14 tracks.
All this depends entirely on how varied the tracks are themselves, and also how closely they need to be level matched, it's not something to be rushed really, and definitely shouldn't be if the final result is intended as a 14 track package.
Another thing that could help, would be to try and just get all 14 tracks mixed to similar levels and then run it through something like Izotope as a full session, it gets the job done.
Reaper has the tabs to allow sub sessions, but I like to have my full project visible to see what's going on, but the regions and markers make it easy to bounce out individual songs with the same settings, using wildcards for naming etc.
I always use clip gain on the individual tracks (regions ) to keep the faders at zero, which makes vol automation easy to edit around a baseline, but I mainly stick to fairly static mixes, and I am no pro.
Either way, you are mixing 14 tracks, which is a fair bit of work, but having some control over the final product by doing it as one big session is good, and can cause its own problems.
Good Luck.

PolarityMan

Yeah mastering might be a bit of a tall order and if it happens at all a wham through a preset is about all I can expect to achieve. I do mix into a psuedo-mastering chain though so while it might not be a great master it should at least sound in the ballpark volume wise

PolarityMan

So here's the first static mix if anyone has any feedback

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hFE7hwNYIW6Ti9k54FL-8BiiSqoN1LqU/view?usp=sharing

andy_k

I like it, my only suggestion would be to maybe use a dynamic multiband comp, like Pro MB to tame a bit of the sybilance on the vocals, and maybe to bring up some lower end weight,  and maybe something to add some warmth overall, but that is only based on a first listen through my chromebook.
It is a pity to have to rush the mixing, as there is a lot going on lower down, so some things will always be compromised. Is this the busiest  track?

PolarityMan

Yeah def one of the busiest in terms of synth layers and stuff.

PolarityMan

Thanks for the pointers btw. Will def have a play with those areas, for lower end weight did you mean in the vocals too or generally as I cut a fair bit of lower mids from the vocals. Maybe I went too far?

PolarityMan

Anymore feedback before I try another revision?

@octatonic and @WiresDreamDisasters would def value your opinions.

andy_k

I'm having another listen through my HD650s, and to be honest, there is really not much to complain about, plenty could be better, but overall I cannot suggest any single thing to correct. ( maybe some high end saturation, or tape machine excitement??, make the metal vocal section jump out?? ) --just ideas.
There is always room to improve, but if you have to say-its done, due to a time limit, I would move on to the next, and get the project finished.
13 tracks later, you might immediately hear something you don't like in this one, but you only have the one set of ears-get used to them.
I went to re play the track and it went to another track on my pc, and I realised maybe you need to use a reference track to be able to hear any probs, just an idea.
5 days to do the other 13 tracks, piece of piss.
Nice work.

andy_k

BTW, my accidental refs were YT versions of Planet Earth by Neurotic Outsiders, and Violets Demise, Asylum weeds ( unreleased AIC / Cult style , produced by Dave Jerdan ), have a listen.

Stuckfast

I thought the basic balance was very good. Great vocal performance!

This isn't really my genre, but with that caveat, a few thoughts spring to mind.

* The bass sounds quite 'soft' and undefined. It's nice and even from a frequency point of view but in a track that is otherwise very aggressive and driving, it feels a bit flabby. Or to put it another way it does a good job of filling out the bottom end of the mix but it's very hard to discern individual notes within the bass line, it just sort of rumbles along harmlessly. Maybe that isn't important, I don't know.

* There are places where the entire mix feels a bit overcooked in the mid-range.

* Some serious hiss going on at the end of the track, is that intentional?

* Have you got a lot of compression or limiting on the mix as a whole? There's a slightly claustrophobic quality about it which I guess suits the material but also means that the loud angry sections perhaps don't have the impact they might.

PolarityMan

Thanks, thats definitely useful. Theres a lot of stuff in the midrange in the dense sections so I have struggled to make space for everything so perhaps I need to thin some of the elemnts out a bit.

The mix bus has oxford inflater on it which does a a fair bit of compression so I can try backing that off a bit

Stuckfast

Yes I think the challenge with a track like this is that the entire instrumentation changes from section to section, so a frequency or level balance that works for one section suddenly sounds muddy or pointy in the next bit. So to my ears there are some sections that are a bit hard in the 1.5-2kHz area and others that are a bit too thick in the 400-800Hz region.

oaf

Completely not my genre.

Sounds very good to me on the whole. A bit too saturated and pushed, particularly mids. The more synthetic/sampled elements are a little quacky (overly harmonically rich? dunno) and quite forward relative to some of the other parts. The initial (Massive X-ish?) synth gets a bit much once everything else has got going, would be good to take the edge off it and give others the room. Agree with the comment on the flabby bass lacking definition (but it doesn't not work...) and the vocal is slightly sibilant on occasion and some of the Ts are hit quite hard. Perhaps you could debreath it a touch too?

Great though overall, thanks for sharing.