AA Week 8 - Mixing
During week 7 we had the opportunity to record a jazz ensemble in the EMU live space. David had already positioned the mics roughly before I had arrived. We spent the class fine tuning and checking various mic placements. This week our task was to perform a mix on the drums from this recording. This next clip is a mix without plugins. What?! No plugins? Yes, I have mixed this clip using only panning and faders. Note the cardboard sounding kick drum, and the untidyness of the kit in general (lack of subs, presence, "tightness" etc).Drum Excerpt - Panning & Faders 0'29, 320kbps, Download
This next clip is a full mix of the drumkit with all other instruments on mute. I use the term "mute" loosely, as the instruments in question do bleed through the drum mics and particularly through the room mics. I used eq and compression to correct elements of the kick, snare, and toms. I used a gate on the tom mic to reduce bleed. I also eqed the hats and overheads to add presence. I also used multiband compression on the master fader to boost certain frequency bands and raise geeral volume.
Full Drum Mix 0'29, 320kbps, Download
Here is a mix of a different drumkit, recorded in the EMU live room with a jazz trio. The bass and piano are both muted, however similar to the previous recording, both instruments bleed into the room mics. I have included the room mics in the mix as they provide much needed ambience to the drums. Most of the techniques used here are similar the the last mix terms of eq, gates and comps. I feel that there could be too much low end on the kick creating a booming effect.
Jazz Trio 0'32, 320kbps, Download
Here is a short drum beat I programmed for my band Entanglement using the Drumkit From Hell Superior 1.0 Sample Library. I have taken out guitars, bass, and sfx, to leave you with the mixed drum sound on its own. I took a different approach here as these drums are for a heavy metal band. The most interesting effect I used is one i learned from David last year; using compression on the room mics to create a pumping, almost distorting effect, then adding it back into the mix. In this instance it adds a subtle warmness to the overall sound.
DFH Drum Mix 0'57, 320kbps, Download
Here is the same clip with all the plugins bypassed. From this you can really tell the difference I have made to my drum sound with plugins. If you're interested to see what I'm up to musically, check out my band Entanlgement. Our MySpace is accessable by clicking on the big eye to the right of this blog. All songs are mixed by me.
DFH Raw Drum Sound 0'57, 320kbps, Download
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[1] David Grice. "Audio Arts: Semester 1, Week 8. Mixing." Lecture presented at EMU, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 1st May 2007.
posted by Daniel Murtagh @ 14:13
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