Mixing

Just finished mixing an EP for the Gills, which I also produced.  The Mix was a total joy to work on since almost everything sounded really good to begin with.  The bass was an issue to mix since the instruments tone control was turned down all the way on the recording.  In the future I'll have to ask dudes to keep their control turned up all the way unless its some sort of creative tool to be manipulated during a song.  I was able to get it to sound great in the end, but it was a lot of extra work.  Another issue was the harmony vocals being to lack-luster/dull sounding.  This was because I recorded them using a prototype mic preamp that was still in development.  Thankfully, the Flux Bender saved the day.  That piece of equipment can turn a nugget of crap into a nugget of gold... in a manner of speaking.  Its pretty amazing really and what it did for those vocals is nothing shy of a miracle.  It made a dull lifeless recording sound spectacular.  Another piece of equipment which really transforms sounds is the Transient designer, which is a brand new piece added to the collection at LBA Studios.  I got it just in time for Mixing this project and used it on kick, snare, toms, bass, acoustic guitar, and rhythm electric guitar.  This is something that many engineers love and use regularly on drums to make them sound really punchy.  I was expecting that.  What I wasn't expecting is what it can do for electric guitar.  It made the clean electric guitar parts sound sparkling and articulated in a way that reminded me of Nashville recordings.  I'm very impressed by this box.  Its one of just a few things I didn't build for the studio.  Definitely want another one!  I really had a lot of new toys for Mixing on this project.  Sometime mid-mix I completed my prototype stereo channel strip, which was used to record harmony vocals before it had been completed.  In the mix context it was used at the output amplifier for my plate reverb.  The reverb on this mix is big time upgraded over any mix I ever did.  Not just because of my preamp, "Trinity" but also because it had a massively upgraded driver amp as well.  I modified my monster guitar amp, "Gravitone Nucleus" to accept a line level input for connecting between the mixing board and the plate reverb.  This gave me a really elaborate pre-reverb EQ.  "Trinity" has a nice bass/treble passive EQ as well and that was at the reverbs output stage.  The two sets of equalizers were used to sculpt the reverbs tone into a place that sat abso-freaking-lutely perfectly into the mix.  This mix might actually be my best to date and I have to say its a lot to do with all the cool toys, but more to do with really hard work.  Stay tuned for some audio, which I hope to have on this site in the next few weeks.