Audio Arts wk8

Mixing

This weeks Audio Arts proved a challenge. The main issue was trying to get MIDI drums to sound semi descent. For all of the mixes I used the Vocal track as a guide, but due to some very bad guitar on the same track as the vocals, I decided that it was only important to make sure the song fitted around the vocals but not actually worry about how the vocals sounded. I kept some of the basic guitar melody but decided not to have two guitars strumming as I preferred a more 'bare' sound to accentuate the bass guitar and kick drum.

For the first example I focussed primarily on getting a tight bass drum and used the bottom end of the bass guitar to fill out the sound. I really like the way these two complemented each other and brought body to the mix. I also like the sound I got for the crash. To get all these sounds I used EQ. I felt that compression would kill an already flat sound.

Part one with Vocal track

Part one without Vocal track


The second example I really tried to get sizzle from the ride cymbal and to perfect the hi-hat sound. I was originally pleased with my snare sound but after listening to Will's I realise I could have tweaked it some more. I used amplitude on one of the electric guitars but left the other clean as I felt that otherwise they competed for space in the mix too much and didn't leave room for the vocals.

Part 2 with vocals

Part 2 without vocals

Finally I waited for the end of the song to experiment with Amplitude on the two extra guitar parts which were brought in. I tried to make these parts really crescendo the ending of the song. The first electric guitar part I enjoyed giving a U2 style sound with the delay. The solo electric guitar livened up with some a good distorted crunch sound, but I found that the solo dragged on for too long. To counter this problem I automated volume so that that the resulting sound was that off someone playing with the volume nob on their guitar.

Part 3 with vocals

Part 3 without vocals