Music Lesson: Mixing and Sound Techniques

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Introduction

Cool. So we got another take, and let's see how it sounds. Let's have a listen and see if it works here.

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Initial Impressions

• Performance Summary:
  • Probably a bit roughly.
  • You got a whole big bag of money.
  • You take it in your stride.
  • A smile won't cost you nothing, not even for a while.

"But I've got love, I've got love on my side."

• Location Reference:
  • You live way out west because you think it's best in your thousand dollar room.

"So that sounds slightly more punchy and just tighter overall."

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Technical Observations

• Mic Setup:

  • Obviously, you get the kick and the snare close mic'd.

• Issue Identified:

  • The snare drum is not quite in tune; it's got a bit of a funny ring.
  • If you play it from the top here, you can hear its strong resonance and ring, likely due to the snare drum rather than the mic position.

Suggested Solutions

1. Muffling the Snare:

   • Try to muffle the snare to decrease the ring.
   • You may need to tune it up or adjust it to eliminate the ringy tone.

2. EQ Considerations:

   • You can adjust EQ settings, but getting the drum sounding good initially is crucial.
   • "If you start EQing too heavily on the snare drum, it just starts sounding weird."

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Snare Drum Experiment

• Techniques Used:
  • To get rid of the ring on the snare drum, an old Motown trick was utilized: "whack the old wallet on the head."
  • It's now very dead but close to the sound desired for this track, which is a tight, funky sound.

Alternative Methods

• If needed, "I would probably use moon gel," those little rubber things. They work quite well too, but this time I wanted to try the wallet method.

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Reviewing the Sound

• Let's give it a go and see how it sounds next.

Improvements Observed

• As we could hear, it sounds much less ringy and sits nicely in the mix.
• We can try to solo it and see how it sounds:
  • Here we go.
  • Sounds pretty good! There's still a bit of ring, but just enough, exactly what we need.

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Final Checks

• We now have the kick as well.
• Let's double-check that everything sounds right: "That's a pretty old school sound we got there."

Overhead Mic Considerations

• Listening to the overheads:

  • It sounds pretty good and well balanced.

• Adjustment Suggestions:

  • I would boost a bit of the top end on that mic since it's quite dark.
  • Add a little top end to bring the cymbals out, careful not to go overboard:
    • "We don't want too much sizzly top."

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Next Steps: Glen Johns Setup

• The only thing missing is a bit of stereo sound with the current three mics.
• The next setup is the Glen Johns, where we'll add stereo overheads to enhance perspective and punchiness, especially for the toms.

Equipment Details

• For this setup, we'll use two ribbon mics as overheads:
  • Ribbon mics have softer transients and a warmer sound, fitting well with our approach.
  • They emulate the sound of recording on tape, reducing top end, which balances the high precision of modern interfaces.

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Conclusion

• For this track, definitely consider using the ribbon mics.
• We'll keep the kick and the snare while adding the room mic and mixing it to create atmosphere.
• "Yeah, we'll look into that in a later session."