![]() Mixing together the two stereo signals (I didn't use the DI) immediately produced a much more appealing raw sound, with a lovely sense of width and depth. The drum overhead microphones had been positioned very well, catching the tone and balance of the whole kit beautifully - which made the drums a joy to mix.In the event, James not only provided the X/Y rig, but also a mono DI signal and one other stereo 'pseudo-miked' track generated from the DI using convolution processing (in a manner akin to that of Fishman's well-respected Aura system). My suggestion, therefore, was that James experiment with an X/Y microphone rig in front of the guitar, as I find this is often better for capturing a good balance of the instrument when close-miking, and also provides some scope to expand the stereo picture without phase-cancellation problems in mono - a particularly useful feature when you want the instrument to sound big and close in the image. The single mic seemed to have caught a rather small and 'scrape-y' representation, and the accompanying DI'd part was of little use in combating that. ![]() Acoustic Guitar: Fixing At SourceĪs it happened, I was happy to encourage the idea of replacing the original guitar part, as it didn't seem strong enough, sonically, to fulfil its vital function as the harmonic backbone of the track. That said, James had already made some edits to adjust the pacing of the musical links between the song's main sections, and was keen to re-record his vocal and his acoustic guitar performances to improve the expression and groove. The outer bands of this instance of Universal Audio's Precision Multiband were used to tone down string-damping thuds (low band) and pick noise (high band) on the acoustic guitar recording.The original version of the song was recorded professionally at Cookie Marenco's OTR Studios in California, so I was confident that most of the existing multitracks would be in pretty good nick - as, indeed, they proved to be once I'd imported them into my Cockos Reaper-based mix system. This gave us the opportunity to head off potential mix problems at source, as well as exploring some fresh arrangement ideas. ![]() He felt that this tune was one of his strongest, but was dissatisfied with a previous version he'd released and had resolved to rework it to do the music more justice. This month's project was a pleasant change, then, given that SOS reader James May contacted me for advice while still recording and arranging his song 'On The Line'. Most people who send mixes in for Mix Rescue question their mix technique, when it's primarily their arrangement and recording decisions which have stymied them. This month's Mix Rescue submission comes from SOS reader James May Don't be scared to trash something you've already recorded if it helps you to achieve a better end result.
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