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Mix Rescue: Leaf | Audio

Hear The Differences Yourself By Mike Senior
Published February 2007

We reproduce below a separate posting of the file links for easy auditioning in both 16-bit/44.1kHz Stereo WAV and MP3 128k formats.

The original drums for the first verse and chorus.

My processed drums, using an unusual parallel gated track to beef up the snare sound, as well as lots of dynamics plug-ins to tame excessive transients and add body to the sound in general. During the chorus, some reverb processing is also being added under automation control to increase the size of the sound.

The raw bass recording for the first verse and chorus.

An instance of Cubase SX 2's Multiband compressor processed the sound in two separate frequency bands in order to keep a constant subjective level in the mix on both small and large speaker systems.

The acoustic guitar source recording for the second chorus.

Low-frequency filtering removed bass resonances that were clouding the rest of the guitar mix, while some assertive de-essing kept the strumming noises in check.

The nicely played original arpeggio guitar recording during the first verse.

Parallel compression gave the sound more warmth, while a high-pass filter kept the low end out of mischief.

The main rhythm guitar part during the second chorus.

I faked a double-tracked sound by using a very short spring-reverb impulse running in the convolution plug-in SIR, and then rolling off the low end at around 90Hz, before adding in a little of the main tempo-sync'ed delay effect.

This is the guitar recording that opens the second verse, before I applied any processing.

I applied a 'special effect' delay (inserting Cubase's Metalizer plug-in into the effect return) to make more of a feature of this part, but I did need to give some attention to EQ, both on the guitar and effects return channels, to avoid swamping out the whole mix.

My edited backing-vocal parts for the middle section and final chorus, without any processing or effects.

The same parts with EQ, compression, and a variety of different modulation, delay, and reverb send effects.

The raw lead-vocal recording for the second verse and chorus.

After fairly subtle EQ and compression, some send effects were added under automation control, including Symphonic, Mod Delay, and an SIR ambience impulse response.

The mix that Maarten originally sent in to Mix Rescue. He and the band had slowed it down slightly by resampling it, because they thought that the tempo didn't leave the vocal with enough room to breathe.

My final mix, which I preferred at the original, slightly higher tempo.