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Mix Rescue: No Logo | Audio Files

MP3 Audio Examples By Mike Senior
Published October 2006

Hear The Differences For Yourself!

I used fairly drastic processing to get from No Logo's original recordings to my remix, and you can hear these changes in isolation by checking out the following audio examples available for download at www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct06/:

The original drum overhead tracks, which suffered from the limited high-end response of the AKG C1000 mics used for the recording.

My processed version of the overheads, with a bit of high-frequency EQ boost adding brightness and some filtered distortion giving a bit more body to the cymbals.

The raw kick track from an AKG D112 mic.

Compression and EQ gave the sound a bit more attack and definition in the mid-range, while medium-release limiting made the levels more consistent.

The recording from the snare close mic was too dull to add any presence to the warm snare sound captured by the overhead mics.

A dollop of psychoacoustic enhancement and some distortion gave a completely different sound which, although a bit messy on its own, complemented the overheads much better.

The hi-hat track as recorded by its AKG C1000 close mic.

I filtered the hi-hat track to avoid adding low-frequency clutter and compressed with fast attack to emphasise the cymbal's sustain.

My final mix balance of the overheads with the kick, snare, and hi-hat close mics, dry and without any compression. Automation is increasing the level of the overheads during the choruses, and is also riding up some of the cymbal crashes.

Here you can hear the main reverb return without any EQ, showing the annoying boxy resonance.

The same reverb return, with the resonance notched out using a narrow-band peaking filter at 580Hz.

The complete mixed drum sound, complete with reverb and mix compression. In addition to the overheads' level automation, there's also some of the lead guitar's delay effect mixed in during the chorus.

The bass DI had been taken from the end of the player's effects chain, and ended up being no real use in building a sound for my remix.

The bass player was recorded through a 15-inch bass combo using an AKG D112 mic, as well as through a 2x12 guitar combo using a Shure SM57 mic.

I threw limiting, multi-band compression, EQ, and sub-harmonic synthesis at the bass combo track to try to even out the lumpiness, remove high-frequency hash, and give a bit more audibility in the mid-range. The guitar combo was compressed and filtered to prevent conflicts with the bass combo at the low end and the guitars at the high end.

The soloed chorus effect which I added fairly subtly to the bass combo in the mix.

The final mixed bass sound, combining processed bass and guitar combo tracks with a small amount of chorus effect.

The fizzily distorted double-tracked rhythm guitars as recorded.

I used multi-band compression and EQ to try to give these guitars more weight in the mix.

The double-tracked lead guitars as recorded.

Although I was happy with the lead guitars being brighter than the rhythm guitars, I did still add in some weight with EQ and filter off some high-frequency hissiness. A bit of fairly subtle reverb processing, with tons of pre-delay, increased the perceived 'size' of the sound a bit.

The original lead vocal recording was rather muffled, and included quite a lot of unnecessary clipping distortion.

The final dry remixed vocal. Filtering, limiting, psychoacoustic enhancement, extra distortion, and de-essing have all been combined to give a very tightly controlled sound with lots of attitude.

The remixed vocal with its send effects, including some light chorus and two different delay effects.

The combined backing vocals with their remix processing and effects. You can clearly hear the pitch-shift effect.

The complete remixed vocal sound — the pitch-shift effect is already masked a great deal by the lead vocal.

The mix which the band originally sent through to SOS.

My remix from their original recordings.

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