These audio files accompany the Mix Rescue article in SOS March 2023 featuring the song 'Sunshine' by Jeff Hirata (https://linktr.ee/jeffhirata). You can download the full Cockos Reaper project file for this month's remix at www.cambridge-mt.com/jeffhirata, where you can also find the song's raw multitrack recordings if you fancy remixing it for yourself!
mr_0323_01_original_mix
Jeff Hirata's original mix of his song 'Sunshine'.
mr_0323_02_remix
Mike Senior's remix of 'Sunshine', working from Jeff's raw multitrack files, taking advantage of a wide range of arrangement, sound-design, editing, processing, and automation tricks to add a greater sense of energy and long-term momentum.
mr_0323_03_subsynth_solo
Here's the subbass synthesizer part Mike used to add controlled low-end weight to Jeff's bass-guitar line. The synth patch used is extremely simple: just a single triangle-wave oscillator routed through a gentle 12dB/octave low-pass filter with a cutout around 150Hz.
mr_0323_04_subsynth_in
Here's a section of Mike's remix where you can hear his added subsynth in action.
mr_0323_05_subsynth_out
This is the same section of Mike's remix, but with the added subsynth muted, so you can appreciate the impact it had on the mix's low end.
mr_0323_06_lo_cuts_in
In this section of Mike's remix the following tracks were subtractively EQ'ed in order to keep the low-end clear for the bass and kick drum: drum overheads, drum room, low tom, congas, steel pans, multiple acoustic/electric guitars, and multiple backing vocals.
mr_0323_07_lo_cuts_out
This audio example demonstrates how the same section of Mike's remix would have sounded had none of those low-end EQ cuts been made.
mr_0323_08_hi_cuts_in
Mike is using several different tactics in this section of his remix to allow him to brighten the overall sound with harshness: cutting high frequencies from the hi-hat and hand percussion; smoothing high-frequency transients on the kick, snare, tambourine, and acoustic guitars; and processing the vocal parts with de-essing, multi-band compression, spectral dynamics, and region-specific EQ.
mr_0323_09_hi_cuts_out
Here's another version of the same remix section, but any of the upper-spectrum processing designed to keep the harshness in check.
mr_0323_10_compression_in
Compression was one of the tools Mike used to add liveliness and movement to his remix sound. For example, in this section of the backing track, you can hear compression being used on the drum overheads, the drum room mics, the master bus, and an additional drumkit parallel-compression channel.
mr_0323_11_compression_out
This is what the same section of Mike's remix backing track would have sounded like without all the drum compression treatments.
mr_0323_12_wideners_in
There were several different stereo-widening techniques used in Mike's remix, and you can hear the following ones in action here: simple MS processing (shaker and steel pans) and pitch-shifted micro-delays (lead vocal).
mr_0323_13_wideners_out
Here's what that same section of Mike's remix would have sounded like without the extra widening processes.