These audio files accompany the April 2026 Mix Rescue feature in Sound On Sound magazine.
www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-ember-rev
You can listen to each of the MP3 files streamed below on this page, or download the ZIP files of uncompressed WAV files for listening in high-definition in your own DAW.
Files 1A and 1B are the original mix of ‘Ultramarine’, by Simone Silvestroni, before and after Ian Shepherd’s mastering.
Files 2A and 2B are my new mix, before and after Ian Shepherd’s mastering.
File 2C is the first mix that I sent to Ember Rev main man Dan Ecclestone. In this version I took my attempts to clean everything up a bit too far for Dan’s taste!
Files 3A to 3F trace how the sound of the drum kit changes as different layers of processing are added. In 3A you are hearing the raw kit, without the room mic. In 3B I have time-aligned the mics and applied some compression and gating, but there is no EQ or reverb. File 3C represents the same drum mix with channel EQ added. In 3D I have added in the room mic, artificial reverb, and re-enabled processing on the drum bus. File 3E is the full drum mix but without the processing on the stereo master bus, while 3F is the full drum mix as heard in the track.
Files 4A to 4E illustrate some of the different dynamics plug-ins and settings I tried on the room mic. In each case, you’re hearing the same EQ setting applied post-compression. File 4E is the setting that I eventually settled on, using McDSP’s APB El Moo limiter.
File 5A is the raw accordion overdub, with the only processing being an M-S decoder. In file 5B you hear the accordion as it is in the final mix, with channel EQ, reverb and master bus processing. Mechanical noises are clearly audible in isolation!
Files 6A to 6C present the three tracks that make up the final bass sound. The main component, file 6A, is the DI track routed through an Ampeg emulation in Line6’s Helix Native plug-in. In file 6B you can hear a duplicate of the DI track heavily filtered using Soundtoys’ Filter Freak to add some extra low end. File 6C was created by processing the live cab mic and was added in a later mix revision. File 6D represents the combination as heard in the final mix.
Mastering engineer Ian Shepherd has created a video describing his role, which you can watch at www.productionadvice.co.uk/ember-rev