Mike Senior takes you through the before and after files of his Mix Rescue of Two Spot Gobi's live-recorded track:
- Kick Original
kickoriginal-0608.mp3 kickoriginal-0608.wav
This file shows how the kick mic had been heavily gated on the front-of-house desk, which rendered it pretty much unusable for mixing purposes. In the end I opted to replace the track with a triggered kick-drum sample.
- Drums Processed Final drumsprocessedfinal.mp3 drumsprocessedfinal.wav
The remixed drum parts during the first 80 seconds of the song, complete with all their effects and processing.
- Drums Processed No IQ4 drumsprocessednoiq4.mp3 drumsprocessednoiq4.wav
This file is identical to DrumsProcessedFinal, except that I've bypassed the Platinumears IQ4 plug-in on the snare channel so that you can hear the impact this has on the brightness of the snare and hi-hat.
- Drums ProcessedNoVerbs drumsprocessednoverbs.mp3 drumsprocessednoverbs.wav
Both of the project's global reverbs were used on the drums in the remix, but I've switched them off for this audio file, so you can compare it with DrumsProcessedFinal and hear the impact these had on the sound.
- Drums Processed No Verbs Or Para Comp drumsprocessednoverbsorparacomp.mp3 drumsprocessednoverbsorparacomp.wav
The other send effect which really lifted the drum sound was the parallel compressor, so I've muted this as well for this file to spotlight its contribution.
- Guitar Original guitaroriginal.mp3 guitaroriginal.wav
The guitar part for the first 80 seconds of the song, as it arrived at Bradley's recording system from the front-of-house desk.
- Guitar Processed guitarprocessed.mp3 guitarprocessed.wav
Multi-band compression (from GVST's GMulti plug-in) was used to add warmth to the low end and rein in some problematic high mid-range peaks. The track was then sent to the two main reverbs and the parallel compressor so that it sat comfortably within the mix as a whole.
- Trumpet Original trumpetoriginal.mp3 trumpetoriginal.wav
Here's the unprocessed trumpet recording for the first 80 seconds of the track. The mic had captured a very harsh and buzzy tone, and needed serious high-frequency EQ cuts to remould it into something more musical. (Note that the trumpet doesn't actually play during the first section of this file, and this gives you the opporunity to hear the spill on this mic in isolation.)
- Trumpet Processed trumpetprocessed.mp3 trumpetprocessed.wav
Once the sound was appropriately EQ'ed it only needed a judicious dose of reverb and tempo-sync'ed delay (as you can hear in this file) to make it work in the mix.
- Lead Vocal Original leadvocaloriginal-0608.mp3 leadvocaloriginal-0608.wav
The raw live recording of the lead vocal during the first verse and chorus.
- Lead Vocal Processed leadvocalprocessed-0608.mp3 leadvocalprocessed-0608.wav
The same performance with EQ, limiting, dynamic EQ, and effects, exactly as it appears in the final remix.
- Cello Original cellooriginal.mp3 cellooriginal.wav
The raw output of the cello's DI during the first 80 seconds of the song.
- Cello Processed celloprocessed.mp3 celloprocessed.wav
General EQ brightening helped the tone, while a very short impulse response running in Christian Knufinke's SIR added some resonance and realism. In terms of send effects, the project's two reverbs and parallel compressor were used, as well as a separate tempo-sync'ed delay with matched pan setting.
- Original Mix originalmix-0608.mp3 originalmix-0608.wav
Bradley's mix of Two Spot Gobi's live performance of their song 'Innocent'.
- Remix remix-0608.mp3 remix-0608.wav
My remix of the same song.