First Mix Posted! - Posted on 2012-05-17 by Ben Eklund

I’ve completed my first mix!  For my midterm project, I was required to record some audio and demonstrate proper application of panning, dynamic compression, EQ, and various time-based effects.  I decided to record an instrumental version of an original song I wrote and rehearsed with my drummer, Matt.  I recorded the rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and bass guitar tracks using a direct input to my Mbox.  The drum tracks were recorded with individual mics on the snare, kick drum, high tom, mid tom, and floor tom.  An overhead mic picked up the cymbals.

Besides compression, I used the feathering technique I described in my EQ post to make the kick drum and bass guitar stand out from each other.  By lowering the 60 Hz range on the bass and giving the same range a boost on the kick drum, both tracks are able to come through the mix without competing.  I also used EQ to get rid of the “boxy” frequencies on the kick drum (ones that literally sound like someone is hitting a cardboard box), as well as eliminate some quiet but harsh overtones on the snare.  I applied a very short delay on the lead guitar track to give it a little depth without sounding like two separate guitars.  My favorite effect in this mix is definitely the AIR Spring Reverb I applied to the snare drum.  This reverb gives the snare a warm ambience that complements the rest of the song very well.

I also created a master fader to control the overall volume of the mix.  I made an embarrassing rookie mistake by creating a mono fader instead of stereo.  When I bounced the song to disk and played it back, the panning adjustments I made completely disappeared.  Everything came through in mono.  My mentor, Joey Heier, immediately spotted the error and showed me how to correct it.  I created a new master fader in stereo.  That simple correction made all the difference.  I certainly won’t make that mistake again.

You can listen to the song, called “Sunsetta,” here!