Before mixing, we also added in any final touches into the recording such as tambourines and hand clapping sounds to mix up the sound of the EP a little bit. We started with 'Beautiful Soul' by Jesse McCartney, we both decided we wanted some hand clapping sounds and a tambourine in there for definite. We started with the hand claps, me and Alie both decided to clap in sync on every 4th beat to add some form of percussion to the mix. We set-up the microphone we used for the vocals the day previous and got straight on with it, we recorded the clapping sounds in the first take. We the wanted to add something more to the percussion in the mix, so Alie came up with the clever idea of opening and closing a pair of scissors shut on every off beat. So, similarly with the hand clapping, we used the vocal microphone from the previous day to record the sound of the scissors. It took me a few goes to get this right as the timing was difficult to keep to but overall, it made the track sound interesting and gave it something more. Finally, we added the tambourine to the mix, we wrapped the tambourine up in a towel to mute the sound a little more in order to get the sound we were looking for. I played the tambourine along on every 4th beat in time with the hand clapping. I mixed it up a little by shaking the tambourine in time with the song and hitting it on every 4th beat during the choruses of the song; this gave the song a more 'feel good' feeling to it which we were both very pleased with.
Forever Young by Rumours was another song we wanted to add tambourine to. So similarly to Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney, I played the tambourine to every 4th beat of the song and mixed it up by shaking and tapping the tambourine during the bridge and chorus of the song.
We also used tambourine on Hellogoodbye's 'Here In Your Arms', I played the tambourine on every 3rd beat the whole way through the song, this sounded really nice and gave the mix something a little different instead of the whole EP being centered around piano and vocals.
Now onto the mixing...we mixed the songs accordingly to the track listing for the EP. We transferred all of the tracks from the 8-track to Alie's mac, both mixing three songs each making sure we were both happy with each song and the last song we both mixed together.
I mixed Check Yes Juliet by We The Kings, Kindly Unspoken by Kate Voegele and Every Time by Simple Plan. On the other hand, Alie mixed Forever Young by Rumours, Get Lucky by Daft Punk and Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney and Here In Your Arms by HelloGoodbye.
We started with We The Kings' Check Yes Juliet, this was one of the songs I was mixing for the EP. I started with the keyboard track as I wanted this to sit behind the vocal track in the mix. I started by EQ'ing the keyboard track bringing up the bass slightly in this song to add more depth, I then boosted the high frequencies to 'add more life' to the instrument and lastly, I boosted the mid-frequencies to level out the bass and the high frequencies in the mix. This brought the keyboard to life and suited the vocals very well. After this, I added some compression to the keyboard track to bring it out in the mix a little more. Following this, I added some re-verb to the keyboard to add some dimension to the track. I only added a very subtle amount because adding too much would completely wreck the sound of the track and drown out the original sound of the keyboard. After I'd finished mixing the keyboard track, I went onto mixing the vocal track.
For the vocals I started by EQ'ing the track in order to get the sound I wanted. I started by adding a little bass, high and mid frequencies, this leveled out the tone of the vocals and brought it out from being 'tinny' and gave the vocals some form of depth. I also turned up the low and high frequencies a little more just to give the vocals some more character.
I then compressed the vocals to bring them forward to the front of the mix but making sure that the keyboard could be heard properly.
Next song that was mixed was Here In Your Arms by Hellogoodbye, this song was mixed by Alie. Starting with EQ'ing again, she boosted the high frequencies on the keyboard to give it a brighter sound as the song is supposed to be quite a happy sounding track; Alie also compressed the keyboard to bring it out into the mix and added re-verb for dimension.
Next was the vocal track, Alie started with EQ'ing the track, she boosted the high and the low frequencies to add colour to vocals and compressed the track to bring it out further into the mix.
The tambourine that you can hear wasn't EQ'd as we liked the sound of it in it's original form. She added a little compression and re-verb to make it more noticeable in the mix but turned it down quite a lot so it didn't take over the other elements in the track.
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| 'Here In Your Arms' going through mixing! |
The next song that was mixed was 'Every Time by Simple Plan', this track was mixed by myself and as normal I started with EQ'ing the keyboard track first. For the keyboard I reduced the low end frequencies as it made the keyboard sound far too over powering for the mix. I boosted the high and mid frequencies a little more to give it a brighter sound as this song is also meant to be quite an upbeat sounding track. I added some compression and a subtle amount of re-verb onto the keyboard as well to add a sustaining effect to it; the compression brought it into the mix a lot more than what it was originally. I also added some 'cross fading' at the end of the piano track so at the ending the ending is smooth and not abrupt, it adds a nice touch to the track overall.
For the vocals I boosted the low, mid and high frequencies to give it a balanced sound in the mix. I boosted the high frequencies a little bit more as it brightened up Alie's vocals for the song to suit the keyboard track better. Like the other tracks, I added some compression and re-verb on her voice to bring it out in the mix.
The next song that was mixed was Kate Voegele's Kindly Unspoken which was mixed by myself. I started with EQ'ing the keyboard track. I boosted the low frequencies and turned down the high and mid frequencies slightly to add more depth to the song. This song is also quite down beat therefore, the extra bass adds to the mood of the song. I added quite a bit of re-verb to the keyboard as there were a lot of moments during the song that the keyboard was 'on it's own' and the extra re-verb gave it a clearer sound and more of a sustain. I also added a cross fade on the keyboard track at the very end to give it a smoother ending just like Every Time.
For the vocals I reduced the low frequencies so it wouldn't clash with the keyboard. I boosted the high and mid frequencies on the vocals which allowed the vocals to have their own identity in a way. I added some re-verb to the vocals too, this was a nice touch as the vocals for this song were more centre of attention on this track; the re-verb gave the vocals more dimension. I also compressed the vocals quite a lot in order to bring them right to the front in the mix.
The next song that was mixed was 'Beautiful Soul' by Jesse McCartney; this song was mixed by Alie. Starting with EQ'ing the vocals, Alie boosted the frequencies in the bass, mid and high ranges. This gave the song quite a nice balance especially as this song is quite upbeat and 'cheery'. Re-verb and compression was added to bring the vocals forward in the mix. The keyboard track was boosted slightly more in the low frequency range and the high frequencies were also boosted a little; this gave the keyboard track a happy sound to it. A slight bit of phasing was added to the track as well as compression and a subtle bit of re-verb. The phasing effect on the keyboard track really added a different sound in comparison to the previous tracks on the EP. The tambourine was a nice touch in this song overall and adding the re-verb allowed the ringing sound to 'ring out' instead of the ringing coming to an abrupt ending. The tambourine was compressed ever so slightly just to ensure it could be heard in the mix, this was also added to the hand claps and the scissors in the mix. No re-verb was added to the hand claps or the scissors.
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| Beautiful Soul going through the mixing process! |
Now for the last two tracks on the album, the bonus tracks. These were both mixed by Alie, I wanted Alie to mix my solo cover of Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky' as I know I'd have been biased about how I wanted it to sound. Not a lot was done to this track as there wasn't much going on. However, she started by EQ'ing the track boosting the bass frequencies more than the higher frequencies, this gave the song that groovy 'bassy' tone that you can identify from the original song. She also compressed the track and added some re-verb. As the keyboard track was on it's own something had to be done about the amount of space we had to fill, so adding the compression and re-verb really brought the track to the very front making it the centre of attention. A nice touch of phasing was added on this track to give it that electronic dance sound that represents the original song nicely; this also added something quite different on the EP.
And for the final track, 'Forever Young' by Rumours which was also mixed by Alie. For the vocal track, the higher frequencies were boosted and the bass frequencies were reduced slightly; this was because the keyboard track had the bass frequencies boosted meaning the two tracks would've clashed. The vocals were also compressed slightly to bring them to the front of the mix. For the keyboard track, the low end frequencies were boosted to give the song a more 'full' sound, the high and mid frequencies were boosted ever so slightly just to balance out the track. Compression and re-verb was also added to bring the keyboard out in the mix a little bit more so the track isn't lost beneath the vocals and the tambourine. For the tambourine, nothing was really done to EQ the track as it sounded nice as it was in it's original form. Compression was added and a slight bit of re-verb to allow the sound of the tambourine to 'ring out' more.
Overall, I think that this recording and mixing session went very well and me and Alie were left satisfied with what we'd done.
Here's video evidence of our recording and mixing session!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32Kulw4mwDY&feature=youtu.be
Thanks for reading,
Chazzy!
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