![]() ![]() In the frequency domain it was not only making the verse kick sound anaemic by comparison, but it was also competing with the bass guitar for headroom at the very low end. The chorus used electronic drum‑machine sounds and the kick had a strong sub‑bass element to it which was causing a variety of problems. Only when I'd got to the point of being pretty happy with the sound of the bass did I begin my assault on the drum problem, starting with the chorus‑section kick drum. I'd started my mix from the bass sound, as this seemed slightly more important sonically than the drums, and I knew that I'd only be able to judge the low end of the drum sound once the bass was already cooking. In addition, a couple of strong peaking boosts from Stillwell Audio's Vibe EQ (4dB at 1.2kHz and 8dB at 3.2 kHz) provided additional bite to compete with the guitars in the mid‑range. This plug-in generates harmonics from the sub‑bass elements of your bass line to make the low end appear fatter and more powerful. This did the trick on its own while I was building up the drum, percussion, and vocal parts, but as I started introducing more of the guitars I eventually needed to respond with further tweaks to the bass.Īt this later stage some more bass warmth turned out to be useful, for which I turned to Waves' Renaissance Bass, one of my favourite bass enhancers. I tried a few different compressors and saturators to make the levels more consistent and bulk up the density of the sound in the mid‑frequencies, settling in the end on a mix of 5dB of soft‑clipping in Stillwell Audio's Event Horizon and some tube saturation and peak limiting from Tin Brooke Tales' Tube Limit. In fact, I started my mix from the bass sound, partly because I felt that it would be crucial to filling out the low end of the track, but also partly because it was almost the only track that played throughout the song, thus providing something of a reference point (which proved useful in building up the different drum sounds, in particular). Just before I get stuck into that, though, let's take a quick look at what I did with the bass, which was another of Duncan's concerns. So for this month's column I'm primarily going to concentrate on how I went about tackling this central challenge in my remix. ![]() ![]() Not only did this tend to make the two sections sound like two different songs, but each was also somehow managing to make the other seem like a let‑down - the verse kick drum felt piddly next to the one in the chorus, while the chorus snare didn't seem to have any body at all next to the verse's. However, once the guitars had been added to the mix, further processing with Waves Renaissance Bass and Stillwell Audio's Vibe EQ was required to avoid the bass submerging in the mix.A quick scout through his multitrack files revealed the root of the main problem to be the drum and percussion parts, because of the inherent nature of some of the drum sounds that had been used, and also because the verse section used a completely different drum kit and percussion line‑up to the chorus and middle sections. To start with, Mike just used Stillwell Audio's Event Horizon soft‑clipper and Tin Brooke Tales' Tube Limit to control the bass levels and add density to the mid‑range. Foremost amongst these was that he couldn't get the different sections of the song to sit together, so that the verses in particular were sounding bigger than the choruses, but he also struggled to make the bass and vocal sounds hold their places in the mix. Their mission is to write catchy songs full of memorable melodies and uplifting choruses, with a view to securing a publishing deal and showcasing their songs through a range of performing artists.ĭuncan Eeles and Kristen Bishop wrote, performed and produced this month's Mix Rescue song, 'Big Dummy Shake', as a collaborative effort, and while they were pretty happy with what they'd achieved in terms of the song and its arrangement, when Duncan tried to come up with a convincing final mix he encountered a number of difficulties. Rescued this month: Moosmusic are a songwriting team made up of Kristen Bishop and Duncan Eeles. We explore some techniques for tackling this and more on Moosmusic's 'Big Dummy Shake'. Getting the macrodynamics of a song right while also nailing down the important rhythm can be a real challenge. ![]()
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