New Stuff

I recently wrapped up the mix on the Amber Schneider album that I have been working on for the past few weeks. I'm quite pleased with the mix and used a number of new techniques on this project that I thought I would share.

1. Parallel compression: The new versions of ProTools (I'm on 7.2) allow for plugin delay compensation which makes this trick possible. You could do it in older versions, but it required a lot of fooling around with delay settings, etc. Basically, this technique is where you split a signal and only compress one of those signals. The combined sound is thicker and more controlled then the uncompressed sound while sounding less compressed and "pumpy" then the normal approach of just compressing the one signal. I have used this technique on drums and sometimes vocals in the past but on this album, I found myself using it a lot more. I was quite happy with the results. This is a great way to get a vocal to sit in the mix without squashing the life out of it. Also, probably one of the best tricks to use on drums to make them sound powerful and fat without killing those ever important transients. SNAP!

2. Minimal EQ: This is somthing that I have been leaning more and more towards. When I engineered the tracking sessions for this album, I tried to capture a really clear picture of the songs at that stage. I selected mics, pres and eq when necessary to get the sound "in the neighborhood" at the end of the tracking session. The session players where great and most of the sound was there so we just massaged a few things to get everything gelling at the tracking stage. Also, Craig Learmont (producer on the album) did a great job on getting really clean sounds in his overdub sessions. I the end, most of the mix was a matter of balancing levels, not "sculpting" things out with eq. I really like mixing albums this way. It truly feels like you are working with the music and not against it. Kudos to Craig, the players and Amber for their hard work on getting it right at the tracking stage.

I look forward to hearing these songs on radio and seeing what kind of response it receives. Blessings on your career Amber; the album was a blast to mix!

Later