Soundalike Review
Soundalike Final Product
Soundalike Original - Colbie Caillat
Mixing
After having done all the recording the final process was a mixdown to complete the soundalike project. On the console, we had enough faders for all our recorded track to be put laid out on. From left to right it was; drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, the synth pads, the piano, and the vocalist.
In order for to quickly jump to the reference track, it was routed to the Tape In on the console. At the push of a button, it switched from our current mix to the reference track. This allowed for us to critically listen to differences between the tracks.
Drums was initially roughly mixed, and after each processing applied, it was remixed. An equalizer is used on all the channels. The Kick was routed through the MC77 Compressor for a more fat kick sound. The snare was routed through the DBX 160 compressor to control the transients. These compressors were not routed as an insert but rather returned to another channel. This allowed for parallel compression. While mixing, the drum kit on the reference track seemed to have some kind of trashy mic sound that help it together. This was achieved in the mix but inserting the distressors on both overhead channels. The distressors were set to nuke and it did help, but it wasn’t enough to get close to the reference track. Adding the saturation plugin to the snare did the trick. It helped make the kit sit well within each drum element. The kick and snare were also sent to the SPX990 reverb unit to give it a good amount of reverb.
Minimal processing was done on the bass channel as when it was recorded it was going through the UA6176 Pre Amp and compressor unit.
The guitar was originally going to be a single channel of the small condenser microphone, however after doing a blind test, blending it with the large-diaphragm condenser give us a warmer tone that matched the reference track. The guitar was sent to the same reverb unit as the drums.
The vocal was pretty close to the reference track, but with processing, it could be even closer. Listening to the reference track, a delay sent to the reverb can be noticed. In the box, we sent the dry vocal to an effect channel which had only a delay plugin applied to it. This delay was routed through the desk and into the M-One reverb unit. Besides the equalizer, the dry vocal track was also routed into the FatSo Jr. The was used to help give the vocal a more shimmery and warm tonal quality. This was routed into the console as a separate channel. This allowed for parallel compression. It allowed the vocalist to be mixed between the dry, wet, and reverb.
At the end of the mix session there were a few things we had to acknowledge that was not able to be fixed. Firstly, the snare sound. In the original, the snare sounded warmer and deeper. This was due to the fact the original snare used was of a different height.
Listening to the mix all day, I noticed I missed a few obvious things as well. The reverb seems to be too strong at some parts and that could have easily been fixed by bringing the level down. Taking a break to come back with fresh ears could have made the difference.
The guitar was played with the click and it was super steady and on beat. The same goes for the vocalist. Just because it was on the click doesn’t mean it is the same as the original. Comparing the two tracks now, the original seemed to be more forgiving in terms of timing.
Overall, I felt like this project is successful. We had all the instrumentation as the original track. The vibe certainly matched the original. Performance of guitar and vocals were close. The bass and drums performances were really good.
Comments
Darren
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