Speak Softly - Broken Man
Back in the studio today exploring the possibilities when mixing in analogue. I had a great time with fellow engineers Brenden Blanch and Kalesh Tamil Selvam. We were working on a track by Speak Softly entitle Broken Man.
(Speak Softly, 2018)
Preparation
As we were mixing this track completely on analogue gear prep this time was a little different. We still went the and check file bit depth and sample size before creating a DAW session. In this case it was 44.1kHz and 24bit, having set the session up and made sure everything was in place we spread the channels across the desk in a 1 to 1 fashion with track one on fader one and so on. There was also some louder sections in the percussion one channel which we just put a break into the track and clip gained down the offending section.
The Mix
After placing all the tracks onto the desk we went through each channel and EQ'ed the using the famous Neve preamps and EQ to get the best sound we could out of them. We found piano ! was getting a little lost in the mix so we added a little punch and buzz with SansAmp to make it sit a little better in the mix.
Next we moved onto the vocals which we decided to add a little more punch with compression and needed to remove a sibilance with a de-esser. The settings are pictured below.
Now comes the fun part. Using the patch bay we sent the bass to the distresser and pumped it up as well as add distortion in the mix which gave it an amazing tone for the song. (Sorry I didn't get a photo of the settings)
(Osborne, 2018)
Next we ran a stereo pair of the Rhodes through the ART Pro VLA compressor to drive it into the mix.
(ART, 2018)
Another Rhodes line we sent through a DBX160A compressor.
(Cornermusic, 2018)
Using multi-points and a 4 channels on the desk we set up reverb and delay processing through a TC Electronic M-One XL and Lexicon MX400XL Dual Stereo/Surround Reverb Processor.
(TC Electronic, 2018)
(ALTOMusic, 2018)
Finally we set up a master pair which allowed us to record the whole mix from the desk back into ProTools. Here is our patch bay.
Here is a little video listening to the final mix as we recorded it back.
(Doctor Duck, 2018)
The Song
Here is my final mix completed in 2 hours and 33 minutes.
Reflection
Working with Brenden and Kalesh in one of my favourite studios was great. I really enjoyed the team dynamic and was great to really help solidify my knowledge of patch bays and teach the other boys a few things along the way. We had to get creative solving the problem of a lack of patch leads by using some Bantam to XLR cables joined together. We all were able to communicate really well and collaborate idea's to get an amazing mix that I am quite proud of. For future analogue mixes I think taking a little more time at the start to think out where we might send individual channels may be an advantage.
References
ALTOMusic. (2018). MX400XL. Retrieved from https://www.altomusic.com/lexicon-mx400xl-dual-stereo-surround-reverb-processor
ART. (2018). Pro VLA. Retrieved from http://artproaudio.com/discontinued_products/product/pro_vla/
Cornermusic. (2018). DBX160A. Retrieved from http://www.cornermusic.com/dbx-160-ad-compressor-limiter.html
Doctor Duck. (2018, March 31). Recording Back Broken Man [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_-bEhqEeGM&feature=youtu.be
Osborne, K. (2018). distresser. Retrieved from http://recordinglounge.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/empirical-labs-distressor-review.html
Speak Softly. (2018). Speak softly. Retrieved from https://speaksoftly.bandcamp.com/track/broken-man-2
TC Electronic. (2018). M-One. Retrieved from https://www.tcelectronic.com/Categories/Tcelectronic/Signal-Processors/Effects/M-ONE-XL/p/P0CJT