Audio Arts - Week 10 – “Mixing Pt 3”
Audio Arts - Week 10 – “Mixing Pt 3”
Not the EMU Cort..NOOOO!!!!The nature of this weeks exercise didn’t exactly call for an intensive mixing session but I have done a little tweaking to the final result regardless. I recorded the in-house EMU electric guitar played through the in-house Laney amplifier. Not my rig of choice, but a worthy set up for the task.
I close miked the cabinet with an SM-57, in a baffled 4m square area in front of the control room of studio 1. I placed a U-87 for some ‘space’ nearby at about 45 degrees off axis to the speaker, set it on omni, and about 2.5m off the floor. I then cranked the amp to 11 and had a quick sound check.
After spending too much time (that’s what I get for listening to Ben’s advice) working out the best way to play the axe from inside the control room, and setting up Pro-tools to receive from the Avalon things were ready to roll. I downloaded a backing track to play to as I felt it would give a better impression of the instrument in context. The initial signal was terrible as the Laney’s speaker has issues with being cranked past around 60%. I begrudgingly backed it off and ripped through two 5 minute takes of bluesy improvisation.
The first take was recorded from the Avalon Preamp. The second was direct to the control 24. Then both takes were individually routed to the Avalon and re-recorded to examine the additional ‘warmth’ or ‘character’ that the Avalon may provide. All up there are four 1-minute tracks at the link below that demonstrate these approaches.
Personally, I don’t know if I’m sold on this high end (not to mention high-priced!) analogue gear. I have never really trusted my own ears when it comes to this end of the sound game however so maybe I have good reason. I did add some subtle EQ, compression, reverb and a stereo delay but they don’t colour the original signal too much so those in the know should still be able to differentiate.
These are the plugins that were applied universally to all tracks via an auxiliary channel.Please comment if you feel you can tell the difference, as I’d love to get some second opinions.
Click here to link to online folder containing MP3’s of all mix-downs.
Reference:
David Grice. “Audio Arts – Wk 10 – Mixing Pt 3.” Tutorial presented at Studio 1, Electronic Music Unit, Level 5 Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 15th May, 2007.
posted by David J Dowling @ 5:17 PM
1 Comments:
Interesting samples there.... fairly subtle differences between the gear, to be honest.
Nice work... you realise I'm now going to have to counter your shredding when it's my turn to rock the EMU space with the Cort of doom on Sat morning. Be very afraid.
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