Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

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Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by Capt. Black »

This is one for the recording geeks or anyone interested in that stuff.

We (The Mysterons) played a gig a year or two ago for Altered States single release. Former Skeptic played too. Was a pretty good gig over all.

My recording assistant Patty and decided we'd set up a full 16 channel multi-track recording of the show to test what we could get with the gear we had available. We recorded each band and have video of them all on file somewhere too.

I'd started mixing this stuff at the end of 2010 (ages ago, I know) and I have to say I struggled with it. I just couldn't get things to sound the way I wanted. Mysterons are pretty ramshackle and noisy at times. But we have very powerful sound live. The recording mix just kinda sucked to me. It was hard to get the instruments to gel with each other. Especially the kick drum and the keyboards and guitars just kind of mushed together.
This is the mix of one song as I left it. Note the way the drums and bass lack heft. The guitars sound thin and there's little distinction between them and the keys.



Then recently, I went nuts and bought a Universal Audio card for the Mac Pro and a few weeks back, bought the Studer A800 tape plugin. I thought that this project might be a good test for them. If I could get a result I liked from this lot then the new gear would really prove itself.

You can't just chuck the plugin on and go for it. The idea is to start from scratch and see where it takes you. I used the Studer A800 on most of the tracks . Especially drums, gat and vocals. Immediately things started to hang together better. I applied basic EQ and compression effects using the stock UAD 1176 and Pultec EQ plugins. They didn't need much at all. I used a Stillwell Bombadier on the bass gat bus. It has a nice effect on bass and a parallel control to mix in some uncompressed bass too.

It was starting to sound really good to me. Especially the drum mix. So much so I though WTF, lets mix this through the 24 channel Soundtracs desk. So I set about running outputs for the various busses through to the desk so that I could control faders, pan, mutes and add a little eq on the fly as required.

Note, the first mix took weeks of faffing about to get it where it was. This mix took a couple days plus a bit for pissing about with reverb tricks. And by days I mean, a couple or three hours each time.
Finally rough mastered the finished 2-track with another instance of the Studer A800 on the output bus and an SSL bus compressor to handle the fade in and a bit of final comp. Apparently this was a common setup in many old recordings so yeehaa for old school plugins. :)

I like it. What do you guys think?


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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by badmotor »

Yeah, everything sounds much better on the second one - much more defined and gelling better as you said. Had a quick listen on my Ultimate Ears.
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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by Bg »

sheesh, you give your ears a name...
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by Kev77 »

BG wrote:sheesh, you give your ears a name...
http://www.pamayres.com/
"Cash on the ballot, money to burn, Dealey Plaza, make a left-hand turn" Bob Dylan is a genius

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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by badmotor »

BG wrote:sheesh, you give your ears a name...
You should see what I call my...

IB;JB
Hot_Grits wrote:Someone should print this thread out and hang it in an art gallery.

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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by Bg »

Kev77 wrote:
BG wrote:sheesh, you give your ears a name...
http://www.pamayres.com/
you call your ears pam?
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by Bg »

badmotor wrote:
BG wrote:sheesh, you give your ears a name...
You should see what I call my...

IB;JB
little tom thumb?
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by bluesbass »

So the.... back to the mix...
Nice one Capt. Like it. :clap:
The opinions expressed in the post above may differ from the opinions expressed by other people with different opinions.

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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by Timi »

Second one is louder and scooped (in a good way) in the upper mids, particularly with the guitars which gives them more beef. Low mids (mainly the bass) is boomy on the second one. Better snare definition in the second one too. Gels better in general.

What are these reverb "tricks" you speak of? Both sound quite blurry and washy to me, more like a good live mix in the venue recorded with a good mic, not a 16 channel multitrack...

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Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by Capt. Black »

"tricks" as in not really. :)

Was dabbling with panning guitars hard-ish left and right and putting a plate reverb on the opposite side with a bit of pre-delay to separate the actual from the rev. So yeah probably is a bit washy.

Ironically, there is a nice LDC on the room mixed in there too.

The main big deal for me, was the amount of heft I could bring back to the mix without losing the kick and the keys. Plus the speed with which it comes together using that A800 plugin and how much less eq tweaking it all needed. Changes to any given track are more predictable in the context of the mix as a whole.
It's not the only project I've been testing on. But it is probably the ugliest one. And I own it, so I can put it out there. ;)

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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by jeremyb »

BG wrote:
badmotor wrote:
BG wrote:sheesh, you give your ears a name...
You should see what I call my...

IB;JB
little tom thumb?
:lol:
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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by JD »

That song reminds me of a friend of mine. I like it.
Country blues and acoustic lover.

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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by Capt. Black »

Cheers. :)

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Re: Recording Stuff and Mysterons Live

Post by bobiron »

Cool song Capt, love the vibe, attitude and the lyrics...deep as they are. Liked the second mix better, more balance all round. The kick was very prominent in the 1st and probably more than it needed to be, but I loved the drive it gives the tune, this seemed more balanced in the second but not lost. The keys were subtle, I could only make it out floating above the guitar, the rest was buried with the guitar I guess, but it helped make the rhythm bigger for me. The vocal was more distant in the first and had more reverb, the second had was better, but still lacked presence for me. Sounds like the plugin did the trick(s) and the revisit was worth it.
OMM OM MM OMM MM

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