Potato Cakes
Well-known member
Hello, Everyone,
I wanted to share a long form Christmas radio show that I multi tracked and mixed down this past December. I had been a fan of this annual broadcast for some time and this year my friend who was running point on the audio production asked me to be involved with the capture and post work. Two shows were recorded and parts were taken from both for the final product. The mics used which I built were KM84s for overheads, hat, perc, ukulele, and melodia, Bo Hansen DIs for fiddle, and two of the acoustics, plus a tube DI built from one of CJ's transformers for upright bass, which required no additional compression and used a smattering of EQ. When mixed on my heavily modded TAC Scorpion using all outboard processing that I also built, including UA176s, a 33609, a pair of 2254s, a fully modded GSSL, a JLM MAC compressor, LAZ Pro ACLs, a Classi EQ, and an MQ-5. This was two weeks of very long hours to meet the deadline as it is just myself doing everything in the post process. The client, musical director, and the band were very pleased with end result. There were only a handful of things that I wanted to be more perfect, but even I was pretty pleased how it turned out considering the high stress level and lack of sleep involved.
https://thepublicsquare.com/tps-60-christmas-in-america-1928-part-i/
https://thepublicsquare.com/tps-60-christmas-in-america-1928-part-ii/
The radio producer added his edits, studio cut voice overs, and playback audio after I turned in final mixes, but for the most part I had to assemble the run of show audio in its entirety for both parts.
Fun side story: When I sat down to start mixing, I knew I didn't have enough time to re-record tracks through my analog outboard gear and I was going to have to resort to plugins for things like compression, which compared to hardware pieces are terrible. I inserted a respected compressor from a respected plugin company on an acoustic guitar and I could not hear it actually do anything remotely close to what I expected it to sound like no matter the setting I used or how much the gain reduction meter moved. I patched that same track into a analog compressor and with a couple of knob twists I had what I needed. So I used the DAW like a tape machine with the outputs of the outboard gear patched to the console inputs and did all the automation in the software. It was just more reinforcement for me why I mix and process everything out of the box as much as possible. Musically, good analog mixing is far superior to anything done in the box. I've noticed that clients are universally very happy with the first mix I give them and only have minor changes to make afterwards and I am struggling much less to get a solid blend than I had in the past when I shunned analog and did everything in the box. There are things about this style of mixing that are not as convenient, but as far as creating something that is audibly enjoyable there is nothing that I have heard nor have been able to do myself mixing inside of a DAW that is on the same level as quality analog.
Thanks!
Paul
I wanted to share a long form Christmas radio show that I multi tracked and mixed down this past December. I had been a fan of this annual broadcast for some time and this year my friend who was running point on the audio production asked me to be involved with the capture and post work. Two shows were recorded and parts were taken from both for the final product. The mics used which I built were KM84s for overheads, hat, perc, ukulele, and melodia, Bo Hansen DIs for fiddle, and two of the acoustics, plus a tube DI built from one of CJ's transformers for upright bass, which required no additional compression and used a smattering of EQ. When mixed on my heavily modded TAC Scorpion using all outboard processing that I also built, including UA176s, a 33609, a pair of 2254s, a fully modded GSSL, a JLM MAC compressor, LAZ Pro ACLs, a Classi EQ, and an MQ-5. This was two weeks of very long hours to meet the deadline as it is just myself doing everything in the post process. The client, musical director, and the band were very pleased with end result. There were only a handful of things that I wanted to be more perfect, but even I was pretty pleased how it turned out considering the high stress level and lack of sleep involved.
https://thepublicsquare.com/tps-60-christmas-in-america-1928-part-i/
https://thepublicsquare.com/tps-60-christmas-in-america-1928-part-ii/
The radio producer added his edits, studio cut voice overs, and playback audio after I turned in final mixes, but for the most part I had to assemble the run of show audio in its entirety for both parts.
Fun side story: When I sat down to start mixing, I knew I didn't have enough time to re-record tracks through my analog outboard gear and I was going to have to resort to plugins for things like compression, which compared to hardware pieces are terrible. I inserted a respected compressor from a respected plugin company on an acoustic guitar and I could not hear it actually do anything remotely close to what I expected it to sound like no matter the setting I used or how much the gain reduction meter moved. I patched that same track into a analog compressor and with a couple of knob twists I had what I needed. So I used the DAW like a tape machine with the outputs of the outboard gear patched to the console inputs and did all the automation in the software. It was just more reinforcement for me why I mix and process everything out of the box as much as possible. Musically, good analog mixing is far superior to anything done in the box. I've noticed that clients are universally very happy with the first mix I give them and only have minor changes to make afterwards and I am struggling much less to get a solid blend than I had in the past when I shunned analog and did everything in the box. There are things about this style of mixing that are not as convenient, but as far as creating something that is audibly enjoyable there is nothing that I have heard nor have been able to do myself mixing inside of a DAW that is on the same level as quality analog.
Thanks!
Paul
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