Hi all,
I’ve been lying low lately, doing various silly things (like trying to mix in Pro Tools). One of the objects of my folly has been remixing one of the first paid mixes I did, way back in 2011, done very slowly this time in PT.
I mixed Young Griffo’s EP “Tiny Islands” as pretty much the first paid mixing gig I did way back in 2010/11…
Here is the mix I did for the song “Pennies” then:
…and here is “Pennies 2024” - (obviously) the new mix:
Progress? Let me know what you think!
Hi Andy Yes you are missed here. I visit several times a day. You would too if you were retired 
This one was fun to go back and forth every ten seconds or so. Wildy different. Every element, especially the vox, on the second one is def superior. Great song btw. I like when the axes snap shut for better breathing. Not many left here anymore. Glad to see you pop up there. Take care
Thanks Paul.
Great song btw.
Yes the song is great and I love the energy in the performances. Great arrangement too.
One of the reasons I chose this mix was because the source tracks were so problematic. I realise this now, but in my inexperience, I didn’t even recognise how problematic they were when I first mixed them. In any case, all the issues really enabled me to explore the capabilities/shortcomings of Pro Tools as a DAW, and that was the goal.
The guitars have tonnes of tracks, but they are just different mic/amp captures of basically the same performance. Unlike the first time I mixed this, I only used one guitar capture at a time, rather than trying to blend together different amps of the same performance that were lacking in phase coherency. I don’t think the recording engineer really had a proper understanding of phase/polarity, so they are all out of phase with each other.
What was really needed was some double tracking of the guitars to fill out the stereo field, but it just wasn’t done in the original production. I had to create doubles from the available tracks. Luckily, there was no bleed in the guitar tracks, and it was played at a consistent tempo, so it wasn’t too hard to do. What was hard was trying to work out how to do it in Pro Tools!
The drum recordings aren’t the greatest either. It was tracked in less than favourable conditions, and the drums are not really tuned to modern sensibilities. It was very hard to get any appreciable fatness out of them. Nonetheless, I’m pretty happy with how the drums ended up. They sound almost as good as I envisioned them in my head when I was thinking about remixing this song.
Great to hear you’re still making music. Yes, it’s pretty quiet here. Great to see there is still some music-related discussions happening.
[quote=“ColdRoomStudio, post:3, topic:6711”]
The guitars have tonnes of tracks, but they are just different mic/amp captures of basically the same performance. Unlike the first time I mixed this, I only used one guitar capture at a time, rather than trying to blend together different amps of the same performance that were lacking in phase coherency. I don’t think the recording engineer really had a proper understanding of phase/polarity, so they are all out of phase with each other.
You might be reaching the finality of your mixing/mastering, but I am still at 10 %
Your response on how you looked back and heard weakness in the tracks must be rewarding to know how far you have come.
Just your comments on multiple guitar tracks with different dressings gave me a WTF this early morning. I only have two different takes hard L and R. So now I will experiment with multiples.
I also watched a YouTube video yesterday of a guy saying he uses stereo on his vocal track to give it more dominance? Might mess with that too.
I am however avoiding going back and redoing older songs, because, unlike you, I haven’t learned that much. It would be different I guess If wanted to get rich NIce chat Andy and thanks.
Haha, yeah… both of those sound like bad ideas to me!
Been there, done that. I keep miking as simple as I can these days. I mic per source (unless it is drums). Unless they really understand the impact phase relationships have sound, people who like to get fancy with multi-miking are just setting themselves up for a whole world of headaches IMO.
This EP project was my first lesson in multi-miking gone wrong (and it was very wrong). I’ve mixed lots of multi-miked guitar cabinets since then, and I almost always invariably chuck one (or more, if they are provided) of the multi-mic tracks away, as they rarely improve the sound.
With that lesson well and truly learned, when I’m miking my own guitars, I stick closely to the K.I.S.S. method!
[quote=“ColdRoomStudio, post:5, topic:6711”]
With that lesson well and truly learned, when I’m miking my own guitars, I stick closely to the K.I.S.S. method!
Well i’m stuck with the simple part quite naturally. I am using the old shure 58 here in Texas and doing just fine with it. I do have another mic I have used a few times. It is very long and skinny. It’s back in Michigan. I should use it with my next acoustic tracks in April.
It’s not just this site having down numbers of participants. I belong to Taxi and of the 7,000 members, folks are lucky to get a few listens to their stuff. I have 3,500 entries there.
definitely Progress! Drum sample augmentation? or did you clean out, phase correct and remix the 13 year old recording? Either way it sounds great. Old Guitar tracks despite being pokey and tinny in some parts dont sound all that bad either. Maybe a bit more separation on the darker tones and brighter tones?
Nice work!
Wow!! Progress if I’ve ever seen progress! Night and day difference man. GREAT STUFF!
I haven’t touched Pro Tools in almost 5 years. I don’t even know if my HD license is still valid, and my hardware is sitting in pile in a closet, but great to see you’re exploring.
So why the DAW switch if you don’t mind me asking?
Thanks Jonathan!
I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I’m definitely NOT switching.
I tried to buy a perpetual licence for PT, and it turns out they want more than AUD$900 for it!.. and then more to update it!!!
What’s more, it seems Avid deliberately obfuscate the explanations of their licensing pricing so as to confuse and mislead. I actually paid a reseller over AU$300 for what I thought was a perpetual licence. It turned out to be some sort of upgrade…
Thankfully the reseller completely understood my predicament, were sympathetic to my confusion and refunded me. I bet they get a LOT of that…
Now, I have absolutely no problem with reading comprehension, but I could not for the life of me make head nor tail of Avid’s license plan “explanations”. Misleading, sleazy, devious and downright icky.
Even if it means I’ll never be recognised as a “pro”, I’ll stick with Reaper, thanks!