aa - week 11 - eskimo joe

Mix a bit of an eskimo joe track.[1]

This was quite fun, but felt kind of cheating - having all the recording done and everything was presented quite neatly.


I went through and did 3 mixes, then i checked again my reference files (metallica - battery, chris isaak - wicked game), then realised i was lacking a bit of low end.. to a certain extent i can blame the sounds themselves - straight up the bass was not as low as my reference tracks, so when i mixed into a decent level there was lacking of low end...

Then I went through and did them again.


Mono mix - I found that certain sounds were imbalanced in the mix straight - ie needed work (eg bass and the outro rhythym guitar), so I mixed them to an aesthetic of quality rather than level.
This was the easiest and most straight forward, it sounds quite good and reminds me of AM radio.

stereo mix - I re-stereoised the sounds, panned a few other things a little bit. I noticed that I'd mixed the accoustic guitar too loud, but because it was quite stereo it was still quite transparent.

eq mix - HPF on the OH's, made the snare a bit snappier, gave the straight kick more room for eq. Got rid of annoying tone in rhythym gtr. I really got a bit annoyed with the vocals and had to automate the levels a little (picture below shows volume trim). Would have like to compress the bass, it's a bit all over the place. No eq on the accoustic, I really liked it as it was.. in retrospect it would have been good to at least have had a fiddle - it is quite big.
Just listening back to it in headphones, it does sound the most "commercial" of the three.


I did really miss having faders, one mouse does make it a bit harder. Maybe next week, just for fun, I'll try some subgrouping and use the real desk :)


[1] Fieldhouse, Steve. Mix. University of Adelaide, 15 May 2007.

Stavrou, Michael. "Chapter 11 - The Art of Mixing". Mixing with your mind. Flux Research Pty Ltd, Mosman, Australia, 2004.