Pixelhum

I have been working hard at improving my mixing skills. Here is a selection of mixes that I have done, some for bands I have been in, and some for online mixing events.

About the Mixes

Aren't You Proud? (04 May, 2008)

This was my entry for the Womb Forum MiXiT 3 event entitled 'Mix for Mixerman'.

I am particularly pleased with this mix, which is slightly different from the mix I actually submitted. I boosted some lows on the bass (3dB at around 60hz) and made some changes to the way I was de-essing the vocal. The song was very well tracked and sounded great as soon as the faders went up! I used a lot of automation to make sure the vocal was audible throughout, and also to emphasise the dynamics of the song. I mixed into a compressor (set to very light compression, about 3dB of gain reduction tops).

Senõr (24 Jan, 2008)

This was my entry for the second Womb Forum MiXiT event. The song itself is great, although there is a complete lack of low end to the guitars. I attempted to fill this gap by duping the bass track and pitch shifting it up an octave. This was then blended in with the original quite subtly. The guitars were panned hard left and right and this was the first time I mixed into a compressor. I documented a lot of what I did for this mix here.

Simple Little Bird (02 Sept, 2007)

This was my entry for the first Womb Forum MiXiT event. Actually, this was my recall mix. I learned a lot from this particular event and I thought my recall mix was a lot better than the mix I submitted. I documented this mix prolifically here.

Genie In A Bottle (01 July, 2007)

This was a track recorded by a band I was in back in 2004. I played drums and did some backing harmonies. I decided to mix the track myself as I got bitten by the studio bug and wanted to have a go! This was my second mix of this (I tried mixing it back in 2004 but it wasn't all that good) and I used sample replacement on the snare and kick. The guitar sound is particularly bad and took some work to rescue. I must be the only drummer in the world who slows down!

All the 'Unusual Stars' tracks (June 2007)

These tracks were a more recent recording I made with another band I was in. I played drums and did some backing vocals. Listening back to these now is interesting. The vocals are really buried and the guitar is far too prominent! The bass playing was sloppy on these tracks too, being a bit behind the drums.