Nevena

Djordjevic
04/03/17
Song Title: All I need



Midterm mix

For my midterm mix I chose the song called All I need which arrangement is

consisted of drum set, electric bass, piano, strings (violin 1 and 2, voila, cello) and

lead vocal. The song is a ballad, and I liked the vocalists timbre as well as how the

strings played and how the strings were arranged overall. Thats why I chose this

particular song. However, there were a few mistakes that couldve been avoided

during the recording session.

I really enjoyed doing the mix organization and figuring out how to organize the

entire session since the given, raw session was pretty messy. I panned strings from

the audience perspective and combined room strings tracks into stereo, with a

stereo reverb. Drum tracks were really confusing, not really present naturally, and

the snare disappeared in the middle of a song while it was still in the overheads, so I

had to copy and paste each 2nd and 4th beat (That was a moment when I regretted I

didnt do beat mapping.) I also heard that some parts really needed Elastic audio

turned on, but I didnt have enough time for beat mapping and time perfecting.

Instead I tried to use automation to help tracks blend nicer. To get clean vocal was

really challenging and still is, so I couldnt fix some background noise and other

problems. I cut sibilance with de-esser and I think it helped. I also used aux track for
reverb and panned it right (3 oclock) and used delay only in the choruses to make

impression as if there were 2 vocals. I felt there was no need to fix and focus much

on the piano and the bass track. I just did a little automation on the piano track.

Since I used only Pro Tools plug-ins, I tried to focus more on panning, automation,

and balances, and then use plug-ins to give it some atmosphere. I also recorded

background vocals because, in my opinion, it was musically needed in the

modulation, but also for fun. You can mute it if its a problem.