lop sided mix / putting in just enough effort

Posted on May 21, 2004 03:25 am
Mauz
grrrrrrr
Member Since: Mar 29, 2004

Was trying to mix the pre-demo without much time. Since there was only 1 mono guitar track, 1 bass line and voice it was difficult for me to get a symettrical sound without recording another acoustic track. So I just said what the hell and mixed it totally lopsided. Voice panned a bit left, acoustic quite far right and the bass right down the middle.

I used lever theory to set my levels and it sounded kind of good! I said that the further away from the centre the lower the volume proportional to the distance away from the centre. Weird huh? Yes, I am a wacky mauz these days, but the rules are meant to be broken. Does it sound like a great mix? Not really but the parts are defined and as a pre-demo made for a drummer to learn the songs it is marginally better than just recording a live take. The tracks were recorded with direct input from bass and acoustic recorded simultaneously. I sang as we played and the feeling of the song really came across. Of course the voice was not picked up in that take so I overdubbed it after with a condensor mic. No drums (the stlye just does not go with sampled drums at a steady beat).

I think it goes to show though (and is something that I am thinking about these days). That the amount of effort you put in should be proportional to the scope of what you are trying to do with it. When we make a demo to give to venues it will be better but not significantly. Still will want to capture a bit of the raw, live sound. When I post something here I will put a lot of effort into it because I have heard the quality here and feel there is a high standard to live up to. But for a drummerless pre-demo a lop-sided, poorly mixed set of tracks will do just fine!

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