Still: Revisited
Still (Revisited).mp3
I've recently begun what should be an ongoing process of re-recording and re-mixing older tracks, primarily A4A.
My first foray into this task was something I wrote in the summer of '01. Those couple months were right after I got Reason (the software I've used for everything you might've heard up to this point), and I wrote something like 3 1/2 albums before going back to school. There's a fair amount of crap from that time, but a couple stood out, and 'Still' has always been one of my favorites.
Something I've been trying to do more with on this Mix is playing with the EQ on all the different tracks, trying to cut away all excess frequencies from the core elements of the sound. It's something one always does a little when mixing, but I've been hesitant to really push it in the past.
I tend to think of music as a collection of layers, and in the writing and design process, I put great care into each individual layer to make it interesting. The problem is that having Big and Intricate sounds can make it harder to squeeze them all in the small place that is your final mix.
Some will clash with others, some will cover others up, and sometimes they'll add up to the point where what was a nice little nuance is now accentuated to the point of being irritating.
The trick then is to cut away all the extra bits. Things that may sound great when played alone, but get lost in the full mix of the entire song and/or crowd the space.
I've always had trouble adopting this approach, at least beyond just some subtle touches. However, in listening to a lot of what bands are doing in some different scenes (primarily Electro-House), and some of what NIN has done the last year or two, I've been hearing a lot more recordings where an instrument is missing a lot of frequencies, and it works.
They're no longer individual layers, each meant to be perfect unto itself; they're now puzzle pieces that need to all fit together to create the whole.
'Still' originally had a very basic string section, and the sound of all the parts in it sort of blurred together to the point where it was just a wave of sound. In the new version I wanted to add a more defined string arrangement, with more melodic movement, more intricate harmonies, some better samples, etc. Musically I liked what I came up with, but the sound of it still was very muddy, and adding in the rest of the tracks made it all worse. The strings overpowered everything.
I took one of the string tracks, the original one from the song (slightly changed), and split it into 3 different tracks, each handling its own portion of the harmony. Low, High and Mid notes. I used the EQ to cut out the frequencies not used by those notes, or not important to the sound. Each track individually might sound funny, not all there or flat, but when put together, they help fill out the sound without stepping on each other's toes.
The Bass in the original track was one of the defining elements, so I didn't want to change it much, but at the same time it didn't function much in the way of actual Bass. So I added in an additional bass track. The new track is very low, with almost no upper frequencies. Not wanting them to conflict or mask each other, they each play at different times within the measure. Also, since Bass 1 didn't have much low frequency to begin with, I decided to cut out the little it did have, and keep the more important and destinctive mid and upper frequencies.
I replaced the drums with new samples, but ones that were pretty true to the original. The old 909 sound. I rolled off some of the highs from the kick drum and some of the lows and even mids from the snare. Again, each on its own might sound off, but played together and then thrown into the whole mix those 'empty spaces of sound' get lost to the ears, yet create a little more breathing room for all the rest.
I've recently begun what should be an ongoing process of re-recording and re-mixing older tracks, primarily A4A.
My first foray into this task was something I wrote in the summer of '01. Those couple months were right after I got Reason (the software I've used for everything you might've heard up to this point), and I wrote something like 3 1/2 albums before going back to school. There's a fair amount of crap from that time, but a couple stood out, and 'Still' has always been one of my favorites.
Something I've been trying to do more with on this Mix is playing with the EQ on all the different tracks, trying to cut away all excess frequencies from the core elements of the sound. It's something one always does a little when mixing, but I've been hesitant to really push it in the past.
I tend to think of music as a collection of layers, and in the writing and design process, I put great care into each individual layer to make it interesting. The problem is that having Big and Intricate sounds can make it harder to squeeze them all in the small place that is your final mix.
Some will clash with others, some will cover others up, and sometimes they'll add up to the point where what was a nice little nuance is now accentuated to the point of being irritating.
The trick then is to cut away all the extra bits. Things that may sound great when played alone, but get lost in the full mix of the entire song and/or crowd the space.
I've always had trouble adopting this approach, at least beyond just some subtle touches. However, in listening to a lot of what bands are doing in some different scenes (primarily Electro-House), and some of what NIN has done the last year or two, I've been hearing a lot more recordings where an instrument is missing a lot of frequencies, and it works.
They're no longer individual layers, each meant to be perfect unto itself; they're now puzzle pieces that need to all fit together to create the whole.
'Still' originally had a very basic string section, and the sound of all the parts in it sort of blurred together to the point where it was just a wave of sound. In the new version I wanted to add a more defined string arrangement, with more melodic movement, more intricate harmonies, some better samples, etc. Musically I liked what I came up with, but the sound of it still was very muddy, and adding in the rest of the tracks made it all worse. The strings overpowered everything.
I took one of the string tracks, the original one from the song (slightly changed), and split it into 3 different tracks, each handling its own portion of the harmony. Low, High and Mid notes. I used the EQ to cut out the frequencies not used by those notes, or not important to the sound. Each track individually might sound funny, not all there or flat, but when put together, they help fill out the sound without stepping on each other's toes.
The Bass in the original track was one of the defining elements, so I didn't want to change it much, but at the same time it didn't function much in the way of actual Bass. So I added in an additional bass track. The new track is very low, with almost no upper frequencies. Not wanting them to conflict or mask each other, they each play at different times within the measure. Also, since Bass 1 didn't have much low frequency to begin with, I decided to cut out the little it did have, and keep the more important and destinctive mid and upper frequencies.
I replaced the drums with new samples, but ones that were pretty true to the original. The old 909 sound. I rolled off some of the highs from the kick drum and some of the lows and even mids from the snare. Again, each on its own might sound off, but played together and then thrown into the whole mix those 'empty spaces of sound' get lost to the ears, yet create a little more breathing room for all the rest.