Update #13 - Final Mixing & Learning References

In mixing classes, we learned that the tools that we will be getting in touch with the most would be equalizers, compressor and distortion. Compressors are meant to add sound, tighten and smoothen things up. It is also to increase or decrease dynamic range, for instance, in one of its settings, threshold, by cutting the output by a ratio, the dynamic range will be reduced. The threshold knob basically is to alter the point compression begins to kick in. The other knob which is make-up, sustains sound and pushes volume up without making it louder after the dynamic range is reduced. Attack helps to control how fast compression kicks in once it crosses the threshold and reduce transient; to hear the attacks, it should be set to slow (around 10-15 ms) and release is to control how fast the compression is being let go after it crosses below the threshold. Basic usage of compression would normally be applied on kick drums to compress the tailing sounds and also sometimes for the bass guitar, typically for punchy effects. Side chaining is a way to "cut holes", for example with kick drums and bass, the kick takes place nicely into the hole where the bass is cut to avoid getting the bass into the way. It can also be used for musical effects to create pumping sounds. Video reference:

As for mixing Shaun's song, I am mainly aiming for a balanced sound (where each instruments can stand out or contribute in specific parts of the song), nicely compressed and in-tune vocals (vocalist has a rather bright voice), creating the right amount of distance while hearing it in stereo and also to find the right sound of each instruments to compliment the style of the song. Because the vocals are recorded in only one take with a SM58 mic in one of the practice rooms and due to the style of singing of the vocalist, the sounds come off rather like live sound vocals. In the beginning stage of mixing, the balancing of the instrumentals sound fine until the vocals came in. The vocal tracks that I received from the producer are highly pitch corrected and have some parts being bluntly cut off due to "unwanted off-pitch notes". Therefore, I had to retrieve the raw vocal tracks from the songwriter and start producing the vocals (flex pitch and timing). I took a few tips from a Youtube video in order to mix the vocals. The video basically taught me to firstly, remove unnecessary energy by turning on the low cut filter way across and then slowly drag it lower until we get the sound we like (and to cut out low freq/rumble sounds). Then, we use the move the bands high up across to detect noise, then cut it by bringing down the dB. He also used a second channel EQ for boosting certain characteristics of sound he wants by giving it mountain-like shapes (for more specific frequencies).

Here I have the basic gain plugins, two channel EQs (one for cutting out unwanted energy and another one for boosting certain sounds), compressor for altering dynamic range, DeEsser to block out sibilance, noise gate to cancel out low-freq noise and distortion to increase the drive and tone for the main vocals. The main vocals are sent to a vocal bus which has compressor, ensemble effects and reverberation. I have one solo bus that only has reverb to send to other instruments and another one with only delay effects to send to the autotuned vocals.

Here is the final version of the song: