Strange Mixed Things…
Haydn Cox mixed his song “Stranger Things” at Threecircles. This was because he was struggling to get a good mix by himself and needed some help. The song is a fabulous homage to the recent Netflix show of the same name. The track also has a great 1980s feel in general which is no bad thing! This also meant that Haydn needed the mix to feel right. To cut a long story short, this was where I came in…
The problem…
Haydn booked a day in the studio after we sent a few emails back-and-forth. He had already mixed the track but was striving for a polished, produced sound. I had a few comments about where I thought I could improve the arrangement. Haydn made the necessary changes before sending over the audio files.
There were A LOT of tracks in Haydns’ production. Part of my job, then, was to sort out what was necessary for the mix and what wasn’t. In the first place, I compiled several layered sounds into one to free up voices in Pro Tools and save the CPU. Even so, the track still needed 160 voices to play back!
The solution…
In this situation, much of the work involved getting the vocals to sit in the mix. I relied on Waves’ VEQ4 plugin for tonal shaping. Haydn had already used a lot of good reverb sounds. This meant I only required a “short room” preset from the TC M3000 to bring everything together.
Also, like every song, this benefitted from automation. LOTS of automation! This is where the AVID C|24 console shines. Once I had a static balance I was able to put all the faders to “write” and make the mix move.
The conclusion is that the mixed track sounds awesome! Now Haydn has produced a video to go along with the song. Check the result out below. Haydn has also released the track on iTunes, Spotify and YouTube. You can find out more about Haydn here: https://www.facebook.com/HAYDNIAM/
If you need a helping hand to get your song sounding the best it can be then why not get in touch? You can get more information on the mixing services we offer on our mixing page or please get in touch to discuss your requirements further.