A Little Help

My hero across the pond continues to come to the rescue. Jan Fischer agreed to help me with a couple of mixes so I could gain knowledge as I compare his revisions to my originals. He remixed two of my tracks, and I am stunned by the results.

Here are his comments about one of the tracks:

- try to pull the whole range of instruments across the horizontal line, that is, using the pan to locate it left or right of the center when necessary.
- added on a few instruments reverb to push them a little bit in the backround
- added chorus to one guitar (chords)
- worked with the eq to make instrumenst more recognizable / hearable or to eliminate (for my ear) disturbing frequencies.
- worked on track volumes with hyperdraw.

I think the mix is quite good this way and needs only small corrections.

In my estimation, the last comment is on the generous side. Be that as it may, what a delight to have a veteran's lend a skilled touch. Though the adjustments made were mostly minor, the resulting sound is miles apart from the original slapdash concoctions. Jan, you clearly have honed an abundance of natural gifting into sharp musical talent and skill. I am deeply impressed, and will be working hard to reproduce the refined sound in all other Redline Project tracks.

Looking Glass

I spent the evening back in the leatherette saddle at the helm of Studio Redline for the first time in several days. As you may have read in the last Redline Project blog post, my wife and I made the six hour drive across southern barrenness to spend a few blissful days in coastal Carolina. With nothing but hot sun, frosty iced tea, shady umbrellas, and rolling ocean waves, our time off the grid was utterly blissful and way too brief.

Alas, I have returned to the world of graphic design, non-profit pioneering, and yes, music recording and mixing. Though I miss the lazy nothingness of a sand and surf holiday, it feels pretty good to be back at the Mac.

Three songs got a spit shine tonight, and I am pleased with the subtle differences of fore and aft. Somewhere along the line, I read a rule about EQ changes that said not to add or subtract a certain amount from the equalizer curve. I read a better rule recently that said this: do what sounds good.

Ditching the first axiom in favor of the second has enabled my feeble vocal tracks to pop through the mix more, replacing muddled fog with clean, balanced tone. Swish.

Time continues to be the looking glass of musical truth in this project; as it passes, details emerge from the mix that were once shrouded by flashier elements. Though part of me wants to pull the trigger on the album release already, a wiser half delights in the subtleties of the slow burn.

Circling Back

In many ways, tonight's work on the Redline Project launches a new phase of the process. Instead of working on new musical ideas, I reopened one of the first songs I wrote for the album and got busy analyzing the delightful and wretched elements of its scratch recording.

There were many tracks, especially those performed in MIDI, that are keepable with a bit of tweaking. It is encouraging not to have to scrap everything in the initial recording, which in turn gives me great hope about the editing of other works in progress.

This success holds hands with discouragement though; this song alone could soak up two solid weeks worth of recording and editing time, and those hours will be difficult to find. I am certain this album will be produced and released by the deadline, but on nights like this I wonder how it is all going to come together.