MTF Week 11 (May 24th, 2007) "Studio Presentation Mix"

Analysis

Artist: Little Axe
Song Name: If I Had My Way
Duration: 4:35
Musical Genre: Gospel, Funk, Blues
Style: Electric Church
Key: Bb Minor
Tempo: 114 bpm
Instrumentation: drum tracks, guitar, slide, bass, keyboards, vocals, choir.
Performers: Skip McDonald (vocals, guitar), Doug Wimbish (bass) and Keith LeBlanc(drums)
Sound Quality: Average, spill heard on multiple tracks when listened to with enough gain.

References:

Stavrou, M, (2003), Mixing With Your Mind, Mosman, 1st ed N.S.W. : Gillingham
Flux Research, 2003.

- I looked at this book just out of interest and I’m very glad I did Stavrou makes sense with analogies and statements to educate those who want to mix well and without busting their heads.

Jeremy Carter. The Frequency Spectrum, viewed 17th May, 2007
www.ka5cvh.com/sound/musicchart1.pdf

- I used this to get an idea of how to EQ my vocals better.

Rich. (2002) Tweakheadz “Tips on using pan and reverb”
viewed 22nd May, 2007
http://www.tweakheadz.com/pan_control.htm

- Helped me to understand the use of reverb and panning better in my mix.
Ronan McDonald, (2004) The Billboard Illus Home Recording Handbook http://www.amazon.com/Billboard-Illus-Home-Recording-Handbk/dp/

- A book I’ve had since published, fantastic tips and tricks I check it for almost everything I do.
Heath, James, (2004) viewed 22nd May, 2007
http://www.geocities.com/midimagic@sbcglobal.net/mixpan.htm
- More panning tips and chorus effects.

Journal:

I chose to mix the Little Axe Song “If I Had My Way” because it was the closest thing to blues out of the lot. On first impressions I found all the tracks to be very raw with the samples containing quite a bit of spill when listened to critically. Before I started to mix the tracks I did a bit of background research on the group and stumbled upon the bands website http://www.little-axe.com. From there I found out a bit of history and began to see that it was not just blues this band was big on. Bass player Doug Wimbish and drummer Keith LeBlanc formed the house band for rap label Sugar Hill creating drum and bass tracks for over 2 years.

My mixing process was quite simple but I made it that way on purpose due to the fact I liked the rawness this song had to offer. The choir on the other hand I did decide to change a slight bit, at the start of the song I edited a small piece of the choir out then reversed it as I could swear they were almost singing “feel the bass”. I did this to add a sort of house style to the mix then bring in the bass line along with the clav to add some funk to the mix.

With the bass track I ran it through the Jimi Hendrix Amplitube plugin to give it some life and add a very small amount of dirt to the sound as well as raising the gain. I then panned the guitar, clav and choir appropriately so it gave an old style song a new age feel.

The choir had a D-verb reverb added ontop of the sound to give the effect they are singing it in a big old church with the vocals just echoing off the walls. I did this because I felt as if they were a church choir in the Mississippi delta blues days with a call and response approach towards my sound.

I added a 4 band EQ to all percussion tracks so I could get more thump from the bass drum or more click from my clap to get that Massive Attack “Teardrop” sound. At around 2:10 in my track the percussion cuts out and I added a little guitar slide section with 2 guitars playing the same thing slightly out to give a real delay / double tracking effect. For the main solo slide guitar over the top I added distortion from the Jimi Hendrix Amplitube plugin and tried to give it a real Duane Allman feel as I used one of his songs for a reference.