New Mix I Did

[-mjk-]

 

[Arjan P]

Sounds great @-mjk- ! And I agree about this being the greatest rock song ever. What I can't see from the video though: what was your source material, stems or individual tracks (or a mix of them)? And I assume you used the processed tracks or stems since all sounds I know from the original are there?

 

[BazzBass]

rock music doesn't get better than this

yeah,how did you mix it, from the stems? where did you get them from?

job very well done mate

 

[-mjk-]

Thank you everyone. This was a labor of love. I'm happy to allow the publishing company to monetize the video.

I used 22 tracks (correction, 21 tracks) from the original mulittrack analog tape. The tracks appear to be simple straight dubs from the 2". Of course some of the stuff was submixed by TS during the production process, but nevertheless these were raw tracks and not stems. This was very much like doing a mix in the old days but even the automation system on the SSL, Neve or API couldn't achieve this level of precision with AutoMate and the X32. So yes, @Arjan P the original sounds are there.

My mix is different mainly in the placement of the acoustic guitar, which is much more discernable in the chorus and solo sections. Brad doubled the lead vocal and in the verses I muted one of the tracks to make it sound more intimate. Also, on one pair of electric guitar tracks there was a counter part to the 12-string in the verses. I muted that part on the 1st verse, but I pushed it up in the 2nd verse. When you know it's there, you wonder why it wasn't like that originally. I also really emphasized the guitar swell just before the lead guitar comes in on the theme before the pick shot.

I also mastered it very aggressively loud (-8 LUFS) and with very careful use of the clipper (in brickwall mode) and the HF limiter, I was able to keep it on the edge without distortion or harshness. Yet the lead vocals have a good sheen to them, thanks to the Pultec EQ. The midrange smear of the original version is now gone. There is some speculation among the Boston engineering community (of which I was a member for decades) that the analog console used on the original mix had issues with bad slew rates on the op amps in the audio path.

The effects at the end are what TS actually was doing under the mix in the original. So I just had to take down the instruments and end with that.

 

[Arjan P]

Wow, must be amazing to have the tracks of this amazing song under your faders to mix!

 

[-mjk-]

That's putting it mildly!