Thanks Mark!
I had to go back to my track sheet from November to dig up my notes:
Tracking:
I used the Tascam M35 mixer preamps to add some transformer color and my ART VLA compressor on the way in. Comp was 2:1; Attack 25ms; release 150ms, only 1-2 db reduction going in.
Martin SP-000 -> Shure PG81 -> Tascam M35 -> ART comp -> Tascam input EQ
For the acoustics I use the input EQ's to roll off everything below 80HZ and pulled out some mud around 225HZ
The guitar solo is a Harley Benton J45 knock off, setup was same as the Martin above.
Vocal were the same chain except I used a Stellar CM-6 tube mic. Input EQ rolled off everything below 100HZ, and I eq'd out a spot around 3-4Khz, where my voice has a nasally, "honk" think going on lol. I bumped up the ratio on the compressor to 3:1 for the vocals.
Drums were from Logic pro. Never did like the sound. At some point, I'll get back to it and actually records them properly.
Mixing:
This one was pretty sparse. I had 3 guitars:
gtr left - panned at 9 o clock, added a little 1.2KHZ
gtr rght - panned at 3 o clock, added a little 1.2KHZ
gtr solo - centered
Bass guitar - centered
lead vocal - centered
doubled vocal - centered, super low in the mix
Drums - stereo track from logic. Didn't do much to that, just imported it.
Reverb - Plate. Diffusion at 60, predelay was 25ms and time was 2 seconds. Once I liked the reverb mix, I bounced it pre-fader to a stereo track so I could EQ out the mud. Then I turned off the reverb on all of the tracks and just used the fader on the new stereo track to bring it back in.
Delay - I did the same bounce as above. This was a short slapback stereo delay around 100ms, no predelay. EQ: rolled off everything under 225HZ. I think I only used this sparingly on the lead vocal.
Submixes:
when I was in a decent place with the mix, I did a hack to create the submixes, which actually worked really well. I sent each soloed group out on the main L/R outputs and out to my compressor and recorded them back in on stereo tracks. I monitored through headphones for this part. I didn't want to use the sends, because they are mono and it would flatten the reverbs and delays:
I soloed each "group" section and did a bounce:
rhythm mix (bass & drums) -> main out L/R -> Art PRO VLA Compressor -> inputs G/H -> stereo track 13-14
vocal mix -> main out L/R -> Art PRO VLA Compressor -> inputs G/H -> stereo track 15-16
guitar mix -> main out L/R -> Art PRO VLA Compressor -> inputs G/H -> stereo track 17-18
I forget the compressor settings, but they were mellow, only 1-2 db gain reduction to glue stuff together.
Mastering:
Multiband Compressor
Low 32Hz – 150Hz-18dB, 2.5:1, attack 20 ms, release 120ms, GR 1–2dB
Mid 150Hz – 3.5kHz-16dB 2.5:1 15ms100ms 2–3dB
High 3.5kHz – 18kHz-14dB, 3:1, attack 90ms, release 10ms, GR 1–2dB
Mastering EQ
Low +2dB, 100Hz
Mid -2dB, 1kHz, Q: 0.5
High -2dB 12kHz
I normalized and then did the trick Phil mentions in his videos about going back in and using the basic compressor to knock -1 db off the normalized mix to keep it from hitting zero at the loudest part.
I think that was it! Let me know if you guys have any other questions. I have gone to the dark side for the moment and back in a DAW, but I do plan to finish my acoustic album on the DP-24 in the future.
