With this mix I was drawn to keep the bass line as a major part of the mix. I used the Soundtoys Radiator plugin along with compression to bring that element to the forefront.    The Bass guitar has this great picked punk bass sound that really brings the attitude. To match the bass, I rode the drive knob on the Decapitator plugin on the drum buss. This gives the tom drum sections some boom in the low end and helps them stand out during the chorus while everything is competing for space.

Vocal effects were fairly straightforward but I did use Logic’s new Chormaverb plugin from their latest release version. I used a room setting and cut the low end to keep the vocals clear and present. On the mix bus, I used Andrew Scheps’ rear bus technique to keep the guitars present in the mix and still present the drums and bass as the driving force of the song. Enjoy!

This was a mix that I worked on before the new year and have sat on it for a bit. It took a lot of time to finalize this mix. It has about 4-5 song movements throughout the whole recording, so it felt like mixing 5 different songs.

The first song of the suite required some side chain detection on the bass synth. This was side chained to the kick drum to allow the low end punch of the kick to pop through and allow the synth to hold the low end when it wasn’t present.

The vocals during the second movement provided me a chance to pan the vocals slightly given the multiple vocals and robotic like effects present in the performance. I think this helped each vocal be heard and provided a level of instability that fit the lyrical content of the part.

The bass guitar during the 4th movement was another part that required some balancing in the low end. Some notes were louder than others and required some strategic reductions in certain frequencies. This was a long song but definitely a enjoyable music journey. Take a listen below!

This was a fun mix! I loved the blend of Irish folk with Rock elements. The drums were really rocking, so I did some moderate parallel compression on the snare and kick. I also used the new Little Plate reverb from Soundtoys. This does a great job of giving the snare space and body.

The acoustic guitar and piano were two other instruments I really wanted to make pop through the mix because they added a certain musical depth to the song over the brute force of the electric guitars and drums. I used the ELI Arousor to perform some gentle compression on these instruments. I think the piano in particular really pops through a great times in the mix.

Lastly, I created a parallel mix bus chain without drums that had heavy compression applied. This is similar to Andrew Scheps’ rear bus technique and allows the quiter elements of the mix to be brought forward without the transients of the drums hitting the compressor.

Here is the first single from an exciting Milwaukee music project by “Aldraz Qob” titled “Fire Flies.”

I had the honor of both mixing and mastering this project with Aldraz Qob’s musical mastermind Jake Rasbornik this last month. The rest of his EP to be released soon!