but not in way that was harsh or shallow. In particular, you mentioned the lead vocal, and that was treated with a Neve 81 strip, which includes emulations of the preamp stage, as well as the EQ section, and I think it really made a difference on the lead vocals, bringing it forward. 1176's, LA2's, Neve and SSL channel strips, and I think it would be wrong of me to say that these weren't also a substantial part of the difference. Along with the Slate VCC, I recently purchased and used IK Multimedia's T-Racks processors, too. To be fair, I did use some new plugs on this mix that I hadn't used on the previous mixes. I don't hear it as a dramatic difference, but sometimes the smallest changes can make the biggest difference. The Trident did add a sense of glue that I felt had been missing. I like this particular mix because I think it melded in a very nice was sonically. and while trying to clean up and get it together, can't help but continue to think about it and see opportunities for it everywhere he turns. it's not a song about a guy missing a girl, it's more along the lines of a guy missing his fix. None of the tracks changed performance - wise, so it was really a matter of getting them to glue together in a way that made it more listenable, and perhaps more attractive. I'm the writer, as well as the engineer, so I've heard the song so many times, in so many different forms, rewrites, re-recordings and mixes, that at this point I'm merely looking for the best sounding version on the whole, and your comment hit home with me that maybe I've accomplished it this time, because, as you mentioned, you weren't crazy about the song initially, and now, you hear it differently. When that happens, I feel lucky, because I don't feel that it happens enough with my stuff. There are songs I love that I dig equally because of both the performances and the mix treatments.
and I don't think that there's any doubt that a mix can add to the experience of the song. Donny - does the Trident mix congeal for you as well or is this my bias? Does it change your experience of the song? This time I got a Steve Miller and Foreigner vibe from the song and responded to it much more on an emotional level.įor me it shows me how even subtle treatments themselves determine the emotional response to a song by the listener - really powerful lesson for me.īeing on the 2-bus I guess this universal treatment serves to unify the tracks and make them sound more a part of the whole? When people recorded to tape I would assume that songs benefited from an overall organic sonic treatment from the tape itself - and that with digital we can lack that? Help me make sense of what I'm responding to emotionally here. My experience is totally different now - as soon as the vocal comes in it draws me and keeps me to it and that guitar line becomes less dominant and just part of the song. I initially didn't really warm to the song when you posted it earlier - my ear kept being drawn the the guitar line that was slightly reminiscent of "Rainbow in the Dark" and I couldn't get past that. I'll offer that the way the vocals sound now in the mix w/ the Trident makes the song work so much better for me. Written by me, I also did backing vox, guitars, bass, drums.ĭonnythompson/i-still-see-you_jan-28-2015-mix-trident-2-bus-with-fade here's a mix with the VCC Trident on the 2-bus. The other remaining choice was the RCA Tube Console setting, and it was just too "thick" and lacked "silk" in the highs.Īnyway.
I really like the API setting for tracks like guitars and kick/snare, it seems to make things "pop" more than the other settings, but on this, it "popped" a little too much LOL for what I wanted to hear. The SSL had a nicer definition on the lower end, but lacked punch in the mids. The Neve was almost too warm, rounding out the bottom end to where it sounded a bit too thick. I suppose I could have thickened it up if I had driven it harder, but this setting sounded the best, to me anyway. It seemed to give me the nicest balance of overall warmth and clarity. Surprisingly, I ended up choosing the Trident setting, with input levels set at +3 and the Drive setting at +2.
As an offshoot of the current thread about the Slate VCC collection, I thought I'd experiment a bit and post a mix I did recently, using the Slate VCC on the 2-bus.