D8 Skills #35 & D9 | Mixing 'Life on Mars' (Piano)
Today, I began (and believe finished) mixing 'Life on Mars' that we recorded yesterday.
I set out by firstly panning, and then setting levels. I grouped the two ORTF room mics so that I only had to move one fader to move both of them. I brought them right down to silence and then brought them up to taste. This took a few minutes of doing that over and over again.
I decided that the Yoga CT-07a didn't sound good at all so I muted it.
Then, I applied EQ to the Bass Rode NT2-A and Treble Rode NT2-A separately. Here is what I did with the Bass Rode NT2-A:
I boosted the low-end at 99.3Hz by 6.2dB, took out some low-mids at 530.3Hz by -2.dbB, and added a low-cut at 39.9Hz at a gradient of 12dB per octave.
... and here is what I did with the Treble Rode NT2-A:
I boosted the top-end at 12.51kHz by 4.1dB, removed some low-mids at 458.5Hz by -2.7dB, and added a low-cut at 45Hz at a gradient of 12dB per octave.
I then created an AUX track that the two rooms mics would have their outputs running into. I did this because I wanted to mix these the same, unlike with close up Rodes. I first added an EQ, boosting the top-end at 6.16kHz by 4.5dB, and adding a low-cut at 75.9Hz at a gradient of 12dB per octave:
... and then compressed them quite heavily which makes the roominess of the room sound grander:
Finally, I removed a noticeable ‘knock’ / ‘crack’ sound at 56s by duplicating the same chord played later, and overlaying it onto the chord with the knock. I used crossfades to make this sound seamless.
Here is the mixdown:
