On Friday I finished up Mark Stein's (of 60's group Vanilla Fudge) 4 song project for the documentary, "Rockin' the Wall". If you read my last post about the tracking sessions you know I got some really incredible signals on tape (meaning ProTools). As part of the mix process I sent the inside kick drum mic, the snare mic, all of the toms, the bass guitar, the B3, synth and lead vocals to out Otari 2" analog tape machine at 15ips. Wow! What a difference! The tape really glued the performances together and tamed the dynamics of the drums nicely. Also, 15ips (inches per second on tape) while noisier, delivers a nicer, fatter bottom for rock music.
During the actual mixdown, I really only had to concentrate on the blend to make the mix pop. I gated the room mics (keyed by the snare and toms) and processed the voice with the SSL Duende channel. I ran the guitars (I kept those digital along with the overhead drum mics to keep a modern sound) through the Motown eqs and a Yamaha compressor so they could keep up with the huge tracks that went to analog tape. Any other eq's were on the Amek Recall that we just re-commissioned in Studio A. That console was originally used for live sound situations and has headroom for days! It's easy to get a loud, open and brilliant mix with that board.
I hope Mark will allow us to post one of his songs on the Bongiovi Acoustics Myspace music page for all of us to listen to. We may have to wait until the movie is finished though, of course. Until then, I have a tiny video clip on my Facebook page of the tape transfer: http://www.facebook.com/joseph.butera?ref=profile
