Overall, the tracking and mixing for project #1 went really well. Both steps -- the recording and the mixing -- were super fun and went off with little trouble.
The one main trouble was finding a time to record. Weekends were hard for our group since a lot of us worked on the weekends, and then it was hard to find a client that would want to come in to record really late at night on Tuesday or Thursday. Thankfully we were able to get in to the studio at a decent time on Tuesday the 15th around 6pm. Right when we got in we were introduced to our client who was going to play some guitar for our recording. We got right to work setting everything up. All of us in the group did a little bit of each step, so we all contributed to a lot of stuff. Thankfully I still had my notes on signal flow I took from the demonstration so we were able to get sound into protools with just a little bit of work and a few small obstacles. The headphones took a little more time and brain power to set up. However, with enough experimenting, we were able to get the sound in the headphones up and running and by then we had the loops all chopped up, the click powered on, and ourselves ready to record.
The actual recording went very smoothly. The mics sounded great and in about two and a half hours total we were able to take away our recording for good. The main thing I would have done differently was to record more takes, as became evident in our small group time that what we recorded sounded a bit off. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20, so it was a good lesson to learn and will definitely help me with any other future recording projects.
For the mixing, the first step was trying to fix the timing on our tracks that we recorded. It was a process that hurt my brain a bit; sometimes it sounded too fast, sometimes too slow, but in the end I think my efforts helped a bunch to make it sound more in time. I think that even with a lot more time the mix might still be off by a bit, and definitley reinforced the lesson that you need to record multiple takes and make sure they sound PRISTINE before you shut down the recording for good.
The actual mixing after the editing was a lot of fun! Especially the EQ. For this mix, I tried to go out of the box and throw caution to the wind. Some of the drastic things I tried sounded awful, but a few sounded great and showed me how to create very specific, amazing sounds. I tried to boost the mids on a lot of the guitar to give it more sound, and for my special effect I put a bit of distortion on the mono guitar track that I ended up loving even though it really changed the sound of the piece.
Over these past few mixes I've gotten a lot more comfortable with the EQ and love touching up a sound to make it sound really awesome. However, what I still need to work on is compression. I've been looking at some of the presets on the plug-ins and been learning a bit more, but the concepts sometimes still go over my head and the reasons and settings don't quite click in my head yet. My main thing this semester is going to be trying to wrap my head around the whys and hows of compression so my mixes can sound even better.

http://www.attackmagazine.com/technique/walkthroughs/mix-bus-compression/

The first article I found was at the website for Attack Magazine. They explain that there are many producers who will put the compression on the Master Bus either before recording even starts, and some will leave it to mastering engineer. However, a decision like this should not be take lightly as compression can cause many things. They give a quick skim through what a compressor does, and then goes right to work. The great thing about this article is that it is very interactive and encourages some hands-on examples. However, it also supplies a lot of audio samples so the reader can hear what the compression sounds like. It also touches briefly on limiting and how it has contributed to the loudness war and how it can damage a mix. In the end, the quote that hit me was “Think colour and shape – not loudness – and you should be on the right lines.” This definitely helps me with my mix when I think more about how the songs sounds at the end, rather than just using compression as a tool to change the volume.

http://productionadvice.co.uk/buss-compressor/

The next article was found on Production Advice. The article is written with wit and humor so it was a pleasant experience to read along with all the advice it gave. Ian Shepherd writes that choosing to put compression over the buss is not a simple choice, and one that he struggles to explain. A lot of good mixes have one, however, the chance that the mix is over compressed is also a huge factor. He says he has heard way too many mixes that are dull and lifeless due to this issue, and just getting rid of a buss compressor solves this, but it also takes away the good things that come with one. He lists a bunch of do’s and dont’s. Do: add it early on, get a great compressor as possible, listen to the mix without it as well. Don’t: put too much on, have to compress everything. Less is more, but it definitely adds a certain sound you cannot get without one. This helped me out in my mix a lot, especially how they listed a specific list of things to do and not to do in simple terms.

Now we can get down to the actual drum mix....
Here is the mix followed by the pictures!

Overall, this project was very fun to do and definitely challenged me in a way I have never been before. This was very different but I think because of that I feel like I learned a lot and was able to explore the software and plugins a lot more.
For my song to mimic, I chose Stockholm Syndrome by Muse. I chose this right away because ai always admired the drum sounds and playing of Muse. So, I began to delve into the song to observe the drums.
The snare has a very nice punch to it, as well as a whip like sound, sort of like a crack. After a lot of experimenting and a bit of research, the EQ helped a lot with helping define the punch and power behind the drum. This took a lot of the studio time but in the end I feel like I got really close to what the snare should sound like.
The bass was a different matter. After refining it with the gate I was able to get most of the background noise out; however, anytime the bass drum played the cymbals also came through the gate. I was never really able to get that out. However I was able to get the short, fat sound I wanted to to make it sound like Muse.
The toms did not need too much besides the usual EQ and compression to make it sound similar. I was also able to EQ the OHs and Room mics to get the clutter out and help boost the other instruments.
Over all, it was very interesting to get to do something like this. With enough time I was able to find most of the secrets to getting the instruments to sound the way I wanted to, however, there were a few things I could not figure out. I look forward to learning more this semester and hopefully figuring out some of the things I could not with this drum mix.