Mixing QWO | Part IV

This week, our group got into the studio to mix what we captured at the Queensland Wind Orchestra's Innovations concert. For this mixing session we used an AVID S6 studio with a 7.1 speaker system - a very lovely console, might I add.

PICS

When we loaded up our session, team member Stephen had already added markers to the beginning of each song and put 10 seconds of fading applause at the end of each piece. When we played it back through the speakers we could immediately hear the effect of the room mics and the natural reverb that it gave the recording. We could also identify the warm tone that was added to the mix by using the AKG C414s, so we were really happy with our microphone choices.

The Organisation

Straight away we learnt that session management was so important. From the simple things like the naming conventions of tracks and colour coding, to more complicated things like signal routing, so as to use as little CPU power as possible. Each microphone was categorised according to type and stage position and were grouped together using their own buses. For example, the two mics that were overhead of the conductor were sent a MAIN bus, where they were then edited with plug-ins such as compressors and EQs that were suited to the levels picked up by those microphones. This procedure was followed with the backstage, out-rigging, and room mics and ensured that the mixing we were doing was specific to each position and type of microphone.

some plug-ins are greyed out because they are unavailable on the device this picture was taken on

All of these buses were then run through a MIX and PRINT track. The Mix track had a compressor and EQ on it to bring up the levels of the entire mix in a way that was pleasing to the ear, and the Print track was the recorded file that was bounced, containing all of our edits.

The Editing

Following our lecturer Adrian's instructions, we quite particular about the plug-ins we used and why. We learnt a lot about what our lecturer likes to use and some of his personal tips and tricks for when he mixes something.

1. First, we pulled up a BlueCat frequency analyser on the master and located the 'rumble' frequency of the room, so that we could edit it out using EQs.

2. Then, he made the 4 tracks that would contain the buses for each category of mic, to give them seperate EQ inputs as mentioned above.

3. We also put a compressor in each bus track as a way to ‘reign in’ the dynamic range at the very loudest parts of each song. Of course the beauty in the classical genre is its ability for a large/wide dynamic range, so we had to be careful not to overdo this step and not disturb the depth of the mix

4. On the mix track specifically, we placed a limiter, expander, and compressor to manipulate the levels of our overall mix (a 1dB limiter threshold was put at each tracks loudest point to help contain it a bit

5. The overall mix was then sent to the outboard reverb unit M7 from Bricasti, on the preset space West Church, which was a warm-sounding reverb in a space that sounded like the Old Museum.

6. A Multiband dynamics plugin was also added to give some warmth to the mix

7. Finally, anything below the frequency 98.5 kHz was brought up by 4dB, to add a little more weight to the double bass instrument and to make sure that it cut through the mix a little more.

And that was all the editing we did to the mix! After that it was all a matter is including the right length of applause (10 seconds, fade out), and bouncing the tracks to be sent to the orchestra. It is definitely a less complicated mixing process than what I have experienced with other genres such as rock and pop. I liked that there is minimal editing in classical music mixing, as I feel like the whole process is stripped back and more 'old school' (which is much more my style of music), relying mostly on good instruments, good musicians, and a good space.

I learnt so much from this experience, and am very thankful to my lecturer for taking me on and teaching us all how he handles a mix. This project has definitely inspired me and given me the confidence to reach further into the realms of orchestra recording - maybe I will even focus my final project around something like this!