iii Trio Project: Mixing "Tell Me A Bedtime Story"

For mixing "Tell Me A Bedtime Story", I used all 9 tracks including both room mics. I used the same article Jazz Music Mixing Tips for Beginners by Emerson Maningo on Audio Issues to help me again with EQing the drums and bass. This cover is also longer than "Naima", going for about 9 mins and because the instruments were dynamic in this cover again, I didn't have to go through any automating the whole track (Thank God!).

Kick EQ

Like the previous cover, I started with EQing but started with the drums. With the kick, I followed the articles tips, which were:

- Cutting off 6dB at 150Hz with a 1.0 Q

- Cutting off 9ddB at 400Hz with a 2.5 Q

- Boosting 3dB at 1kHz with a 0.8 Q (Maningo, 2011)

Again like the EQ'ed bass in "Naima", I was surprised that the article suggested to cut a bit of the 150Hz and below area but raising the 1kHz area and reducing a bit off at 400Hz helped the kick to come out clearer and I was able to hear the impact of the skin. With the reverb added to the mix at the end, it made the kick sound big anyway so it was all good.

Snare EQ

With EQing the snare, I also applied the article's EQ settings which were:

- Cutting -6dB at 2kHz

- Boosting 8kHz by 3dB

- Boosting 100Hz by 3dB (Maningo, 2011)

This helped to capture the high frequencies of the impact and by raising the low end, it allowed the thump-ness of the snare to come through mix as it sounded too light before I applied EQ.

Overhead EQ

With the 2 overhead microphones that were picking up the cymbals and hi-hats, I used my ears to EQ them so they could fit well in the mix, without them sounding tinny or too overpowering. My settings for both tracks were:

- Cutting off 100Hz and below (to remove any unwanted bass frequencies to not clog up the low end of the entire mix)

- Boosting the 500Hz area by 4dB (to bring out the mids more as it put those instruments towards the back fo the mix

I left the frequencies above 5kHz as raising them made the cymbals sound really tinny and it made the instruments louder.

Bass EQ

I EQ'd the bass the same as the "Naima" track as it seemed to sound really nice and brought out the raw, low-mid sound of the bass. I raised the hi-end of the bass to bring out some air as it was sounding too muted.

- Cut off at 100 Hz

- Have a medium boost at 150Hz with a 1.4 Q

- Add a 6dB boost at 500Hz with a 1.0 Q (Maningo, 2011)

Vibraphone EQ

I changed the EQ of the 2 vibraphones from the previous track as I had to fit it well in the mix with the drums as well. I reduced a bit of the 100Hz for it to have its lower tones present still. Then I raised the 1kHz area to bring out the mids and to bring both tracks forward in the mix and also raised a bit of the hi-end, around 6kHz to hear the ting-ness of the vibraphones.

Room Mic EQ

I EQ'd the room mic this time because the drums were in this track. I reduced a medium amount of the 100Hz and below area as the kick drum as well as the low frequencies of the bass was overpowering, and just raised bit of the mid section to bring the sound out more as it sounded muted.

Room Reverb

I created the same aux track as the previous song and selected the same plugin and preset as room sound of the preset sounded really nice with the previous track.

This aux track was coming in through bus 1-2 and created a send through to bus 1-2 to all instruments except the Spitfire track. Because I wanted to have all the instruments sounding like they were in the same space, the amount of send for all instruments were pretty much the same on average but with a few being higher/lower than others due to some signals being louder than the others.

Top from L to R: Kick, Bass, Overhead L (applies to Overhead R as well)

Bottom from L to R: Room Mic, Snare, Vibraphone L (applies to Vibraphone R as well)

Vibraphone Low Signal

The two vibraphone tracks were confusing because the right track was recorded at a lower level than the left signal. Before I noticed the imbalance, when I got to panning, it was really hard to tell which signal was going where and at times, my brain would think the left signal was coming out of the right side but then I realised one was not recorded as loud as the other, causing this imbalance. So to fix this I had to gain the signal about 6dB from its original level.

Mixing

To start off, I mixed the drums first. I used the overheads to help me level and pan the instruments (drummer's perspective) so then I was able to get a good balance of the drums before adding the other instruments. I panned the overheads 50% left and right and just had the kick and snare panned to the centre. Because the whole track was recorded at a low level, I allowed myself to gain the levels past unity but not anywhere above 5dB.

Once the drums were set, I brought the bass level up to -3dB, where it was just at the right level to not sound too dominant but just clear, especially with its low frequencies that can sound quite loud.

With the vibraphones, there had to be a massive difference in level as explained before about the low signal of the right side but I just made sure they sounded equally balanced on both sides. I panned Vibe L 25% to the left and Vibe R 30% to the right. By ear, these settings equally weighed both signals on each side well and if it weren't for one signal being lower than the other, all their settings and levels would've been identical and easier to manage.

I brought the room mic up to just under -5dB and panned it 10% to the right so that I'd be able to hear some difference between the room mic as well as the mix. I mirrored the same panning with the Spitfire track but only brought up the level to about -15dB as I didn't want to hear too much lo-fi noise in the mix.

Hope you enjoyed my process with mixing "Tell Me A Bedtime Story"! It was really fun to mix this jazz track as well as the previous ones, which has taught me new small techniques to mix jazz instruments as well as making me a bit faster at mixing.

Bibliography

Maningo, E. (2011). Jazz Music Mixing Tips for Beginners. Retrieved from https://www.audio-issues.com/music-mixing/jazz-music-mixing-tips-for-beginners/