The Tale Of 3 Consoles

The mixdown process was spread over 3 sessions. I was lucky enough to book 6 hours on the Duality followed by 2 hours on the AWS 900 and 3 hours on the C75.

Session 1: Duality

My plan on the duality was to use the Cartec EP1QA as much as possible, the modern recreation of the Pultec Model EQP1A, a legend brought to life during the 50’s drawing me towards the golden era of jazz and that precise yet warm sound I was looking for.

The overheads were the first thing I put through the Cartec’s attenuating anything under 30 Hz to clear out the low end from the cymbals which was taking away the crispness I desired. For the high end, I wanted it to sound bright yet warm and this is really where the Cartecs character comes to play. I set the dial to 8 KPS and added a boost of 8db. Normally on a Digital EQ, I wouldn’t take this approach but the harmonic distortion from applying this on the analog EQ was pleasing, straight away I heard the high end come to life without being too harsh or aggressive to the ear.

I then set my attention to the piano sax and trombone, after this first previous experience and the diversity of tonal differences I could achieve with satisfaction on the overheads I was excited to hear what it would do on the other elements. The Cartec’s have a unique characteristic when both the boost and attenuate filters are used simultaneously, described by Hugh Robjohns (2010) as a “resonant shelf” which I had planned to apply to these other elements. I applied the same method as before by just tweaking the dials trying to find what I could only describe as the sweet spot. The point where both elements had the sound I was looking for and just found their place in the mix. This really helped bring a gritty retro texture to the piano which was a very dry DI signal.

Already by just processing these channels, I could feel the character come to life on the track and I was able to move on to compressing the double bass. This was the first time I had worked with this double bass sound and was excited to see how much of the harmonics I could bring out, the vibrations coming from the strings, the pitch dives and the overall tone of the instrument was beautiful and I couldn’t wait to hear how the NEVE 2254 would tuck in the low end and brighten the mid-range. Using the technique of overcooking the compressor I found the sweet spot and set it with a 4:1 ratio, and the release time was set to auto I backed off some of the threshold to apply 2-3 dBs of GR.

Session 2: AWS 900

For the second part of the mixdown process, my goals were to send the vocals through the SPL Gold Mike and add a layer of reverb to the other tracks. The first step was the vocals, this was the first time I was using this preamp for its purpose rather than a creative effect on snares, etc on my own personal projects. If I’m honest I was expecting to hear a little more from the lamps but the coloration remained very subtle despite coming in hot and cranking the output right up and applying the so-called magic flair button.

I decided however that this was probably a good thing and that the result was just the touch of warmth that I needed and helped glue the vocals to the other instruments. This mix was already sounding great and by this time I was well and truly vibing by myself in the studio! My attention now turned to find a nice reverb to run everything through and I quickly came across a nice jazz hall on the MPX 500 that with a couple of tweaks was sounding great. I set up 2 return channels on the console and panned them hard left and right for the stereo image and 1 by one I sent the instruments through the reverb before changing decay times for the instruments, for example, a shorter decay time on the drum bus and a longer one on piano and vox, then leveling and finding a nice balance. Once I was satisfied with how the reverb returns sounded in the mix I always like to solo them and see how they sound by themselves, this is always a big eye-opener to if or not something is poking out too much.

Session 3: Custom series C75

The final part of the mixdown process was in the C75, initially, this part was more the cherry on the icing as I was already satisfied with the sound but I wanted to see my initial idea through to the end. My plan was to use 2 summing stages on the console, the first through the different group busses and the final through the main mix recorded out of the Retro o/p. By doing this I was to benefit from the unique character of the console and get that real analog edge. I had 3 hours so after setting the 2254’s on the main mix I started to play around riding faders as i was printing the mix to try and add a bit more creativity on my side however I found that the musicians already had mastered the dynamics as well as the tension in the track and only ended up bringing out the piano a little during the solo. The other prints where I tried harder to improvise as the musicians were playing along did not have the effect I was looking for.

I left the studio at 10:30 with a solid mix that I was happy with and a finished project to present in class on the following Wednesday.