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So, I had a thought (which can be dangerous) about mixing technique.

I was thinking that we could assemble a group of tracks for a song. Nothing crazy, just a 2-3 min. peice with drums, bass, a couple of guitars, and some vocals. Anything really.

Once the tracks have been assembled and made available, we could have some of our very own Recording.org members try their hand at mixing them!

My aI'm is that hopefully one or two of the moderators or more experienced proffessionals on the site will mix the tracks and we can compare them to that of someone with less experience and discuss what techniques were used. I think this would be a great way to a/b mixes and techniques.

My aI'm here is not a competitive one, only informational. I wouldn't want to see people making fun of anyone else for making a mistake or doing something differently, as the point of the exercise is to see what we're all doing, and how it sounds.

So let me know what you all thinks about this. If it's a silly idea, then so be it, but I think it might be a lot of fun.

Comments

soapfloats Fri, 07/24/2009 - 23:33

I think as long as whoever tracks it is considered to be generally reputable and w/ quality equipment.
Yeah, they gotta do it, but I think many of the likely nominees would have projects covering those bases anyways.

One of the few "school" things I did related to recording was a workshop run by a few local pro studio engineers. Mixing a session we were present for was part of the workshop. We had a little bit of consensus input on some of the tracking (mic placement, choice, and such).
Very eye opening. Different DAWs, capabilities, plugs, experience and direction from each student (I think we had about 10 of us).

This could be a wonderful experience for the members here. I understand that SOMEONE has to do the legwork, and getting quality people w/ the time to mess w/ it is a little difficult, but it gets my vote.

Kev Sat, 07/25/2009 - 16:51

good idea

this has been done with Mastering ... Womp
and did start out life here

a multitrack method will require big downloads unless you provide a CD ... DVD rom with the raw tracks

Garage Band and PT did have a NIN track available online

I still think it is a good idea
and could provide a very cool training tool and a way of explaining mix techniques

example
have track available online to one song
units of audio the length of a short song
the downloader can grab these tracks and import them into their editor of choice
each track is the same length and same size
when the song is played in raw form it will make sense and verse chorus will all be in the right place and all in sync

so

a basic 16 into 2 mix will provide a simple version of the song

NOW
anyone can provide a new more complicated mix of the song and the only thing that needs to be uploaded is the mix session and everyone can use this file to understand what the RO member is trying to describe

everything from edit techniques to mix techniques
parallel compression
effect insert
sub grouping
headphone and cue sends
and so on and on ... and on
....
add to this the use of midi files

would require some rules and some management so as not to get crazy
but could be very valuable

I have talked about this often over the years of RO and as Code ... said
" "Who tracks it" came up a few times. "

I should have got off my arse years ago and started something

apstrong Sat, 07/25/2009 - 20:38

The folks over on recordingwebsite.com ran something like this last year. One of the more professional users who had the facilities and equipment got permission from one of his clients to share all the raw tracks from a song after a recent session. He made them available as a zip file to download (huge) and a bunch of people took a crack at mixing it. Afterwards I think they took the winning mixdown (settled by voting) and let anyone who wanted to try have a go at mastering it.

Kev Sat, 07/25/2009 - 21:59

yep
it's a big project
and someone will have to devote time and effort to manage it
probably need some strict rules to keep things on track

the original poster did say
" My aim here is not a competitive one, only informational. "

to achieve this and keep it cross-platform and multi application could be tricky
but
still worth giving much thought