Mixing And Production

Mixing And Production

All tracks were recorded at home, with some parts of Saz Baglama and Zurna being recorded at Portsmouth University Studios using Shure SM57 and AKG C414 microphones.

Mixing is predominately in Reaper with some elements mixed in Logic Pro.

I try and keep a consistent approach to my mixes without overcomplicating. Recently, I have started to use SSL channel strips on all my mixes as I find that the channel strip is a great "Everything in one place" plugin with regard to EQ and compression. However, I do tend to use the CLA2 compressor frequently.

Convology is my choice for a reverb VST and the majority of the other VST's that I use are from the Reaper resources available.

Mastering

I decided to use the physical mastering Massive Passive EQ by Manley to master my tracks, so in preparation for that task I've have watched some tutorials to acquaint myself with the operation of Manley units.

(Access Analog, 2020)

(Universal Audio, 2024)

I booked a studio session and ran all of the tracks for this project through the Manley Massive Passive EQ. Output from channels 33 & 34 was routed to the Manley and the return was routed to two new channels on the desk for the recorded track. I then imported all of the songs onto one track in Logic, muted the recording track, hit record and the resultant output through the Manley was recorded on the "record" track as mastered versions of the songs.

I split the output into the individual songs.

 

Manley Massive Passive EQ module

Neve Genysys Black Mixing Desk

In terms of the mastered outputs, I have mixed views. I always like to play every song that I mix through a variety of audio units, from a phone speaker to the studio monitors, to ensure that there is consistency. I also like to do an A/B comparison between pre-mastered and mastered versions.

The mastered outputs do pick out some of the frequencies better than the pre-mastered versions and certainly win the "loudness wars". However, I observed that there was a small amount of distortion and audio crackle on the mastered versions, and personally I think that some of the song dynamics are lost. 

I have revisited the mastering and applied the Manley variable MU compressor to all tracks with a slow attack and carefully ensuring that tracks were not overcompressed. This improves the result of the previous master versions, in my opinion.

However, after more listening I can’t live with the audio crackle that was introduced by the outboard units so will be staying with my mastered versions.

Here is an example of one of the "bad mastered" tracks where you can observe the distortion and audio crackle.

pompeyjazz · Ruby Dance (Bad master example)