Initially, I used all the Dohnavur STEMS provided to me. I decided that I would edit these first before adding my own melodies.

As I liked the melody of both the bass and lead synth from the Dohnavur STEMS, I recreated this by using the same notes for each but chose instruments that were different from the original. I have detailed all of these below:

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I carried out the mixing of this track in 2 stages. The first was in Ableton with all of the electronic elements before moving into ProTools to mix all audio files. I always start by creating a balanced mix using faders before adding any effects. My aim with mixing was to create a very ethereal sounding mix with lots of reverb that could be used as part of a soundtrack for TV or film.

I placed all my tracks in routing folders to make file management easier and to improve my workflow. These were grouped as Midi, Drums, Cymbals, Guitars and Ruler and I’ll explain the editing and mixing under these headings.

I didn’t have to do too much in ProTools for these tracks as I completed the mixing in Ableton. However, I noticed with the bass instrument that the first couple of notes had a harsh attack and you could basically hear the sound of when the note on the keyboard was pressed. I had tried to fix this in Ableton by turning the attack time right down on the instrument but it still didn’t work. I decided to automate some compression to work only on these first couple of notes as it smooths out later in track. I set the threshold very high, almost as if no compression was being applied. It sounds very subtle but after using the master bypass to turn it on and off, as well as using my lecturer as a second pair of ears, it had the desired effect as I only wanted it for the transients and not the whole audio.

I used compression on all my drum tracks to give it a more full and controlled sound. In particular for the kick and floor tom it was to add more punch and also to even out any peaks for the full performance. I used EQ on all tracks except the overheads and room mic. The reason for this was to cut the bleed of the other drums on each individual track but I wanted to leave the overheads as they were to give a full picture of the kit. All the drum tracks were placed in a routing folder where I placed the Studio Reverb plugin on the Medium Theatre setting. I wanted the drums to sound very reverberant but also keep some of the punchy characteristic sounds.

The cymbals recorded were to be extra flourishes and to add some ambient sounds, so I wanted them to have a dreamy, otherworldly feel. I used EQ to sculpt these tracks by cutting the high and low-end frequencies. The low end because I didn’t want it to interfere with the low end already present and the high end because of the melody line. Whilst doing this I decided to try and use EQ creatively instead of purely as a corrective tool. I ended up dipping some of the mid frequencies where the cymbals sat (roughly around 1.5kHz) which ended up giving them this dark, tonal quality and fit in quite nicely with the feel of the track. During client feedback, my lecturer had suggested removing this and allowing the cymbals to be brighter just to see if it would add anything. After auditioning both versions, we both ended up agreeing that my original processing worked best as the cymbals brightness stood out for then wrong reasons. I also used the Studio Reverb plugin this time on the large theatre setting and I turned up the amount it would be used in the mix.

I used EQ with a high cut filter to remove some of the high end as you could hear parts of the strings ringing that weren’t harmonics but more due to the performer’s fingers pressing. I added the Air Flanger plugin to, again, create a spacey sound that fits with the feel of the track and also what I presented through my pitch and plan. I then added reverb with Studio Reverb plugin on the setting large theatre to make them really big and reverberant. I decided against using a large reverb such as canyon or one with a long decay time as the audio recorded allowed the chords to ring out and I didn’t want to create extra bleed and mess with the timing. After a client feedback session with my lecturer, he pointed out that the guitar strums were too loud in the mix. I agreed as my intentions were to have these pushed back in the mix to create distance and texture.

Another point that came up during my client feedback session was that the beginning of the track felt a little empty in terms of rhythmic/percussive elements. I had mentioned to my lecturer that I had been intending to use some everyday objects to create strange, percussive sounds such as rulers. He agreed that this was an avenue to explore so I ended up recording some ruler hits. I record 2 different versions, one of staccato hits and another where I hung a part of the ruler off the edge of a table, pulled and let it go making a rattling sound. I liked both of the sounds and decided to use them together. I used some compression on each hit, purely to control the peaks of the transients and control the dynamic range overall as I wanted the audio to ring out and this helped bring it into balance with the power of the original hit. I also used some EQ to rectify this as with the force of the initial hit it brought too much low end into a track that features in this frequency range heavily. It also created a weird “boomy sound” so I used a low-cut filter to control this. For the 2nd ruler track, I also cut the high frequency as I wanted to solely focus on the mids which is where the sound was strongest. I left these open on the 1st ruler however as when playing I would pull the ruler back along the table whilst it was rattling as it changed the pitch of this and wanted to leave that in.