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10-06-2011, 10:57 PM
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#1
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Cambridge, UK
Posts: 87
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50 Free Multitrack Downloads for Mixing Practice!
About six months ago I posted here to let people know about an on-line library of free multitrack downloads I'd put together for people to use for mixing practice. Since then, there've been quite a few developments, so I figured it might be time to post an update. Here's a quick summary of where things stand:
- There are now more 50 projects listed, covering a wide range of musical styles -- including more than 20 of the songs I've remixed for Sound On Sound magazine's 'Mix Rescue' column.
- Almost all the projects are now provided in full-length versions -- previously most of the projects were only 30-second excerpts on account of web-space restrictions, which drew a fair bit of criticism from some of the Reaperites on this board!
- All of the files are in uncompressed WAV format at 44.1kHz, without any mix processing or effects -- just the raw multitracks, in other words.
- There are MP3 previews provided alongside each listing so that you can get an idea of what to expect before downloading.
The link's the same as before: Library of Free Multitrack Downloads
Many thanks again to everyone who's contributed to this resource. I'm continuing to add further projects on a rolling basis (so far about five a month), and further contributions/links are always welcome. Have fun with them!
Last edited by triviul; 10-07-2011 at 02:35 AM.
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10-06-2011, 11:00 PM
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#2
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Pacific Northwest
Posts: 1,598
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Wow! That's really cool. Thanks for this.
Jedi
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I'm simply no longer here
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10-06-2011, 11:06 PM
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#3
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 1,231
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Great resource, thank you for doing this!
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10-06-2011, 11:27 PM
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#4
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: The Reflection Free Zone
Posts: 3,026
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brilliant, thanks mike
Wow, I really got lucky! Just been offline due to computer problems, testing the new computer for 3 minutes and this is the first thread I checked on the reaper forums.
The fact that they were only 30 sec grabs was the only thing that put me off using (and recommending) your stuff before.
Now that you have upgraded this resource I will feel very happy to recommend this to my students, rather than make veiled noises about 'mogg' and torrent sites (to find stuff for mixing practice).
Thanks again so much for providing this resource.
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10-07-2011, 12:33 AM
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#5
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Italy
Posts: 4,326
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Hi Mike, great to see you post around in REAPER forum!
I wrote you a few days ago about your book, and the more I read it the more I'm compelled it's a completely awesome bible for small studio composers.
The fact that you also use and value REAPER stock plugins makes me believe that you can really get satisfactory results with them - I mean, the DAW is not the limit.
- Mario
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10-07-2011, 01:05 AM
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#6
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Scribe
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Van Diemen's Land
Posts: 12,166
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Great stuff, thanks!
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10-07-2011, 01:27 AM
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#7
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Sweden.
Posts: 1,610
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mabian
The fact that you also use and value REAPER stock plugins makes me believe that you can really get satisfactory results with them - I mean, the DAW is not the limit.
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Yes, I feel the same. As a relative newcomer I've been held back from learning properly because I always try to get "the real gear". After reading a number of your SOS texts with their emphasis on stock plugs and seeing so much support for them on these forums I've started to work with REAPER more "out-of-the-box", with a few chosen add-ons. This has really accelerated my learning curve. Rather than spending hours dialing in on new plugins to make it sound good I'm learning what I'm really doing instead.
I'm starting to appreciate the bread and butter-characteristic of the native plugins and I really thinks it helps that they're pretty plain looking too. Much less distraction. These mix multitracks is a gold mine. I'm definitely going to try some out. And the book is on my Amazon wish list.
__________________
REAPER was made for you and me
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10-07-2011, 01:45 AM
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#8
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Polska, Komorów
Posts: 228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mabian
the more I read it the more I'm compelled it's a completely awesome bible for small studio composers.
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I am just reading this book and have to confirm above
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10-07-2011, 01:46 AM
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#9
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Polska, Komorów
Posts: 228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mabian
the more I read it the more I'm compelled it's a completely awesome bible for small studio composers.
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I am just reading this book and have to confirm above. It is very, very good.
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10-07-2011, 01:51 AM
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#10
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 46
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Amazing
Dear Reaper and DAW Friend
You have definitely scored a place in community forum support heaven. What an amazing and generous gift of work. Well done..even if I never use it I know it will be an incredible resource for teachers and learning. Congratulations - take a well deserved bow.
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10-07-2011, 08:58 AM
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#11
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 2,173
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You, Sir, have just made my Week-End!
Thank You!!
__________________
Yep's First 3 Years in PDF's
HP Z600 w/3GHz 12 Core, 48GB Memory, nVidia Quadro 5800, 240GB SSD OS drive, 3 480GB SSD Sample/Storage drives, 18TB External Storage, Dual 27" Monitors
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10-07-2011, 09:37 AM
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#12
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 642
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hamish
The fact that they were only 30 sec grabs was the only thing that put me off using (and recommending) your stuff before.
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Ah, ok. Download cancelled. Who would give you full songs anyway (for free)..
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10-07-2011, 09:45 AM
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#13
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Dayton, Ohio USA
Posts: 1,714
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anomaly
Ah, ok. Download cancelled. Who would give you full songs anyway (for free)..
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I think you didn't read it closely enough.
They are full length tracks. They USED to be only excerpts, but not any more.
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10-07-2011, 10:00 AM
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#14
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 613
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Thanks, Mike! I'll be checking these out.
I'd like to throw out another A++ recommendation for "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio". I find myself going back to it again and again. Great stuff!
__________________
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” - George Carlin
"We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution." - Bill Hicks
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10-07-2011, 12:02 PM
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#15
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Southeast Michigan
Posts: 260
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I'll be checking these out as well, thanks!
I also just ordered the book everyone has been highly recommending. Looking forward to reading and using it!
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10-07-2011, 12:54 PM
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#16
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 2,173
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinW
I think you didn't read it closely enough.
They are full length tracks. They USED to be only excerpts, but not any more.
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Agreed.....
__________________
Yep's First 3 Years in PDF's
HP Z600 w/3GHz 12 Core, 48GB Memory, nVidia Quadro 5800, 240GB SSD OS drive, 3 480GB SSD Sample/Storage drives, 18TB External Storage, Dual 27" Monitors
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10-07-2011, 01:32 PM
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#17
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 708
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d/l today. guess i'll have to buy your book - it's on my wishlist. Thanks for making these available.
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10-07-2011, 02:03 PM
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#18
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 1,272
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Thanks! I really like mixing peoples' stuff. I'm such a nerd.
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10-07-2011, 04:09 PM
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#19
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Berlin
Posts: 11,817
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Hmm. Thanks for reminding us again.
I love to practice with stuff like this. And other stuff.
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10-07-2011, 09:50 PM
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#20
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 31
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Really cool! Thanks!
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10-08-2011, 02:47 AM
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#21
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: East London
Posts: 1,719
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anomaly
Who would give you full songs anyway (for free)..
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Me! One of mine's on there.
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10-08-2011, 02:53 AM
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#22
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Cambridge, UK
Posts: 87
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First of all, thanks for all the kind comments -- I'm just glad to be helping people improve their mixing!
Quote:
Originally Posted by hamish
Now that you have upgraded this resource I will feel very happy to recommend this to my students.
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I'm glad this will be helpful for your teaching work -- it was because I'd had trouble finding decent multitrack materials when I did some teaching a few years back that I decided to put the library together. The problem I'm finding now, though, is that it seems to me that a lot of teachers still haven't heard of its existence, and I don't really know how to get the word out to them. Any ideas on that? Is there maybe a dedicated teachers links page or mailing list ot something that I've missed? Any help on that angle would be much appreciated!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anomaly
Ah, ok. Download cancelled. Who would give you full songs anyway (for free)..
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Only a nutcase like me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sibben
After reading a number of your SOS texts with their emphasis on stock plugs and seeing so much support for them on these forums I've started to work with REAPER more "out-of-the-box", with a few chosen add-ons. This has really accelerated my learning curve. Rather than spending hours dialing in on new plugins to make it sound good I'm learning what I'm really doing instead.
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Thanks! And your comment has reminded me of an idea I had specifically for this forum. Would it be of any use if I were to post the Reaper project files for some of those Mix Rescues? I wouldn't be able to host the audio, and you might not be able to load some of the plug-ins I've used on your own system, but you'd still be able to see the project layout and routing, where all the audio is, what samples and things I've added where, what I've done with the stock Reaper plug-ins (which I use a lot, along with tons of freeware). You might even catch me swearing in the Item Notes...
I've thought for a long time that there's never really enough space in a single Mix Rescue column to do justice to the amount of work that goes into the remix job, so it'd be an opportunity for people to discuss any issues of interest that didn't come up in the article. And it's always useful for me to get some feedback on what people are looking for out of the column too, so that I can try to target it better.
If that sounds like a good idea to anyone, then I could maybe post a thread for each new project I uploaded, so that we could focus the discussion of each better. Also, if anyone has any particular project that they'd like to see, then that'd help me decide which to fish out of the archives first.
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10-08-2011, 03:01 AM
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#23
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Civitavecchia (Italy)
Posts: 574
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Thanks Mike, I just want to say how much I appreciate your contribution on SOS and I'm glad ot see you here...
Definitely a great idea to share your job here
__________________
"You know what a miracle is. Not what Bakunin said. But another world's intrusion into this one".
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
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10-08-2011, 03:59 AM
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#24
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posts: 1,965
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Mike,
Excellent idea of posting the Reaper files in more detail. It would be of tremendous help.
Many thanks for your dedication and hard work mate, really appreciated by one and all.
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10-08-2011, 04:17 AM
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#25
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 158
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Hey Mike,
<plug>our song Not You is on there so please if you want to practise go and download it</plug>. I think it is a great resource for Music Technology teachers and would be very helpful in demonstrating simple techniques in a proper recording. Could even take one track and make a competition of it with pupils having 3-4 weeks to mix the same track and peer assess who did the best mix!
Being a teacher the first place I would start would be somewhere like the TES because they have a very dedicated list of resources for so many subjects. If you were to list yours under Music Technology and explain what the deal is, could spread the word quickly. I know that teaching ICT and Music, the TES users have saved me some considerable hours in planning.
Once you have a good resource of TES then it really does get hit lots of times. Its very much the same as yacapaca, once a good resource is created and teachers rate them highly, then they just go up and up. Oh and the book is awesome too
__________________
Oscar Wilde
"Of course the music is a great difficulty. You see, if one plays good music, people don't listen, and if one plays bad music people don't talk."
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10-08-2011, 04:51 AM
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#26
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 115
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Hey Mike,
Thanks for all the resources you've provided. I also would be very interested in browsing through some of the project files you've produced in REAPER. Over the past few months I've been working my way through Mixing Secrets in a very thorough fashion, and my mixes have noticeably stepped up in quality. Having a few project files to reference along with the text would be fantastic. Thanks!
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Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
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10-08-2011, 05:07 AM
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#27
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: NZ
Posts: 118
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Mike,
especially for newbies (I am one) the project files would be an immense help.
Even lining up the audio files properly and setting up all tracks can be challenging when starting out.
Since we can tab between projects one idea may be, which is more work for you, to have a project that only has the audio aligned and cleaned up and another with the plugins in place.
The first would be a quick start where people can try their own mixes while the second would be where people can look up how you did it.
Thanks a lot for creating this library, it's a big help for people learning the craft.
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10-08-2011, 07:38 AM
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#28
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 248
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thanks so much! Gonna mix me a metal song!
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10-08-2011, 12:40 PM
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#29
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Denmark
Posts: 465
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Mike,
I like your book. And your recent SoS article about common mixing mistakes was excellent.
... But other than that I have a hard time just mixing my own recordings.
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10-08-2011, 03:42 PM
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#30
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: The Reflection Free Zone
Posts: 3,026
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Quote:
Originally Posted by triviul
The problem I'm finding now, though, is that it seems to me that a lot of teachers still haven't heard of its existence, and I don't really know how to get the word out to them. Any ideas on that? Is there maybe a dedicated teachers links page or mailing list ot something that I've missed? Any help on that angle would be much appreciated!
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I don't know of any 'dedicated teachers links' that would help.
I think you are your own best advertisement, or at least that the success of your book will mean that the multitracks get used in more sound production courses.
I'm embarrassed to say that I don't even have a copy of 'mixing secrets' yet, but one of my students has and he loves it.
I do know of a course offered at an institution here in melbourne where the lecturers gave out bootlegged multitracks to students, which I think is bad.
My course has a strict 'no warez' policy on sounds and softwares.
I searched high and low on the net for legit multitracks, and the closest I could find was nine inch nails remix or ccmixter, but usually it's mp3 on ccmixter.
This is a very small 'niche' of the education industry, and you are probably better to advertise in the audio sphere rather than education, maybe on the freesound project, or ccmixter and of course here. Educators love free resourses, as institutions are always keen to cut costs. That's why many schools use audacity for 'Music Tech' (at public high schools)
Having a bash at phre the eon myself, amazing what you did with the bottom end and impact on that one! Must re-read the 'mix rescue' to find out how, although I want to do my own thing, and some might say that your remix bordered on 'brutal' ; )
Last edited by hamish; 10-08-2011 at 03:54 PM.
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10-10-2011, 02:04 AM
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#31
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Cambridge, UK
Posts: 87
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I can see that it might be worth posting a few of those Mix Rescue projects, then. I'll start with a couple first, just to see how it goes. Watch this space!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Henry-S
Hey Mike,
Being a teacher the first place I would start would be somewhere like the TES because they have a very dedicated list of resources for so many subjects. If you were to list yours under Music Technology and explain what the deal is, could spread the word quickly. I know that teaching ICT and Music, the TES users have saved me some considerable hours in planning.
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Great -- thanks for that. I'll get onto it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by synthie
Mike,
especially for newbies (I am one) the project files would be an immense help.
Even lining up the audio files properly and setting up all tracks can be challenging when starting out.
Since we can tab between projects one idea may be, which is more work for you, to have a project that only has the audio aligned and cleaned up and another with the plugins in place.
The first would be a quick start where people can try their own mixes while the second would be where people can look up how you did it.
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While I can see where you're coming from on that, I actually think that importing and laying out a set of multitracks is actually quite an important part of the mixing process, so I think it might be a bit self-defeating to do it for you. That said, the way the files are named a numbered should already lay them out in a fairly sensible fashion, and all you have to do to line them up is drag and drop them en masse to the empty track list of a new project, so it shouldn't take more than about 30 seconds to get started.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hamish
I don't know of any 'dedicated teachers links' that would help.
This is a very small 'niche' of the education industry, and you are probably better to advertise in the audio sphere rather than education, maybe on the freesound project, or ccmixter and of course here.
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More good ideas -- thanks!
Quote:
Having a bash at phre the eon myself, amazing what you did with the bottom end and impact on that one! Must re-read the 'mix rescue' to find out how, although I want to do my own thing, and some might say that your remix bordered on 'brutal' ; )
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I have to admit that 'brutal' is a bit my style... That's one of the reasons I pushed so hard for audio files to be part of the concept when I commissioned the 'Mix Rescue' column, because I wanted people to be able to judge with their ears whether to adopt techniques suggested in the text. If you don't like my mixing style for a particular Mix Rescue (which you're entirely entitled to do, of course!), then please feel free to ignore what I've written! All I'd add to that, though, is that all the Mix Rescues are very different to each other, so even if you dislike the outcome for one of them, there may still be others that are more to your liking.
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10-15-2011, 08:06 PM
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#32
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Fort Worth TX
Posts: 1,757
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just got your book last week and, um, wow! between that and the wdyrsla thread, i'm starting to think i never realllllly understood anything about mixing before.
on that audio resource page, i am getting the download limit warning and can't access any of the samples. any idea when that might clear up?
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10-16-2011, 12:03 AM
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#33
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Carlsbad, CA
Posts: 48
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I can't say enough how great this resource is.
Thank you. You rock!
I guess you hip-hop, folk, indie, et al as well, huh?
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10-16-2011, 12:20 AM
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#34
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Lincoln, UK
Posts: 7,924
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Quote:
Originally Posted by triviul
I can see that it might be worth posting a few of those Mix Rescue projects, then. I'll start with a couple first, just to see how it goes. Watch this space!
While I can see where you're coming from on that, I actually think that importing and laying out a set of multitracks is actually quite an important part of the mixing process, so I think it might be a bit self-defeating to do it for you. That said, the way the files are named a numbered should already lay them out in a fairly sensible fashion, and all you have to do to line them up is drag and drop them en masse to the empty track list of a new project, so it shouldn't take more than about 30 seconds to get started.
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That's a good reason to include some example projects Mike, show people that rational layout and clear thinking are as important as the plugins!!
>
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10-16-2011, 11:46 PM
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#35
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Cambridge, UK
Posts: 87
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Artbay
on that audio resource page, i am getting the download limit warning and can't access any of the samples. any idea when that might clear up?
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Yeah, I'm afraid that we had a surge in web traffic over the last few days, and that sent the server into a bit of a tail-spin. However, the site should now be working pretty much fine again, the only restriction being that the number of simultaneous downloads is limited. Clearly, though, this isn't ideal, so I'm on the case this week with setting up a mirror site to cope with the increased bandwidth demands. So, in short: you should be able to download anything at the moment, as long as you're willing to keep trying; but in the next couple of weeks I hope to have things working completely smoothly again.
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10-20-2011, 02:01 AM
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#36
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: The Reflection Free Zone
Posts: 3,026
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basic ReaPlugs mix of 'Phre the eon'
I am so happy that you made the full multitracks available Mike, because I found this song quite interesting and I was frustrated at only having the snippets to look at.
This is a basic little mix using only ReaPlugs and JS, and doesn't have anywhere near that added harmonic content that either the original or the mix rescue do. I thought that the arrangement and song had some darkness, quirkeyness, naivety and mistakes that meant it was not really destined to be a dance track.
http://www.box.net/shared/ps7xy73ja2zft3dan4qy (mp3)
I know that it has technical errors, but I just offer it as a mix that could bear repeated listens, and reveal some interesting synergies and subtleties in the parts.
As a mixing lesson it is a little rough, ReaAmped the Bass, Spatial effects on the vocal, and used allpass filters to shape the close drum parts in combination with the overhead. Didn't use one of the kick drum tracks.
http://www.box.net/shared/fer5deisrtif5rifg6zc (zip with mp3, RPP and impulse wav)
Once again heartfelt thanks to Mike for the great educational resource.
Hamish
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10-21-2011, 01:10 AM
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#37
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Posts: 161
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Thanks a lot, this is really awesome!
__________________
If it ain't broke.. break it. Because it's fun to fix stuff.
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10-21-2011, 04:16 AM
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#38
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Cambridge, UK
Posts: 87
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Thought it was worth posting another update here, because there's been another big increase in the number of multitracks listed -- we're up to about 85 full-length multitrack projects now! The new multitrack projects added include:
Also, if you want to stay up to date with continuing additions to the library, I've also set up a dedicated mailing list for this purpose. There are already some more multitracks I've got in the pipeline...
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10-24-2011, 12:27 AM
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#39
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Fort Worth TX
Posts: 1,757
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spikemullings
One of mine's on there.
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yours is one of the first two i downloaded, spike. i'll pm you when i finish my mix...
the other song i d/led had a link to a "mix rescue" article about it, but several other downloads don't have a linked article. will all of these songs be getting writeups in the future?
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10-24-2011, 12:31 AM
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#40
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Greece
Posts: 3,553
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triviul, thanks so much for this resource!
Is this planned to stay online for the foreseeable future? Or should I go and download everything I can now?
Also, how about using a P2P network (e.g. torrent) to distribute the files?
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