Mixing Recordings

I carried out the mixing of the Dukes Corner and Rhuari Campbell recordings in Abertay University's recording studio:

During the mixing process i was creating two different mixes, one utilising the 5.1 microphone array tracks and the other a stereo version that is upmixed to 5.1. The tasks associated with mixing the 5.1 array mix included panning and mixing gain levels: i do not want to add any effects to the recordings as it will create an unwanted variable between the two mixes, the only variable should be the fact that one is recorded using 5.1 microphone array and the other an upmixed stereo version and it is for this reason the recordings are dry. The panning of the IRT cross microphone array are as follows:

• Front Left mic = panned 100 front left speaker
• Front Right mic = panned 100 front right speaker
• Back Left mic = panned 100 back left speaker
• Back Right mic = panned 100 back right speaker

Each song required the same panning process however the gain level mix changed for each song.

To create the upmixed versions of the dukes corner recordings i muted the rear information of the IRT Cross, only keeping the line outs and front left and right microphones of the array. I then duplicated the front left and right channels of microphone array and also the line out of the decks and then panned these to the back speakers and added a 15ms delay. I also made the tracks 180 degrees out of phase from one another to create a greater sense of space. I used a mono sum of the front left and right microphone for the centre information and EQ'd out some of the bottom end.

Upmixed

5.1 Array

 The Upmixed versions of Rhuari's recordings were slightly different, i muted the rear information from the IRT Cross and duplicated the front left and right channels panning them to the rear then adding a 15ms delay and making them 180 degrees out of phase the same as the Dukes recordings. The difference was that Rhuari's recording contained a close mic with mic pre and not line outs like the dukes recordings; i panned this close mic in the centre and then made a duplicate which was panned to the rear with added EQ and 15ms delay.

Evaluation:

I encountered a few issues while in the mixing stage, the first being that the studio mac wouldn't start up so i had to shut down and restart the mac a few times till it would start up properly. The other issue i had was that the centre and right monitor of the speaker arrangement seemed to have swapped, so the right monitor was the centre and the centre was the right. To rectify this i contacted one of the creative sound production lecturers and discussed it with him and we ended up just swapping the speakers round so they were in the correct place, it seemed this the issue was the input and output set-up of the 5.1 pro tools session. Although i encountered a few problems in the mixing stage i managed to produce both 5.1 array and upmixed versions of a variety of music played at an event in Dukes Corner and also of the recordings i carried out with Rhuari Campbell.