Collaborations Part II - MASTERING of halla heij
Larry Fricke of mix-box.de
These days people tend to do everything on their own. Not the wrong thing… in general. What this has to do with the above picture? Find out here.
Andreas Ecker, of whom you can find an interview here, I met in German keyboards forum. Since then a very nice and creative collaboration has evolved, not to mention the hundreds of e-mails we sent each other. The complete story, although available in German only, you can find at Musician’s Life.
One of the first results of our collaboration is a track called “halla heij” in which Eberhard Geitz, of whom you can find an interview here as well, played the solo. This solo was played on an OASYS and was derived from one of the STR-1 factory programs. Sorry that again I forgot which one it was, but Eberhard alias “Ebse” posted this information at korgforums.com some time ago.
After we recorded all the tracks by using the one or other synthesizer I received the wav files to make a mix. Together with the vocals of Jaqueline and a fretless bass played by Otto it was then my “job” to mix them. Fortunately the quality of PlugIns is very good and therefore I worked only within MOTU’s dp and used UAudio’s Plug-Ins. That is how it sounded without using any compression or EQ for Mastering.
unmastered version of “halla heij”
musicians:
vox - jaqueline schwarz
virtual guitar - eberhard geitz
fretless bass - otto reiter
drum programming - andreas ecker
keys - andreas, pmm
As I could not do the mix any better I realised that my knowledge and experience reached a point where I had to choose someone external for doing the final treatment. That´s how Larry entered the game. Larry whom I know for some time once made a mix for an old version of “blue darkness”. So I asked him whether he is interested in Mastering “halla heij” and what he thinks about the mix. His feedback was positive enough so I uploaded the above version as 24bit / 48kHz .wav file.
What he exactly did is not a secret, it is just that I do not know. The track is now brighter but not to bright as some of the electronic percussion sounds are quite strong, eg the HiHat. It is louder but still dynamic and the bottom is to me better defined. But please find out on yourself, here is the result:
mastered version of “halla heij”
You can see Larry’s studio on the photos, and if you interested in the equipment he is using then it is most likely worth to visit the following Mastering Equipment List page. Meanwhile he added an Euphonics console to his studio. Now it seems that limited space is becoming a problem and a move to another place is necessary.
mix-box.de studio
As this blog’s name is blogASYS here is the mastered virtual guitar solo played bei Eberhard Geitz aka Ebse on his OASYS:
mastered version - STR-1 guitar played by Mr. Geitz
So in case if you have any problems with a mix or you want to look for someone doing the mastering, mix-box.de could be the right place for it.
Of course you could do everything on your own, and there are many people out there getting good, not to say, excellent results. But giving the track to someone who has not been involved so far brings you several advantages, of which experience together with knowledge how to use the right equipment are to me the most important. And in these days were people are connected all over the world it it is just a simple upload and at least one download to and from a ftp server. If you compare the costs for high end equipment (hard- or software) to the one for external mastering then I guess it is worth a thought.
But to complete the collaboration story. Now that the track is finished Michael Stiedl as usual, was so kind to take up an idea.. or a photo and made a cover for the CD. For those who do not know him and like this blog, Michael is the one who helped… is helping me a lot with this blog.
halla heij cover design my michael stiedl
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