Ball Bearings

Deanna Skiles Audio Production

The Symbols “Ball Bearings”

Mixing Engineer

Summary This is a project that was recorded off-site, at The Recordium studio in Fort Collins, Colorado. The owners also happen to be the talent. They and their producer granted me permission to use a ProTools 6 multitrack session of one of their original tracks.

They wanted to see how I would do with the mixing of their unique sound, which favors bar-band vocals and a guitar sound that favors Frank Zappa. (Very 1970’s.)

My first mixing session was done in June 2015, so the mix has been re-edited to reflect the advancement of my skills.

Material from that version is included.

Jasco Duende is on guitar. His wife Mer Sal is both the bass player and lead vocalist, and Ikaika Pekelo plays drums. Backup vocals came from studio assistants at the time.

Guitar and bass were tracked first, then drums. After that, they re-recorded guitar and bass parts. They added vocals last.

Talent Materials Instruments • Gretsch Catlina Drumkit o Kick o Snare o 4 mounted toms, 1 floor tom • Zildian stand cymbals, two left, one right • Sabian Hi-Hat and Splash • Custom 2006 Fender Stratocaster guitar • Custom 2001 Gibson Les Paul guitar • Fender Precision bass • Manito bongos • Latin Percussion shaker • 1957 Hammond M3 Microphones and Gear • Audix D6 • Shure SM7 • SM81 matched pair • Gefell MT71 matched pair • Royer 121 • Electro-Voice RE20 • Bock 195 (Vox) • Marshall 1974X guitar amp • Fender Deluxe Brown guitar amp • Ampeg B15N bass amp • Vintech, Daking, Great River, FMR RNP Preamps • Daking FET III, Drawmer 1968, Emperical Labs Distresssror, Warm Audio WA76 Compressors

Mixing Notes Tracks were arranged into parallel-processed stem mixes, each group with a wet and a dry stereo aux. (Recent Mix) Drums were mixed New York Compression style, with some EQ modifications to compensate for the boomy snare. Auxilarry percussion was EQ’ed and layered in the background. Kick was sidechained to duck the rhythm section.

Rhythm guitar had varying tones, so different Modulation/Harmonic plugins were applied to help them fit in. Bass/keyboard were compressed, and EQ’d with reverb to maximize tone and volume without overpowering the other parts.

Lead guitar was very dry and almost felt flat, but the color was what the talent desired. Harmonic, Reverb, and Compression layers were added on all.

Lead vocals is process and pushed up front, mainly using a dry mix. Wet mix has reverb, and helps weave the lead back and forth when the relationship with the backup vocals goes from call-and-response to duet.

2017 MIX

2015 MIX Digital Audio III / Ball Bearings

Originally this was recorded and arranged on an Allen&Heath board with ProTools 6 at The Recordium studio in Fort Collins, CO. I have bounced down my guitars with the intention of working with them in Logic. Not only is this a final project and potentially a portfolio piece, but the artist that has allowed me to use it is letting me send them the final mix as a potential audition for a second/backup

engineer position. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to do more work for the

studio in the future.

1. Kick out – very subtractive EQ, compressed. Pan 0, routed to Buss 43-44 for parallel processing. Also sent to Buss 42 as a sidechain element for bass DI 2. Snare top – low and mid cuts in EQ, mild compressor and also track sets parallel comp. Pan 0 and sent to Buss 43-44.

3. Overhead L – high pass filter, small boost in highs, wet reverb. Pan 0, sent to Buss 43-44.

4. Overhead R – slightly higher pass filter and duplicate boost and reverb. Also Pan 0, sent to Buss 43-44.

5. Room L – EQ to emphasize ~ 500Hz, high’s cut. Reverb mix automated to only appear on last desired drum beat to give a lifting-back feel of the kit.

6. Room R – Duplicated EQ and Reverb, slightly higher verb mix. Pan 0, sent to Buss 43-44.

7. Drums Dry – (Aux, input from Buss 43.) No processing, panned <37. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

8. Drums wet – (Aux, input from Buss 44.) Compressor set to snare, NY style with boosts ~100Hz/~10kHz. Tucked under dry mix, panned <17. Needs boost by ~5db between 1:55-2:10 if automation is lost. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

9. Bongo bell – EQ for David Elias to bring out ring of strike. Pan 32>, Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

10. Shaker – EQ to cut lows. Pan 73>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

11. Clap L – EQ to cut lows and mids. Pan <22. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

12. Clap R – EQ duplicated from Clap L. Pan 72>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

13. Bass – EQ boost @100Hz and cut @140Hz per textbook. Dip ~4kHz. Compression added, pan 56>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

14. Bass DI – EQ cuts below 80Hz and above 2kHz. Compression sidechained by Kick drum, triggered by Buss 42. Pan 28>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

15. Keys – Subtractive EQ, ~ 120Hz and highs attenuated. Phaser added to create an organ effect. Pan 10>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

16. GTR1 – EQ cut below 80Hz, ~500Hz, boost around 5kHz, cut above 12kHz. Pan <39. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46. At ~12 seconds, move Pan to 29>.

17. GTR2 – EQ cut below 80Hz, 400Hz, and 1kHz. Slight boost @2kHz. Pan <13.

Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

18. GTR3 – EQ lows cut below 400Hz. Pan <28. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

19. GTR4 R – EQ cut below 80Hz, down at 350Hz, big boost at 5kHz with slight boost at 2kHz. Fuzz-Wah added for color, light reverb to lessen the whine.

Pan 68>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

20. GTR4 L – Enhancer and Fuzz-Wah added to colorize and reduce harshness.

Pan <49. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46. At 1:25 move Pan to 25>.

21. Lead – EQ smooth cuts at 70Hz and 7kHz, wide boosts at 425Hz and 14.5kHz. Compressed to Vocal Levelor. 7% Mix of short Multi-Delay and 9% mix on small room Reverb to give Mer a bit of spatial presence. Pan 19>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

22. Bvox L – EQ, Multi-Delay and Reverb duplicated from Lead. Higher % mixes on Delay and Reverb. Pan <13. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

23. Bvox R – Same as Bvox L on plugins. Pan 35>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

24. Bvox1 L – EQ wide boost at 150Hz to give warmth. Frequency shifter added in an attempt to clean out out-of-tune singers. Pan <37. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

25. Bvox1 R – EQ wide boost at 250Hz. Frequency shifter added relative to Bvox1 L to balance. Pan 51>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

26. Bvox2 L – EQ boost @3.6kHz. Pan <63. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

27. Bvox2 R – EQ duplicated from Bvox2 L. Pan 76>. Sent to Dummy Buss 45-46.

28. Bvox3 L – EQ lowpass at around 500Hz. Pan <73. Sent to Dummy Buss 4546.

29. Bvox3 R – EQ duplicated from Bvox3 L. Pan 100>. Sent to Dummy Buss 4546.

From: The Symbols <symbols.band@gmail.com> Subject: permission Date: May 16, 2017 at 10:43:31 PM CDT To: entropic.audio@gmail.com Deanna, You have permission to post and use your remixes of Ball Bearings any way you want.

- Jasco Duende

2015 mix feedback - 2017 mix feedback TBA Original Feedback After initial Submission: