New mix tune

Here’s a sample from this past weekend of the Imogen Heap tune called “Headlock”.  The song is pretty outside the box for us but it was a lot of fun to stretch a bit.  As always, you’re listening to a board mix from the noon service through my little broadcast processing chain.

A few new things I’m trying that are reflected in this mix:

• Demo’ing a set of Heil PR30s on toms.  I am really impressed with the drum tone that came with them.  More meat & midrange to them then my normal Audix D2/D4 combo or even standard 421s.  Very musical & natural.  The only EQ I found I wanted/needed was a small drop centered around 300 to keep them from getting woofy & a small boost around 2k to make them cut just a bit more.
• I’ve tried swapping my kick drum philosophy from the Audix D6 being my primary full range mic with a Shure Beta91 used to provide a different character and more click when needed.  I really like the newfound low end of the Beta91 and have been having a much easier time getting the kick to sit nicely with the bass by using the Beta91 in full-range all the way down into the subs, rolling off a big chunk of 1k-3k out of it to keep the drum’s click under control, then hi-passing the D6 around 150 and putting it almost equal with the 91.  You can hear the result.
• Lead vocal is a Shure KSM9 wireless.  This song was all over the place for her dynamically – too much so for any major compression I tried to work well.  That meant “hand compression” was the only option so one hand was on her vocal channel for the entire song, riding all of the jumps between the higher power stuff and the quiet low register.  The vocal effects come from ReVibe & Echo Farm in the bridge.  ”Inverse Long” on the exposed part at the front end, Lex Warm Plate on the bridge with the delay (sorry I don’t remember the exact Echo Farm preset, 1/2 note, no repeats), then back to Inverse long.

Anyways, enjoy!

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