MTF Week 12 (May 31st, 2007) "MTF Mix Presentations II"

In this week’s presentations I noticed the use of minimalism, and heavy-handed production. Josh Bevan and Lisa Lane-Collins showed this in their mixes. Josh maintained the point in his presentation that his mix was stripped down, and that massive editing was a method of getting what he thought was really bad into something that was listenable to. If you as a producer were faced with bad recordings, would you subject your material to heavy editing? A question worth asking I think.

Lisa also took a minimalist path, however she maintained as many others did that the Afro Celts samples were of high quality. Her mix was much like other compositions that she has already presented to our class in other programs (MIDI Studies and Audio Studies); ambient, spacious and warm/cold subtle variations in sound texture. Even though she had zillions of samples to work with, she still only chose to work with a few.

In opposition to this your have what I call the extremists [sic] - those who showed a use of many samples, sounds, editing and effects. In this group I put Ken Mosman, Brendan Godfrey and Lauren McMohon. Their mixes were quite full, particularly Brendan’s, who use many effects such as Amplitube, delays reverbs but what made his mix different was from ken’s influence on the “Kylie Effect”. This involves pitch shifting a voice 5-10 cents and panning each side left/right while keeping the original signal in the middle. The affected signal can then be shifted to get a singing bird like effect.[1] However I really had to admire Ken’s. He went so far that he managed to push up the tempo of the original mix he did, something that intrigued me.

Again its interesting how musical influences affect what you choose to mix, and how you mix. I know I have said this before but it just seems to be so crucial to remember to not let this get in the way of your customers needs and wants.

References:
1. Documentation from Brendan Godfrey on his mix, presented May 2007, Adelaide University
2. MTF Mix Presentations, presented on May 31st, 2007 at the University of Adelaide