So here is a more detail on a few items for those who are interested
Panning
Summary
I panned left (rhythm guitar) and right (piano) to -22 and 22 (about 7.5 mins either side of 12 o’clock). I kept checking with other amounts as I progressed, but always ended up here.
When listening to the mastered versions they seem to sit well on most devices. The exception was my kitchen radio (a digital one, from the earlyish days of digital radio). Once you are more than approximately 2m away from it, the speakers are too close for it to function as a stereo so it’s essentially a mono sound emitter. The vocal sounded too loud; a soundtech mate of mine said I’d essentially come across the problem sound engineers faced in the 50s when people went from mono listening to car stereos (though I guess I had it in reverse - untintended car pun, but I’m quite happy with it 
). The problem was correctable by using the radio’s tone button to roll of some high and and high mids - hence I decided this wasn’t something I needed to work on more. The other mono source I have (a 12" PA speaker) was fine.
Compression
Summary
I have set up compressors a few times in the past (it’s a common effect for bass players to tidy up our playing). So smallish tweaks other than on the piano. See the section on Instruments / Piano if you want more on this.
Piano;
Wow, this took some thinking about. The level was OK until I read about the mastering process. The article said keep all volumes below 0dB. I interpreted this as meaning all tracks and the master output. The piano was exceeding this to fit in the track. Unfortunately although the piano overall level was moderate there were 2 or 3 locations where it was peaking at higher than 0dB. What i eventually did was use a high threshold, sharp knee (0.1), highish ratio (8), quick attack (5ms), FET compressor to tame the peak; then the eq; then another much less severe compressor to deal with the rest of the track.
Next time I’ll use a synth. The dynamics of an acoustic piano seem to be a hindrance in a mix.
Reverb
Summary
I set up an auxiliary channel with a reverb effect (“Space Designer” in Logic Pro) and sent some of the vocals and drums to the same reverb.
I’d never really understood this use before. I think because sound engineers tend to refer to “setting up a send”, whereas if they are doing what I did they set up an auxiliary channel and send information to that channel. So I was confused by the terminology.
Eq
Summary
Most of what i did was based on Internet guidance.
I found eq before compressor in track processing sequences worked best.
I first put a high pass filter on everything except drums (even the bass to get rid of any sub frequencies).
Eq Vocals
Summary
I started with the plugin with the most promising description and worked from there. There was a harshness in the “you have” of the choruses. I learned a technique of sweeping the frequency range using a narrow bell curve filter to amplify and isolate the frequency; then attenuate at that frequency.
Eq Rhythm guitar.
Summary
It was a similar story to the vocal. It took a bit longer as i thought the irritating frequencies were below about 500Hz, whereas it was a boost i added around 3.5kHz that was the problem.
Eq Lead guitar
Summary
There was a promisingly titled plug in that got me most of the way there.
Eq Piano
Summary
None of the piano ones seemed to work. I ended up using an internet sourced cheat sheet
Eq Bass
Summary
I followed a cheat sheet. The high pass filter mentioned above plus a bit of a cut at 250 Hz and a boost at 800Hz.
Eq Drums
Summary
I didn’t do anything. It was recorded on an electric kit and i only had waveform for of the whole kit.
Instruments and Vocal
See also the eq section.
Lead guitar
Summary
Lead Guitar. It is my first guitar solo. Luckily I had done the lesson where Justin introduces soloing an month or so ago.
I had a Clapton solo tone in my head when I started. I didn’t get there, but I quite like what I managed to get.
Signal chain:
Guitar to Compressor (for sustain), in to Bad Monkey (Tubescreamer type gain with more eq options); a distortion set more like an Overdrive; a bit of chorus (i think); slapback delay to thicken the sound; reverb (plate i think); Ampeg SVT bass pedal with an 8x10 cab sim; then to audio interface.
Other Instruments
Summary
Not much really. Just whatever you see in the eq section.
Vocal
Summary
I raised the level in general (a few of you suggested this). I also had to raise the volume further in the 1st verse and chorus - it took me a while to work out the editing to do this.
“Radio” and “Festival” edits
Summary
I was a little regretful that I’d done a double chorus. However part of my concept was a catchy tune with easy lyrics for the chorus - so an easy enjoyable singalong. So I also wanted a double chorus at the end.
Towards the end of the process i realised I could have both with what i already had (no need to record again). I decide where to split and remove the tracks. The 1st attempt highlighted some messiness, but did then show me where i needed to make the splits. This was a pretty quick process.
How to do crossfades took a bit of working out. I also found it doesn’t work in all splits (it made the bass worse).
The radio edit is the original with just a single chorus (no profanities to remove for this radio edit ).
The Festival Version is the original. The double chorus made me think of a Festival where everone is having a good time singing along with band. Hence “Festival Version”.
Mastering
Summary
See also the compression / piano.
The mastering tool wanted 3 - 6 dB of headroom. I assumed this was just on the master and to the max level, so i dropped the fader so that it had the desired headroom.
The mastering did highlight some errors. I think i could have picked these up before submission to the tool. So i cost myself $15 more than i should have.
It sounds better after the mastering.
Listening Devices
Summary
I used the following listening devices during the production process:
- Open back Studio headphones - stereo
- Over ears with a good bass response - stereo
- In ear buds with a good bass response - stereo
- A digital radio (using its aux in) - effectively mono
- A 12" powered speaker - mono
