Another day with Dan of Jagged Leaves.

SpeakerSonic Studio

Today was cleanup on aisle Mix. I'm never really sure what to expect when Dan Penta comes over. Sometimes its one thing, and then it becomes another. But today was simple and straight-forward. Mix day.

He had a few scratch mixes of the songs and came in today wanting them to be more flushed out. Some of his notes were about the drums. So we basically focused on them and found the sound that will be the drums for the entire record. 

Different artist work… well... differently. Some say leave it untouched until mix down, some say give me a polished mix each step of the way. Dan likes to hear the track develop fully each step of the way. This first mix is really how he and the band rehearse. Dan on vocals and guitar, Bryan on bass and the other Daniel on drums. 

To the drums, I added a gate for the Kick. A gate basically stops a sound. It can give the kick drum a tight punch and also alleviate any bleed from other drums or instruments. The toms were Dan's biggest concern. They just seemed too loud and upfront, so I put a gated reverb on them and tucked them in by turning them down. The snare also was treated subtly with the same reverb. The great thing about a gated reverb is that the effect only lasts for a short while and then it goes away. It doesn't stay in the mix and muddy things up. I don't use it very often, but in this open sounding, acoustic based guitar and upright bass, I think it leaves a lot of room.

Dan also had a few ideas on where he wanted to put his guitar and vocals. Dan has been working in many studios for many years so he has a lot experience with finding what he wants. He'll conceptualize and experiment, bring it home, listen, makes notes and then move on to the next step. 

So now we have a solid mix of his songs and he can also pass them along to the Trumpet player to work on for overdubs, and the Backing vocalist as well. To be continued…