Deep Purple On "Democratic Mixing"

Every engineer or producer has gone through a session where the entire band is present, and each wants to hear "more me" in the mix. The result usually takes a well-balanced mix and turns it into a sonic goo that just doesn't work any more. While we usually associate this kind of action with young bands with little studio experience, it can happen to well-established hit makers as well.

Here's a quick video that shows what famed metal producer Martin Birch went through with Deep Purple during the making of their breakout mega-seller Machine Head.

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"The Trooper" Iron Maiden Isolated Guitars

Here's a dose of metal for your Holiday Monday with the isolated guitar tracks from Iron Maiden's "The Trooper." The song is from Maiden's 1983 album Piece Of Mind and is featured in Guitar Hero II. Here are some things to listen for.

1) Each guitar part is doubled pretty closely, which thickens an already thick sound considerably.

2) To eliminate guitar amp noise, producer Marin Birch used a noise gate the the tracks, which you can hear working during the verses.

3) In an excellent bit of mixing technique, take notice that the solos are up the middle to stay out of the way of the rhythm guitars, and also have a slightly different tone to differentiate them more.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.