Reference songs for acoustic band mixing

[buzzardwhiskey]

Our band is composed of singers, two guitarists, mandolin, resophone, bass and cajon and I'm looking for tunes to use as references when I mix.

Do you have faves? Here are a few I'm considering...

"Cup of Sorrow" Amos Lee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8Q1O4pK0kI
"Birmingham" Shovels and Rope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue9lsHpGKd4
"Circles Around Me" Sam Bush
"The Way It Goes" Gillian Welch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiS37_EULj8

[KevWind]

[buzzardwhiskey]

Ooo! "The Ring Around The Moon" is wonderful. Thanks!

The second link isn't working on my phone. I'll try it when I get home.

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[KevWind]

Originally Posted by buzzardwhiskey

Ooo! "The Ring Around The Moon" is wonderful. Thanks!

The second link isn't working on my phone. I'll try it when I get home.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Humm ? If you have to google it ,...it is Darrel Scott "Find the Open Door" the TransAtlantic Sessions (which BTW has many superbly recorded and mixed performances)

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[buzzardwhiskey]

Ooo... that's really nice too... thanks!

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[runamuck]

Any of the recordings from the last 10 years or so from Alison Kraus and Union Station.

[buzzardwhiskey]

Yeah! I love Alison Krauss.

[Rudy4]

I'd suggest that whatever is chosen as reference material, DO make sure you get a high resolution or CD version of the tunes.

Mixing to "compromised" audio would not be a good thing! That's probably obvious to most, but there's always a few neophytes that might not realize the problems associated with using web-sourced material as mix reference.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I'd suggest that whatever is chosen as reference material, DO make sure you get a high resolution or CD version of the tunes.

Mixing to "compromised" audio would not be a good thing! That's probably obvious to most, but there's always a few neophytes that might not realize the problems associated with using web-sourced material as mix reference.

That is an excellent point

[buzzardwhiskey]

I'm so taken with the performance, instrumentation and mixing of both Elephant Revival and Darrell Scott that I went home and ordered these CD's. Although I'm aware of the fidelity difference between MP3 and CD, I'm uncertain if it'll make much difference with my setup. Nevertheless, I'll go with the CD version... now I just need to buy a CD player.

[LSemmens]

I may be missing something here, but are you looking for a sound just to get your mix right for a gig? If that is so, then would it not be better to use music from the specific genre that you perform? And, also, would it not be better to play a couple of songs from your set and get your mix from that?

[Dan Lampton]

This has been my audio standard for years.

[buzzardwhiskey]

Originally Posted by LSemmens

I may be missing something here, but are you looking for a sound just to get your mix right for a gig? If that is so, then would it not be better to use music from the specific genre that you perform? And, also, would it not be better to play a couple of songs from your set and get your mix from that?

No. I'm looking for references when I mix for our second CD.

Dan, the Grisman CD is fantastic. Thank you!

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by buzzardwhiskey

I'm so taken with the performance, instrumentation and mixing of both Elephant Revival and Darrell Scott that I went home and ordered these CD's. Although I'm aware of the fidelity difference between MP3 and CD, I'm uncertain if it'll make much difference with my setup. Nevertheless, I'll go with the CD version... now I just need to buy a CD player.

Ha! I did the same thing before I got a blue ray player for my home theater system, I had about 10 disk's purchased before I got the player.

While true the total amount info is missing from compressed versions, still what you can get a reasonable representation of off youtube etc. is the overall mix balance and feel .

Something to think about to make a "reference" sound more efficient to use and accurate for comparison . Is to do what we did when I was talking online classes at Berklee, which was import a specific (full resolution , reference CD or WAV. file track ) right into our session/project mix, as an additional stereo track that we could quickly mute and un-mute, to compare against what we were mixing.

[buzzardwhiskey]

Absolutely. Reaper tracks can be anything at all, so I'll just bring in FLAC versions once I've ripped the CD and keep 'em muted.