Got a copy of a 2 hour set list from a friend of their gig at a club

The club was nice enough to provide them with Wave files captured in Cubase.

Ive got most of it seperated into seperate tracks and sounding usable but cant get the guitars to sound worth anything because of the way they routed everything in the mix.  UGHHH

They might as well just gave them a 2 track stereo mix and say it is what it is.

Guitars & Bass are all mixed together, Vox and Drums, a seperate Drum track, an FX track.  Frustrating when ya want to help someone out then your hands are tied by breakdown like this.  

I think there were a total of 5 or 6 tracks on the cd.  
Man I could have picked a better way to seperate things if I was going to give someone a copy to mess with to create a Demo.

Okay-Sorry for the rant.  Back to my COFFEE!!!  

House mixes from the mixer are usually not good. If the stage is loud with guitars, the house mix will not have much guitar in it.....just a fact of life. 

It would probably be better to stick a mic in the air at the mixer board and record it like that..... It would at least have a better sounding mix...one would hope.....

Guitarhacker



It would probably be better to stick a mic in the air at the mixer board and record it like that..... It would at least have a better sounding mix...one would hope.....

    Yepper

They had everything mic'd seperatly, just frustrating how they gave the mix to them.  

Ive added about 16 tracks, gating, EQing, etc...  trying to break things out to get a better mix but am fed up trying to get the guitars to sound good LOL. You know how it is  

Was just trying to help out a friend and then ya get your hands tied. 

Just do the best with what you've got. I've been in that seat too and you just got to remember - you can't polish a turd. But you can definitely make it look smoother!

Sounds like a real mess. 

Part of the learning experience.....  

I learned......and still am learning from time to time that there are some projects you just need to walk away from and not get involved in to begin with. 

In my business.... electronic security & electricity, I have people ask me from time to time can I do this or that for them.....and I have answered "yes" to a few over the years and regretted many of those decisions. So now...I look carefully, make sure it is in my field of expertise, determine if I actually WANT to do it and then make a decision which is generally..... "NO, you need to hire someone who knows how to do that sort of job"..... 

 In the recording business, if you are not controlling the mix and the tracking, it might be better to decline it politely.  Once you say yes, they expect you to hand them back something that sounds like it was recorded in a studio under ideal conditions with great tone, separation and fidelity. 

Here's a trick I often do when faced with problems like this:

I bounce out a mix without any processing, perhaps just some level and pan with some mastering at the end. Then I do what I need to do with the mix and make it as good as I can. Then I explain to the "client" that it wasn't easy because the material wasn't easy to work with - but here's the before and after. Usually the final mix is a helluva lot better than the bare tracks and they can hear the improvement. Then it's up to them if they want to release it - or whatever their intention is.

Ya, I suppose that would be a problem. Well, record over at some future time. Live and learn. Whatever?? And sometimes it is just going to be an extra done at the place for nuthin'.