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I know this is a dubstep forum an all, but I seriously don't know any other places to post this, so here goes.

I'm doing a mixdown for a folk band in my area that's getting signed onto a label here pretty soon, and it's just been fucking ages since I've done anything outside of electronic stuff and the odd dubstep-esque tune here and there, and I've never done folk before.
Honestly, the music is good enough to stand on its own, even if I did just a somewhat half-assed job on the mix, but I see this as a challenge to take on.
I want to limit myself and use little eq, no compression/limiting, little fx as possible and rely on how it was all tracked as to preserve the original sound and music. (I know, how stereotypical.) But I don't trust them well enough to record it all nicely, and I won't be able to be there to record it myself, else this would be a breeze. So, anyone care to share some experience and knowledge on working with folk/acoustic music, and hell, let's make it more generalized: anyone else currently limiting themselves on a project in hopes of improving and honing their skills?

I wouldn't rule out compression straight away imo....they could have a very dynamic singer!

You got any more details about the band?
how many of them and of which instruments etc?
how folky is it...do they have a drummer/percussionist?
how/where is it being recorded?

Just helps me aim my tips a bit more specifically

my 2 cents is youtube everything seperately there are awesome guides for the drums, the strings, panning chorusing reverbs by professionals. The general idea is the same like your doing electronic music, you want to get rid of troublesome frequencys and boost the freqs that makes em sound better. Seriously hop on youtube I saw tonns of useful tutorials!

Volatile Psycle wrote:I wouldn't rule out compression straight away imo....they could have a very dynamic singer!

You got any more details about the band?
how many of them and of which instruments etc?
how folky is it...do they have a drummer/percussionist?
how/where is it being recorded?

Just helps me aim my tips a bit more specifically

I know the drummer personally, so yes they do have a drummer. I believe there are four of them total right now, singer/guitarist, lead guitar, bass and drums/percussion for the most part. They range from kind of a soft rock to sometimes straight singing over some chords and fingerpicking with ultra-light percussion (if any) so they can get really folky at moments.

As far as how they're recording, I haven't been able to really get with them on that one. They haven't given me any details on that at all, mostly because their singer's a real tnuc at times and insists on doing everything himself for the most part. So I'm expecting the recording to be somewhat amateur, even if they've recorded their own stuff for years now.

As to ruling out compression, I rarely use it, and I'm starting to like the control envelopes have more and more, though using that trick for vocals is something I've never had a chance to do yet. I keep forgetting how useful compression is on vocals though

poorly recorded drums suck. really no two ways about that. ask them to at least do a single mic out front, so that if everything else is bad, you at least have something organic to work with.

when it comes to actual instruments and musicians, besides it being a good song and arrangement ( ) it really comes down to the nuts and bolts. are the instruments in tune? Does the band play in time? does the rhythm section create a groove? Does the singer sing in a way that you believe what he/she is saying? The Clash may not have been the worlds 4 best instrumentalists, but the songs were great, Simonon and Topper were always in the pocket together, and even if Strummer fell of pitch, it didn't matter because you believe every one of his words.

yeah yeah yeah, good mic's, pre's, and all the other bits of derp and durka durka that audio geeks love to talk about will make a difference; but shit in, shit out; gold in, gold out. not plug in can change that.

Fine words from Sharmaji....could not agree more.

If the single parts of the drum recordings are pony all you can do is hope they got a nice overheads/room sound so then you can reinforce that with triggered kicks and snares.

As for guitars (both bass and lead/rhythm) if there is more than one mic and DI for example, zoom in one the wave forms and nudge one of the recordings back or forward a MS or 2 to get them phase aligned. Will make a massive difference to the sound.

And the bass will almost deffinatly need compression of some sort to make it solid in the mix.

But there is nothing like a singer with an inflated ego holding back rest of the band because they know best

I'm mixing for a couple bands right now, one of them is a couple dudes who send me songs they record with a crappy setup in their bedrooms, the other is a band who's album I also produced and who recorded in a semi-professional studio. Guess which one sounds better...
Basically it all comes down to what goes in, so you have to really drill it into their heads that they NEED to record it with good gear, good rooms, etc. if they want it to sound good. It's easy to go back into a vsti and change the parameters until it sounds good, but you can't do that with a traditional band.
Otherwise, it's really all the same. Just work on finding every instrument its space and, providing everything was recorded well, it'll sound good. Don't be afraid to use compression, but it might be a good idea to use as little eq as possible, just so the instruments keep their natural tone (but if the recordings suck, go crazy with eq, sometimes it can help polish them up).

But seriously, don't expect it to sound amazing if the recordings aren't amazing, you'll just end up pissing yourself off and wasting your time, I know from experience.

Sorry if this post was a little jumbled, I'm drunk.

I record and mix/master the songs of my band, and i play the bass.
The first song we did wasnt recorded by me, so it was really hard to mix since the quality of the recordings were shit.
Compression is important for drums and vocals imo. Use less eq to keep the actual tone of the instruments (depends on the quality of the recording though). Some effects here and there isnt a bad idea though.

Sharmaji wrote:poorly recorded drums suck. really no two ways about that. ask them to at least do a single mic out front, so that if everything else is bad, you at least have something organic to work with.

when it comes to actual instruments and musicians, besides it being a good song and arrangement ( ) it really comes down to the nuts and bolts. are the instruments in tune? Does the band play in time? does the rhythm section create a groove? Does the singer sing in a way that you believe what he/she is saying? The Clash may not have been the worlds 4 best instrumentalists, but the songs were great, Simonon and Topper were always in the pocket together, and even if Strummer fell of pitch, it didn't matter because you believe every one of his words.

yeah yeah yeah, good mic's, pre's, and all the other bits of derp and durka durka that audio geeks love to talk about will make a difference; but shit in, shit out; gold in, gold out. not plug in can change that.

They said something about doing their drums in eight channels with some sort of digital something. I forget, I'm drunk waay too much to remember something over a single phone conversation. I know they'll record their bass directly from the amp to a computer instead of using a mic, and they might do that with the guitars. Thing is, the singer has an amazing hollow body guitar, and I would love if they would track that with mics. I'm seriously about to call his ass and see if he'll let me record with him.

Thanks to all who posted, some good info in here.
I'll post the entire mixdown (or a few tracks of it if it becomes a problem) if they let me, if you anyone would be interested in hearing it once I'm finished.

psychedelicatessen wrote: I'll post the entire mixdown (or a few tracks of it if it becomes a problem) if they let me, if you anyone would be interested in hearing it once I'm finished.

I'd be interested in hearing the pre and post mixdown stems if that's at all possible...band willing, of course