As I side project for a friend of mine I’ve decided to help them out in terms of mixing down and producing some of their tracks. They’re a three piece grunge/desert rock band. I was just wondering… Where do I start?
I’ve got Ableton but is it the best for this? It’s something I’d like to look into seriously… should I invest in a different DAW?
Also is there some big do’s and don’t to do with this kinda thing? Is there particular plugins I should be looking for? I’m experienced (to a degree) with EDM, so this is totally new for me.
As always, any advice would be greatly appreciated! 
-A
heh this is like the exact opposite of my situation. totally experienced with rock and almost lost with edm.
i use pro tools, strongly recommend even though it’s a large investment but any daw would be fine. i don’t know ableton very well yet but it seems like it would not be the best for this kind of stuff. i could be wrong though.
guitar sound/thickness is going to be very important. in general i like to quad track and hard pan my guitars (4 unique takes for rhythm tracks). reamping is a great approach if you can take it (recording the guitar direct in and using a program like amp farm as an amp modeler).
if you have to record the drums, it’ll be a pain getting them to sound good. i sequence 100% of my drums and stick them in ez drummer. i do the same with bass though it’s easier to get a good sound with live bass than live drums.
in general, the more you can do directly on the computer, the easier time you’re going to have. if the musicians are nitty and purist it may get a little frustrating.
for mixing, have them bring over a cd they want to sound like and kinda try to mix with that.
if you have more specific questions i’d be happy to help. i’m also eager to hear others’ thoughts on this.
Thanks Alex for the reply! Really appreciate it.
I was thinking pro-tools as I have used it before and it does seem geared towards that kinda thing. I have a friend who has it on his MBP, might get him to come over and I’ll have a play with it.
I’ve already got all the stems from the band… I think I might re-sequence the drums myself as they can only record their drums on a synthetic drum. But I agree, I think programming them will allow me a little more space etc., etc.
I only have the one take for the rhythm guitar… Is it important to have four seperate unique takes or can I just look into replicating the track 4 times with different EQ/filtering/panning to create a thickness?
Thanks for the tips again Alex, good to have somewhere to start!
yeah, play around with it. it should be pretty easy for you to pick up and it’s definitely the standard for this type of production.
with the guitars, yeah you can try eqing and warping the same track four times but it definitely won’t sound as thick and you may end up getting some phase issues. i have a bad habit of getting lazy and taking paths like these when it comes to production but if you can find a way to have him track a bit more it would really make a big difference. even two unique tracks would make a difference.
and yeah, i would resequence the drums for full control.
post results, eager to hear
Hey,
Only getting a chance to try my hand at this now… and I’m stuck at first hurdle it seems! 
I’m such a n00b when it comes to this you’ll probably laugh at the question…
But I just can’t seem to get the tracks in sync! (I’m still using Ableton8)
The guide track they sent me seems to read 95bpm, and the drummer said it’d be about that too… However if I set the master tempo to this and throw the tracks in unwarped they’re completely out of sync… by like a minute or two in cases!
I tried warping them straight at 95bpm as well but still no joy… constantly falls out of sync.
Am I doing something completely wrong here?
Appreciate any help as always!
-A
drop all the tracks into ableton and set the bpm to whatever they told you it was and then make sure you go through all the sound files and turn warp OFF.
Also find the first beat from the drums, the drummers usually do a count in or have a metronome. Once you have the drums you can start moving everything into place, just for the love of god make sure that warp is turned off on everything.
If the band says its 95bpm then all you need to do is set your master tempo to this.
On a side note if yoir gonna mixdown a band, rule number one is that you are there for the recording. If your not there its like trying to do a haircut with one arm. If yoir there you can make notes, sort mics, see and hear how everything is recorded, did they do eberything seperate, everything together, how long of a count in did the guitars get, when in the song do the guitars come in I mean for all you know the drummer took 3 minute breaks inbetween each different drum section. If thats the case your ****ed, id actually say if you cant sort oit the recording process personally your gonna be faced with one hell of an uphill battle.
Cheers dude! Yeh I wasn’t there for the recording, but had a pretty good chat with them on how they did it. If I can make something of this, I’ll be around for their next recording session.