I wanted to take a stab at mixing Air Traffic inside Soundation to help familiarize myself with the interface and all the different effects plug-ins and automation parameters they have available.  I decided to approach the mix with effects as a priority, trying to push their limits and challenge myself to use more (and different) effects than we had in the original mix.  

I started with the Baritone Guitar, making some subtle adjustments with the equalizer, a bit of compression with medium attack and release settings for some general leveling across the performance, mimicking the speed and compression ratio of some of the classic optical compressors of the 60s (like the LA-2A).  Finally, a short delay without much feedback in the style of a tape slap echo.  

In pursuit of an effect where the original Baritone Guitar sound originates from just left of center but a substantial amount of reverb comes from the far right of the stereo field, I duplicated the track (by right-clicking on it and selecting "Clone Channel and Content"), maintained the EQ & compression settings I just described, but replaced the delay with a reverb: a modified version of their "Cold Cave" preset, with the blend set to be all "wet" and no "dry".  I panned this hard right and balanced it along with the original track to my liking.

 I did a similar thing for the Pedal Steel, although because Pedal Steel is so often complemented by reverb, I also included some reverb in the original track (panned slightly to the right).  I didn't use any other effects or automation on the Pedal Steel.

Continuing with this concept of cloning tracks and processing them separately, I wanted to apply some substantial parallel compression to the lead vocal, so I cloned that track, and decided on some bandpass filtering (using their Equalizer plug-in), substantial fast attack/fast release compression, and some more tape slap style echo.  This could then be blended at will with the original lead vocal track, which had an EQ inserted to attenuate some of the high-end, and a liberal amount of a reverb with a long decay time and extensive damping to continue the de-emphasizing the high-end.  The parallel-compressed vocal channel was volume automated to appear only in sections where the arrangement was more dense, while the "wet" control of the Lead Vocal reverb was automated to fade out into the acapella ending (as was done in the original mix) but then also steeply crescendo after the last word for a unique effect.

The piano was treated to some drastic compression (a high-ratio: represented in Soundation's compressor as "75%", but I might guess around 15:1 or 20:1), substantially removing natural dynamics from the performance, followed by a slightly modified version of the "Lush Piano" preset in the Soundation reverb, and finally an EQ to reduce some of the low-mid buildup created by the combination of compressor and reverb.  The broad controls and fixed frequencies of the EQ meant we couldn't pinpoint specific frequencies that might have offended, but in the end resulted in a low-cut that turned out to leave more room for the bass guitar.  Placing the EQ after a compressor is not done often, but in this case it was utilized as a corrective measure to remove an unwanted byproduct of the extreme compression and reverb.  With Soundation's simple drag-and-drop ordering of effects, I auditioned the EQ ahead of the compressor, and it didn't have the desired effect.

The bass was treated simply.  It already had a fairly consistent performance and heavy compression in the original recording, so I applied just a bit of EQ to attenuate the top end, and some gentle overdrive from the distortion plug-in to hopefully provide a sense of the sound coming from a bass amplifier, as opposed to just the direct sound.

Drums were processed first with substantial low-frequency attenuation, followed by aggressive limiting based on the preset "Maximum Awesome", and finally a bit of the "Drums" reverb preset with substantial damping to tame the high-end.

Noting that some PWYM folks were interested in mastering, I decided to attempt some final mix bus processing similar to what might be used by a mastering engineer.  These were effects inserted on the master channel, and could only be roughly approximated with the available metering, but helped provide general control of the mix.  Some EQ was applied initially to attenuate some of the low-frequency build up, followed by some general compression, and finally some more substantial peak limiting.  This treatment was more aggressive than I might like, but hopefully illustrates a method of achieving a "louder" optimized master without peaking, while still working completely within Soundation.

Clara Berry & Wooldog - "Air Traffic" (mixed in Soundation)

Saint Agnes' song "Move Like a Ghost" tracked live at Metropolis Studios in London.

Mixed as part of the #MakeYourselfHeard mixing contest sponsored by Lewitt Microphones
https://www.lewitt-audio.com/mix
https://www.lewitt-audio.com/blog/interview-saint-agnes

Bradford Swanson