Breaking The Law is a song by Emeli Sande.  I recorded my wife performing a cover of this song!

Breaking The Law cover performed by Robyn Alba

White guys have plenty of stuff to rap about too!!

Confessions Of A White Rapper

Here is my mix entry to the Gearfest Puremix Contest. This competition is a mixing competition in it's purest form: do the job of the Mixing Engineer. So no Producer decisions were to be made such as rearranging, adding additional instruments, etc. Mixing engineers don't always get great sounds, but they are still expected to turn out amazing sounding mixes with what they are given!

My goal with this mix was to emphasize the attitude and swank that was already present in the music and the sounds! If the listener says, "Wow! What an awesome song!" then I did my job well! 

I did my mixdown in Pro Tools 10 on a Macbook Pro, and was entirely in the box. My interface is an Mbox 2 Pro, my monitoring is passing through a Presonus Central Station, and I am listening with Yamaha HS50m and M-Audio DSM1 monitors. All instrument groups are routed to their own groups through stereo aux channels, and all group channels are passing through a "Sub Master" aux channel, which is effectively acting like my master fader - there is also a Master Fader post-Sub Master.

All tracks have the Slate Virtual Console Collection plugin in the Neve setting. For details of processing for the instruments, I'll start from the drum kit and work my way up to the vocals:

Kick - I am using a combination of the original kick sound, as well as a trigger that is used only to emphasize the punch of the kick without changing the tonality of the original sound. On the original kick sound, there is a Waves Puigchild 660, Waves VEQ4, and Waves SSL Channel Strip which is using both EQ and the Compression. For the trigger, there is an SSL Channel Strip post-trigger plugin. Both kick channels are passing through a "Kick Sub" mono aux channel, and are being process with Waves 2500, Waves API 550B, and Waves PuigTec EQP1A.

Snare - There is no triggering in the snare. However, there is a duplicated snare track that has it's own processing and is blended into the main snare track. Original snare: VEQ4. Duplicated snare: SSL Channel Strip. Both snare tracks are passing through a "Snare Sub" mono aux track with Waves CLA-76 and the Digirack EQ III 7-band.

Overheads - VEQ4

Tambourine - I grabbed this from within the vocal track and gave it it's own track in the drums group. It's got a VEQ4.

Drum Room - I created my own virtual drum room using Waves TrueVerb. All drum tracks and tambourine are being sent to the drum room. Drum room has the Waves API 2500 smacking it pretty hard.

Drums Sub - Waves Puigchild 670

Bass DI - Avid Channel Strip, using only the EQ.

Bass Amp - No processing, it sounded great already!

Bass Distortion - Duplicate of the Bass DI track, using a SansAmp PSA1 plugin, and Waves REQ4. This track is only used lightly, blended into the bass tone to add a little clarity and midrange tone.

Bass Sub - CLA-76, Avid ChannelStrip

Guitar - There was only one guitar track, which I duplicated twice, for a total of 3 tracks. One track is used for the verses, and the other two are used for the choruses with a very short delay on the second chorus track to create some stereoization. Verse Guitar: CLA-76, VEQ4. Chorus Guitars: CLA-76, VEQ4, Waves API 560. 

Guitar Sub - Puigchild 670, Avid Channel Strip

Vocals - Just one track. Waves Q6 for EQ cuts. CLA-76, VEQ4, Waves Vocal Rider.

Vocals Sub - Waves CLA-2A

SubMaster - Virtual Console Collection Mix Bus in Neve mode, Puigchild 670 in Lat/Vert mode, Virtual Tape Machine at 30ips with GP9 tape settings, Waves IDR dither. 

Effects - Waves IR1 effecient for hall reverb. Snare, Tambourine, and Vocals. Waves H-Delay used for 1/8th note and 1/4 note delays. Guitar has 1/8th delays, Vocal has 1/8th note and 1/4 note delays.

Mix was printed within Pro Tools to a stereo audio track, and exported as an audio file at 16-bit/44.1kHz settings.

JALBATRONIX