Spill Can Be Your Friend! - Mike Senior

Mike Senior's Expert Tracking & Mixing Tips

Many project-studio users seem to go to enormous lengths to reduce spill, but this frequently proves counterproductive, undermining the final mix. In this episode, Mike Senior demonstrates several ways spill can actually improve the sound of your productions, as well as making the mixdown stage quicker and easier.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction

01:22 - Tonal Enhancement

05:58 - Blend Enhancement

08:29 - Salvaging Mix Problems Using Spill

10:37 - Top Tips For Mixing With Spill

Credits
This month's episode features audio examples from the following productions:

* Marcus Boeltz, Christian Bolz & Tobias Knecht (band-tracking session)

You can read about this one-room recording session in the following Sound On Sound 'Session Notes' columns:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-multi-purpose-recordings

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-editing-full-band-recordings

* Spektakulatius: 'Forever Young' & 'Is You Is Or Is You Ain't'

Download the full raw multitracks for 'Is You Is Or Is You Ain't' from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Spektakulatius

Read about the recording, mixing, and mastering of all these songs in the following Sound On Sound 'Session Notes' & 'Mix Rescue' columns:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-spektakulatius

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-spektakulatius

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-spektakulatius-0

* Jesper Buhl Trio: 'What Is This Thing Called Love'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#JesperBuhlTrio

Read about my mix of this project in the following Sound On Sound 'Mix Rescue' column:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-jazz-trio

* Trafficker: 'My Father Never Loved Me'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#Trafficker

Read about my mix of this project in the following Sound On Sound 'Mix Rescue' column:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mix-rescue-trafficker

* Brushes Held Like Hammers (band-tracking session)

You can read about this one-room recording session in the following Sound On Sound 'Session Notes' column:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-reducing-spill

* How To Kill A Conversation: 'Mute'

Download the full raw multitracks from https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#HowToKillAConversation

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts