Polishing tracks before upload?

Just out of interest, what's your approach to polishing tracks before uploading them? Do you just focus on your own add, do you for example eq your own add or the whole track, etc?

I realize it may depend on the track and the mood you're in but I' like to get a better impression of how much 'post-production' happens, if any.

Thank you.

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It's a shame when a lovely template or add has bad hiss, hum or interference because it's a lost cause for me at that stage. I do like to re-arrange or cut out stuff however, a singer or lyric writer finds it hard to fill a really long mix so it's a case of slipping into the gaps. I hope you get a more technical response now :)

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As you indicate, it depends on the track and my own mood. In some cases I have tried to bring out a voice bit more by using some EQ, in some cases I have tried to remove a hum or noise using filters (but I'm no pro in such matters, and if I'm not happy with the result my modifications do not get uploaded :D). If stems for the previous recordings are available, sometimes I will remix them to change the relative volumes a bit, or to create some space for an addition (quite problematic here is when one of the remixes changes the length of the track, because these changes are not available in earlier stems - it's exactly for such use cases I sometimes wish one could upload multiple stems). In a few occasions I've modified the length of the original track by copy/cut/paste to be able to squeeze something in. In one case I sent the original track through a delay to create a starting point for my addition. In another case I added a bit of reverb in one of the previous additions. In the majority of cases however, I just keep what I start from and only add my stuff, trying not to sound too timid while also not sounding too dominant (this is very subjective obviously).

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I most definitely mix/remix/polish anything I can because if I'm honest I enjoy mixing more than playing. Oops did I say that out loud?

Also it has to be said that some uploads need remixing to have any hope of adding without completely loosing the earliest additions they blatted over at 2x the volume needed. I get it though, some people here are trying to make a finished thing, some are just enjoying noodling and jamming so you take what you find, it's part of the fun.

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I'm an 'easy button' mixer, I use Ozone 10 and 11 Elements along with Lifeline by Excite Audio. I've never been the mixer type so these 2 tools I mess with after recording. just very basic stuff that I can play with :)

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Works well for you sir, your tracks are good sounds, well balanced. It helps that you play well too!

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@zedders
I wish I knew more about analyzing those frequency graphs or whatever they are called. That deep mixing stuff just goes over my head :) Kudos to those who go deep into mixing :W

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Best not to look at the graphs I'm finding, you can't mix with your eyes.

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I enjoy polishing the recordings I play on in order to get the best possible final sound. If there are multi-tracks so much the better. I'll typically EQ and high-pass filter the lower frequencies so that the bass & kick don't step on each others toes and to free up sonic space for the other instruments esp. the vocals. Occasionally, I'll go off-piste and experiment with a (very) little bit for flange (for example) on a guitar or drum part just to see if it 'improves' things but, more often than not, it's pants and gets junked. Other bits of polish are compression to even things out and reverb to get the tracks sounding as if they were all recorded in the same room. I use the stock tools on my DAW (Cubase Artist) and Voxengo Spectrum Analyser & Bus Peak Limiter plugins.

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Like the cmdr_chill, I high-pass almost everything including my bass(es) (when using eq on single tracks, better include the plugin everywhere or make a bus for it to avoid phase issues). If a track includes vocals, I try to keep them above the mix - words must be understood to make any sense. That also means that sometimes I have to add a little "sparkle" (or high end) to those to keep the consonants clear as well - think exciter or the Energy2 plugin from https://www.airwindows.com/energy2/
Using Ardour on Debian and Arch Linux, sometimes Reaper which runs natively on Linux as well. Lots of free plugins around, so I'm using these. And yes, Mixing is fun as well, did live mixing for friends when I was younger, later I also worked in some studios as a technician.

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Always doing that. How precision i dont know but doing.

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As a bassist you mainly work in the background of the sound spectrum. Especially in the beginning, I consciously mixed myself louder to be heard better.
Over time, as the mixing part at Wikiloops became part of my musical hobby, it became more and more important to me.
While I'm still trying to balance my audio visibility, I'm also keeping an eye on the end result and trying to polish it up. To compensate for my imbalance (and also the treatment on the previous mix), I tend to include my isolated and untreated HQ strain. This way the next in line has the choice of making a new mix or using my mix and softening me up a bit if needed/desired.

P.S
During times when my browser wouldn't cooperate with the HQ upload feature and wouldn't upload my HQ stem, I offered to send it if requested in a PM. Fortunately, I am not one of the most productive on wikiloops because, apart from the loss after a disk crash, a lot has been preserved...

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Being a newbie at Wikiloops, I’m feeling my way into it.
I work on the mix in various ways to serve the music.
The DAW has become integral and another instrument.
I’m guilty of lengthening short templates (the three minute song has been technically done away with together with 78rpm bakelite media.) I recently even used AI to separate stems and make room to fit in, as well as EQ. I don’t know how contributors previous to me felt about it, since I was ghosted.
Sometimes I’ve done too much and posted only a mix suggesting if someone wants to have access, I’d post the stems. This did happen recently and I then discovered how difficult it was to provide the stems through Wikiloops interface. A confusing mess ensued.
I have wondered why more contributors do not post their part as a HQ stem. Often the HQ stem turns out to be a copy of the mix.
It’s part of the dilemma of serial overdubs, where musicians are separated by time and space and “call and response” conversation is impeded. If a new overdub is allowed stems, then space edited in will allow for new phrases in response. This necessitates the use of DAW editing. I tend to play too much and fill up the track, which is a natural tendency, when it sounds empty still. Then the next contributor has a hard time getting “a word in:”. Musicians playing together at the same time on recordings has become rare. It puts a premium on skill, but offers so much to the music. Meanwhile with Wikiloops I tend to favor using the tools we have. Stems Baby !

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