Audio Samples for Audio Mixing Practice – Complete Song

If you are looking for a complete recording project to mix for practicing purposes, then you can download this project (right click then save as, the file size is around 145MB).

After downloading; unzip the file. Below are the recorded tracks to be mixed with their respective file names:

1.) Kick drum: kickdrumfinal.wav
2.) Snare drum: snaredrumfinal.wav
3.) Ride cymbal: ridecymbalfinal.wav
4.) Acoustic guitar: acousticgtr.wav
5.) Bass guitar: bassguitar.wav
6.) Lead vocals: leadvocals.wav
7.) Backup vocals: backupvocals.wav

After downloading, confirm its MD5 checksum to make sure the project is not corrupted during the download. This is the original MD5 checksum of the audio_samples_for_mixing.zip file:

47c1802db8e2dd4f9a8a3a1600908906

Read this tutorial to learn the details on finding the MD5 checksum of a file.

There are only 7 tracks to be mixed. All tracks start from zero so there should no timing/synchronization issues when you are importing them to your DAW. All tracks are recorded dry (without any effects) and it’s recorded in 32-bit float/44.1KHz mono. More details of this project below.

Background of this Recording Project

This song is entitled “Overtime” which I have written the lyrics and music. I recorded this project around 6 years ago using my first recording setup. I am using an old/crude digital recording setup such as the following:

a.) Creative Audigy SoundBlaster PCI sound card
b.) Xenyx 502mixer for preamp
c.) SM58 vocal microphone
d.) Adobe Audition 1.5 for tracking

This is the recording signal chain:

Instruments — > Behringer Xenyx 502 — > Creative Audigy Sound Card — > Adobe Audition 1.5

The acoustic guitar and bass is DI directly to the mixer. It’s not using guitar and bass amplifiers. As you may have observed; it does not sound as superb and exciting as those recorded using an amp.
There is no 24-bit recording setting in Adobe Audition 1.5 but only 32-bit float which has the same resolution as the 24-bit audio. I recorded at 44.1 KHz sample rate which is enough, so the resulting recording is in 32-bit/44.1KHz WAV format. I set around -6dBFS maximum headroom for all recorded tracks, so that the possibility of clipping is minimized.

The drum tracks (cymbals, kick drum and snare) are obtained using Hotstepper, they are not recorded live with a real drum set. Instead the drum tracks are sequenced using the software and imported as 32-bit float/44.1KHz audio.

I plan to add several tracks to beef up the production but I decided to mix the original project to make it sound more raw and lively. I intend to use this project as a demo.

My own version of the mix

I render my first mix of the song last 6 years ago. This is my original version of the mix (before mastering):

I give emphasis to vocal clarity more than any other instruments. Also I didn’t apply much FX to the mix because there are only very few tracks. I would like the mix to retain its original sound as much as possible. This is done by applying very minimal effects processing. Lot of effects takes away much of its live presence and punch.

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