Library Of Free Multitrack Downloads: Update

[Mike Senior]

Another quick update to mention that there have been lots of new multitracks added to the library since last I posted -- there are now 100 different projects, including:

• The raw tracks for this issue's Bollywood-style Mix Rescue, a song called 'Kaathaadi' by Sambasevam Shanmugam.
• Some slick vocal-led electronic dance-pop, in the form of AM Contra's 'Heart Peripheral'.
• Two tracks from Brian Eno & David Byrne's early-80s milestone album My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. (Although most legitimate 'free multitracks' I've encountered from well-known artists are actually submixed stems, incomplete 'remix packs', or data-compressed audio files, these two actually seem to be the real deal -- 24-bit WAVs taken direct from the original multitrack tapes.)
• A powerful Muse-flavoured indie rock production from The Doppler Shift.
• Another sample-based film cue, this time desert-themed suspense from New York-based media composer Mike Skalandunas.
• A great acoustic song by Will Knox, multitracked live in front of an audience at Sweetwater's GearFest 2011 expo.
• A wistful acoustic number with a French cafe vibe: 'If You Say' by James May.
• The final multitrack from Season Two of the Shaking Through project (which has just achieved its funding target for a third season -- hurrah!): Snowmine's 'Curfews'.
• Two multitrack sessions in support of instructional videos from Methods & Applications Laboratory: Swinging Steaks country-rock 'Lost My Way' and Jamie Walker's acoustic country 'Love Can Be'.

Also, some readers of 'Mix Rescue' may also be interested to know that I've uploaded a couple of my complete Reaper remix projects so that users of that DAW can have a look at all the exact settings I used. These projects can also be downloaded from the library here:

• We Fell From The Sky: 'Not You' (Mix Rescue May 2011)
• Arise: 'Run Run Run' (Mix Rescue November 2011)

More uploads incoming -- you can get monthly updates via my mailing list.

[Mike Senior]

It's been a while since I last updated this thread, so here are the latest uploads since the last post:

• The raw tracks for this issue's Mix Rescue, an indie rock song from Jokers, Jacks & Kings called 'Sea Of Leaves'.
• ''Black Out Betty' is a slice of sunny alt-pop/rock from New York band Banned From The Zoo.
• A couple of heavy emo rock numbers: 'Ambitions' by All Hands Lost, and 'All The Same' by North To Alaska -- the latter featured in Mix Rescue December 2009.
• Three new indie/alternative productions from Brian McTear's Shaking Through project: Filthybird's 'I'd Like To Know', Strand Of Oaks's 'Spacestation', and Face On Film's 'Waiting For GA'.
• A fresh batch of four uploads from mic manufacturer Telefunken: a folk pop duo between Andrew Cole and Chantel Upshaw on the former's song 'Dead Roses'; driving rock with prog leanings from The Brew's 'What I Want'; an A-list Nashville session in the form of Uncle Dad's 'Who I Am'; and a frankly jaw-dropping live performance of the song 'Glorious', featuring the singer-songwriter Jonny Rodgers accompanying himself on water-filled wineglasses -- you've got to see it to believe it!
• An unusual and evocative classical/electronica production from Giselle's debut album 'Turning Circles': 'You'.
• Three tracks from David Youngs's wonderful debut solo acoustic guitar album 'Transience': 'Dust, You & Me', 'Technomantra', and 'Long Overdue'. Although they aren't 'multitracks' as such, they're still excellent mixing practice because of the incredibly wide range of playing techniques David uses, including some frighteningly complex rhythmic tapping techniques.
• A good, solid, funk-rock tune from the Louis Cressy Band, called 'Good Time'.

I've also added a few more complete project files for recent Mix Rescue remixes (including this month's) so anyone who's interested can have a closer look at the settings -- I've included screenshots of all the third-party plug-ins too, in case you don't have access to those. These projects can also be downloaded from the library here:

• Blue Lit Moon: 'Dad's Glad' (Mix Rescue June 2011) (in Reaper)
• YoungGriffo: 'Facade' (Mix Rescue October 2011) (in Reaper)
• Jokers, Jacks & Kings: 'Sea Of Leaves' (Mix Rescue April 2012) (in Cubase)

Lots more uploads in the works -- if you have anything you'd like to contribute yourself, do please get in touch with me via SOS or through my site.

[RAWNUM83RZ]

Hello Mike,
Just a quick question? once we've uploaded the multitrack and attempt a mix is there a forum or somewhere where we can send it back to get feedback on how we did with the mix or any tips or tricks we should use for that particular mix?

[Mike Senior]

Hello Mike,
Just a quick question? once we've uploaded the multitrack and attempt a mix is there a forum or somewhere where we can send it back to get feedback on how we did with the mix or any tips or tricks we should use for that particular mix?

Well, people round here always seem pretty happy to provide feedback on mixes if you post them...

[Athanasios C. Paschalis]

Hello Mike,
Just a quick question? once we've uploaded the multitrack and attempt a mix is there a forum or somewhere where we can send it back to get feedback on how we did with the mix or any tips or tricks we should use for that particular mix?

Well, people round here always seem pretty happy to provide feedback on mixes if you post them...

I just stumbled upon your post... Fantastic job and a great initiative! Well done!

[Reverend_Chaos]

Allright!

This is just brilliant, Mr. Senior! I've just landed a project mixing a demo for a Black Metal band as a first "real" gig mix-wise (after having mixed my own stuff for some years) so I'm downloading one of the Death Metal projects from your page as we speak so I can practice a bit more before I receive the files I shall work on.

Any tips on how to achieve a gritty, garage-y but still powerful extreme metal mix are welcome, allthough I suspect that is a topic for another thread somewhere else on this forum

Anyhow, thanks for all tips, mix rescues, masterclasses, inspiring articles and generous libraries with training projects. You're doing a great job!

[Sibelius19]

I know I may just get shot down here but, what is multitrack?

[Mr.MixAlot]

Thanks for posting this! Great stuff!

[Mike Senior]

Just a quick update to say that last month's Mix Rescue candidates, the band Motor Tapes, have kindly made the multitracks for their song 'Shore' available for download should any SOS readers fancy trying their hand at mixing those themselves:

Motor Tapes: 'Shore' -- multitrack files

In case you missed that particular article, here's a link: Mix Rescue September 2013: Motor Tapes

[Littlemonkeystudios]

sounds good!

[Ron Snijders]

For some reason, I noticed this thread a couple of times, but only checked it out today. Wonderful stuff, thank you!

[intermittent hummer]

I can't seem to find the multitrack files on soundcloud for the "session" article from the december 2013 issue of SOS. I have noticed google does take a while before it is able to find stuff that I put on S/cloud, but it has been 2 1/2 wks now. any suggestions?
thanks
jp

[Matt Houghton]

I can't seem to find the multitrack files on soundcloud for the "session" article from the december 2013 issue of SOS. I have noticed google does take a while before it is able to find stuff that I put on S/cloud, but it has been 2 1/2 wks now. any suggestions?
thanks
jp

You can download them here

[KsJohn]

Awesome resource! Well done on the latest additions as well, It is as good as analogmix...

[forumuser695697]

Firstly just want to say that this is a great resource to have to practice mixing so thank you very much for providing it.

I just wondered if anyone knew of an online service very similar to this but where by musicians/bands want there tracks mixing (so self recorded and then want a 3rd party to mix them) and you as a mix engineer can offer your services either for a donation or set fee? There must be a lot of self recorded bands out there looking to get there music semi-professionally mixed and mastered for a fee that doesn't run into hundreds of pounds per track?

Basically I would love to offer a mixing service to musicians/bands who don't have a huge budget but would be willing to pay something to get the job done.

Thanks for any help in advance.

[Gav W]

Unbeleivable, I was just about to ask if something like this existed!!
Thanks for the work you put in!

[Hugh Robjohns]

Basically I would love to offer a mixing service to musicians/bands who don't have a huge budget but would be willing to pay something to get the job done.

Is this to allow you to gain experience so that one day you'll be able to make a living charging for your professional mixing services?

That's great... Except that when you get there you'll find no one wants to pay you because someone else will be offering to do it for free (or almost free)!

As any self-employed or freelancer will tell you, well-meaning enthusiastic amateurs offering to work for free, or to seriously undercut the 'professional' rates only sour the milk for everyone and drive the rates (and often the technical standards) down. And that's really not a good idea in the long term for anyone hoping to forge a career in pro-audio.

If you're good enough to do the job Its really important to charge the going rate for the service, not only for yourself, but for the benefit of everyone trying to make a living in the business.

Just saying'... it's disheartening because I've met so many young people over the years starting out as self-employed professionals who just can't make a living wage because so many enthusiastic amateurs are undercutting them...

H

[Dr. Duce]

Just discovered this post. What a fantastic resource for my year 1 Music Tech students. Thanks a million.

[Mike Senior]

Hi All,

Unfortunately, 1and1 have decided that the dedicated managed server that I used to run the www.cambridge-mt.com site is now too busy for them to 'manage', so they've just allowed it to go offline indefinitely without warning, forcing me to change to an unmanaged 'root-access' server that I'm going to have to configure myself. Seeing as I have no experience of Linux-based server management, I expect that the site will remain off-line or flake-tastic for at least the next few days while I learn to differentiate the new server's arse from its elbow. I am, however, committed to sorting it out, I'm on the case, and I'll keep everyone updated as to progress.

Thanks in advance for your patience,

Mike S.

[Mike Senior]

Hello again,

Just a brief update to say that I'm now in the process of migrating the whole Cambridge-MT site to an alternative hosting platform and the Multitrack Library is now back online. And thanks to the support of the site's Patrons, I've been able to upgrade the server power enough to cater for further expansion of the resources for the foreseeable future.

Mike S.

[OK1]

Hello again,

Just a brief update to say that I'm now in the process of migrating the whole Cambridge-MT site to an alternative hosting platform and the Multitrack Library is now back online. And thanks to the support of the site's Patrons, I've been able to upgrade the server power enough to cater for further expansion of the resources for the foreseeable future.

Mike S.

Thanks for keeping this labour of love alive.

[Drew Stephenson]

I'll second that - I've used the microphone position library several times.
Thank you!

[jollyon]

Many thanks Mike. This looks great.

About six months ago I posted to let people know about an on-line library of free multitrack downloads I'd put together for people use for mixing practice. Since then, there've been quite a few developments, so I figured it might be time to post an update, so here's a quick summary of where things are:

• There are now more 50 projects listed, covering a wide range of musical styles -- including more than 20 of the songs I've remixed for the 'Mix Rescue' column.
• Almost all the projects are now provided in full-length versions -- previously most of the projects were only 30-second excerpts on account of web-space restrictions.
• All of the files are in uncompressed WAV format at 44.1kHz, without any mix processing or effects -- just the raw multitracks, in other words.
• There are MP3 previews provided alongside each listing so that you can get an idea of what to expect before downloading.

Here's the link: Library Of Free Multitrack Downloads

Many thanks again to everyone who's contributed to this resource. I'm continuing to add further projects on a rolling basis (so far about five a month), and further contributions/links are always welcome. Have fun with them!

[Hjlphilp]

DUDE thank you so much making it easier for college grads like me to keep practicing

Sent from my LG-V521 using Tapatalk

[fxsoundscapes]

Thanks! these are fantastic

[kingmoot]

I stumbled across this about a month ago - it's the stems from Brian Eno and David Byrne's track Help Me Somebody, from their groundbreaking "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts" album.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Stems/comments/8903cv/request_brian_eno_and_david_byrne_my_life_in_the/

[stefan.pynappels]

It appears the hosting provider is having some issues, I get Cloudflare error pages for most of the links saying the host is having issues.

Let me know if some help is required hosting some of this content, I'm just starting out on the audio mixing path, but have walked many miles on the IT/hosting/network engineering path...

Stefan

[Drew Stephenson]

I think i recall Mike saying he was doing some work this year on moving his content, so you may have caught him mid-migration.

[major_mixing]

Awesome! Thank you for this!
I learned mixing by using these multi-tracks about 7 years ago.
Now I studying my students using these multitracks!
thank you so much again!

[Mike Senior]

Hello all,

Just a quick heads-up to anyone who uses my Cambridge-MT multitrack library regularly: I've just released a new free podcast series called 'Multitrack Heroes', which directly ties in with it.

Basically, every episode I share my own personal mixing tips for one of the most popular multitrack projects in the library, working my way through all the raw tracks to explain what I'm listening for in each case, as well as demonstrating suggested editing, processing, and effects tactics as I go along.

If you've heard my SOS podcasts, you'll know I'm a big fan of audio illustrations, so there are loads of examples here too -- almost 200, I think. I've also encoded all the shows at the highest 320kbps MP3 quality and without any mastering processing, so as to ensure that the demonstrations come through as clearly and cleanly as possible.

Hope you like the show!

Cheers,

Mike S.