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Old 07-16-2017, 10:50 PM   #27
Cubehog
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Magdeburg (Germany)
Posts: 19
Default Without the right amount of breaks and reference

Quote:
Originally Posted by jpanderson80 View Post
Yeah, that's true. And when you learn that 1 inch of mic movement is worth so much, it's really a game changer. Learning that the extra few minutes is worth it... that's especially hard when someone has paid for a whole day of session and it looks like you're fiddling with a mic too long. Sometimes those differences are not exactly discernible for others. I find it helpful to have those conversations in pre-production.


Here's another for the list:
3. Taking breaks really is important.
1) In my early attempts of mixing I overdid some stuff, i.e. compression, just to hear the effect. Thatīs where your relationship between you and your monitoring comes into play.
In mixing you are permanently evaluating components that are interweaved with each other. So one track is always in relation to all the others.

2) I try to feel what function an element has in arrangement. Sometimes all the hard work at the sounddesign phase is superfluous if it just clutters the frequency spectrum for more important stuff. Get rid of it and donīt have regrets. Millions of other ways are at your disposal in case you need some sounds to fill up the arrangement.

3) In my early days I did binge-mixing just to tell someone that I sat 12 hours straight on a mix just to show my work ethic. It wasnīt with an arrogant attitude but to "make sure" that my business partners (aka bands and singers) saw that I put quite some effort into their songs. Technically I didnīt lie, but it didnīt help the end result either. If it can keep up with other songs in that genre then noone will ask how long you sat there to make it sound right in one session.
Nowadays I mix for an hour and take a break. I try to establish a sound for one instrument group. If Iīve lost the "overall vision" of a track I take a break. This can happen after 10 minutes. I donīt force it and in most of the cases it pays off big time.

4) In my early days I started with the drums and the kick drum at the very first.
Nowadays I start with the vocals, because people can recognize changes there the most. If the vocals sound nice in the beginning everything else will follow them. Most of the time they have the most complex harmonic structure and modulation in one track. If you have backings then thereīs even more to consider. Compared to this drums are easy because usually thereīs one clear purpose for one instrument. A hihat canīt be a substitute for a kick or snare.
I picked the vocals for this example if you have an instrument soloist than you can start with this.

Usually I do the basses at the last stage. But I do dīnīb type stuff so thereīs a lot of modulation going on. In a rock context I focus a lot on the kick - bass guitar relationship. Maybe establish this at first before I proceed with the snare.

I donīt have rules and nowadays I only start mixing when I have a clear vision of the sound in my head. See 3)
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