hi all. i don't post that much but wanted to share my random musings of the day.
first- it's amazing how much better my mixes translate when i mix quietly. not just sorta-quietly. but like, barely audible quietly. i don't have nearly as much fun this way....but it's pretty nice to have the mix work the first time through. anyone else mix like this? i don't know if this is indicative of problems with my room (a tiny but well-trapped control room in NYC) or my speakers (dynaudio bm5a's).
second- my clients are sometimes better at judging volume levels than i am. it's rare that i make an EQ or compression choice that i later consider silly. but there have been a bunch of times when i've played a mix for someone and the response has been "wow that (kick drum/vocal/whatever) is loud." and in an objective sense i recognize that it is sorta loud (or quiet) but it doesn't bother me. i don't know if this is indicative of problems with my mix room. or whether it stems from my background in avant-garde classical music and my appreciation for dada. or if i'm just losing my mind and need a vacation.
third- i spent a lot of time this past week mixing an EP that just flat-out was not wanting to gel at all. i can't point to any particular tracking errors but things just sounded thin and digital and didn't blend very well. i did one go-round on a song with heavy compression/eq, did another mix of the same song with a much more organic approach. neither one sounded very good. today i went wild with a saturation plugin (small amounts of saturation, but applied on many/most of the tracks in the mix. vocals, drum bus, bass, some guitars, some percussion). and finally got a mix that i'm ok with delivering to the client.
fourth- i tracked and mixed a song with an amazing drummer/keyboardist/songwriter/vocalist guy today. in about 12 hours we tracked, edited, and mixed one song, and got basics down for another song. the whole flow of the session was very spontaneous. a little bit random. very little editing. maybe 2 notes of autotuning. tons of quirky percussion, farfisa, glockenspiel, old yamaha toy synths with built-in speakers. singing some vocals through a green bullet. and stuff just blended right away and the revisions needed are miniscule if any. dude has a sense of purpose and knows when he's hearing what he wants to hear. makes life way easier.
i'd be very interested in hearing other peoples opinions on this and other things. much appreciated!
jon
