Comments on: The Mixing Process, and Why I Used To Hate It

By: What is Mastering? | Wizkid Sound

What is Mastering? | Wizkid Sound — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:33:47 +0000

[...] to write about mastering. We touched on some terminology in my post about the mixing process (The Mixing Process, and Why I Used to Hate It), but it’s worth elaborating. Half the time we talk to a band about recording, there is [...]

By: pimpfresh

pimpfresh — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:11:45 +0000

As Rob wells knows, I'm all about trying out new stuff including mic placement, mics, preamps, hardware, virtual instruments, plug-ins, and DAWs. I'm fortunate to have a job at Atlanta Pro Audio and have access to all these options. We're still noobs to some extent as far as nailing down the best sound for every project so we're doing a lot of experimenting. I think it's a travesty to ever get too comfortable with your production and mixing regardless of experience because there is always something to improve upon.

On the other hand, I tend to find that most people with a large amount of “stuff” don't really know how to use it. This becomes apparent when many mixes done ITB and tracked on a 002 sound better than the ones coming out of your average “gear slut's” studio. I think the most important part of recording is getting the instrument sounding good first (including vox) and then capturing that sound correctly with the proper mic and placement. You can go a long way perfecting the basics.

By: DaveLopez

DaveLopez — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:37:00 +0000

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the SOS article. I am a subscriber to both print and web, but seldom read the Mix Rescue articles. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I always head to the end of the magazine, to my favorite column out of any of the industry music mags. That article would be Secrets of The Mix Engineer. If you aren't familiar with it I highly suggest you give it a look.

Keep up the good writing.
-dave

Dave Lopez - Mixing and Mastering Specialist
Cr@zyEye Music Services
Marketing Music Online

By: pimpfresh

pimpfresh — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:11:45 +0000

By: DaveLopez

DaveLopez — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:37:00 +0000

By: Robert Dyson

Robert Dyson — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:40:25 +0000

Hey Dave, thanks very much for the feedback! Good point. I'd like to elaborate on the tools. While I do have a set of specific tools that I'm more comfortable using, I should have been clearer in the article. I'm talking about starting out from scratch as a mix engineer, not knowing basics…like filtering guitars, boosting frequencies to get the snare crack, even using compression effectively on vocals. With that said, I agree with you that as engineers we should be able to work with anything.

Sound On Sound has a feature called Mix Rescue, where they take a mix that isn't cutting it and…well, rescue it. I like the feature because often they'll use free or obscure plugins, and often they'll use different DAWs. Here's this month's article (subscription required to read the whole thing): http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep09/articles/...

Thanks again for reading.

By: DaveLopez

DaveLopez — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:01:45 +0000

Thanks. This is a very interesting article. And an interesting perspective. As a mix engineer myself, however, I don't completely agree with your insight about tools. Personally, the tools are never what I think of first when approaching a mix. It's all about the song. If I have a Pultec EQ or a Fairchild limiter makes no difference to me. Although, I do like it if they are available. Same with the desk or DAW. Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase? Doesn't matter. Those are all preferences. As engineers we should be able to work with anything.

To me it's all about creatively representing the song the way the artist intended it to sound. If I have all the tools in the world, have my workflow down and deliver according to a process doesn't really matter if you don't correctly represent the song.

It's all about the song.

Dave Lopez – Mixing and Mastering Specialist
Cr@zyEye Music Services
Marketing Music Online