Okay, so you've had your moment of inspiration ; you've
written the song, recorded all the parts, finished all the
programming and added loads of fancy tricks to your
production. There's only one thing left to do - the mix. It
shouldn't take too long should it? After all, mixing should
simply be a matter of balancing the different tracks until
it sounds "right"? The difficult part is deciding what's
"right" in the first place. There are guidelines, and some
basic rules to ensure that your record doesn't end up being
unlistenable, but generally speaking it comes down to taste.
This can make it very tricky to know when something is
finished, and a good reason for employing a dedicated mix
engineer to mix your material for you. Assuming they are
working with a good recording to start with, a decent mix
engineer will make your track come to life. They also have
the benefit of being impartial, which means they can help
you through the process of realising that the project is
finished and it's time to move on, no matter how hard this
may seem!
When I'm mixing, I often find a pattern in the process I go
through in order to finish a track. I tend to know when
things are starting to sound "right" and "finished", so I
usually print a mix and have a break. Later on I'll have a
listen to the mix and make notes about things that may be
wrong, usually simple stuff like "guitar verse 2 too loud"
or "kick drum gets lost in middle 8", that sort of thing.
So I'll go back to the mix and make minor adjustments and
then print it. Usually I'm happy with this mix, and in my
experience I've found that the more your revisit your
original decisions, the easier it is to move away from the
original "vibe" of the track. It can quickly become a
balancing act between paying attention to detail and
"mixing the life out of it".
This is a problem that I often encounter with artists, (who
can be very hard to satisfy) as the pursuit of perfection
can be a very long and often disappointing journey! But
equally it can lead to fantastic results, it's just a
question of knowing how far to go. The truth is you
probably got a lot of things right to start with, and
trying to perfect your mix too much can end up in a track
that sounds lifeless and undynamic (perfect?!) This is why
people talk about trying to keep things "raw" and not too
"polished". Music that has been "overmixed" is a sound that
we associate with background music ; smooth, inoffensive
and not requiring your attention. Not characteristics that
most of us want to be applied to our music!
But knowing when to stop can be very difficult, because you
can pretty much always find something wrong with your own
work. It's important to remember that everyone else will
hear your music differently to you. Assuming that the song
and the recording is "good" to start with, and you're not
deliberately trying to break the rules by panning
everything hard left and having nothing in the right
speaker, not many people will notice that the hi hat is
maybe a little bit louder than you think it should be.
They'll be listening to the melody, the words and the beat.
I once worked with a band who seemed really happy during
the recording session, but as soon as they heard the mixes
decided the results were not what they wanted, even though
everyone else who heard it thought it was great. Why were
they expecting the mix to sound so radically different?
Probably because they had a sound in their head, an idea of
what they thought they sounded like rather than what they
actually sounded like. They demonstrated this by giving me
loads of reference tracks to listen to, and saying "we want
it to sound like this", to which my reply was "but you
don't sound like this!"
It's this pursuit than can lead to endless tweaking,
changing and revisiting. There's a romanticism involved
with music that can distort your understanding of your art,
which is why having an outside opinion can make it easier
to make decisions about things like mixing. And of course,
the opinions you really want are not other band members or
even mix engineers - it's the music buying public! In this
case, I went along with the band's wishes to change things
and we spent a long time slowly turning the mixes into a
flat, watered down version of the original. They were
happy, but from an objective point of view the music had
nowhere near the energy or fun that it had to start with.
Eventually I put my foot down before it turned into an Enya
record.
This is not to say that there's nothing to learn from the
artist's pursuit of perfection ; it's easy to get into a
routine if you're mixing a lot of material, so if somebody
suggests something a little bit crazy it's nearly always
worth trying, because they may lead you to some great place
you may not have found on your own, and encourage you to
try new things. You just have to know when to stop, and try
and have the discipline to stick to your guns if you know
that something is "right" and shouldn't be changed. For
example, Be wary when people ask you for bass, more bass
and even more bass, to the point where your mix is
unplayable on anything other than an ipod ( with the bass
turned right down! )
The best rule to follow when learning the basics of mixing
is the rule of simply trying things out. Do a mix, stick it
on a CD then play it in a car and on your ipod. Play it on
as many different systems as you can find. Try turning off
your computer screen when you're listening back to the mix
- looking at the arrangement on screen gives you visual
cues about what's coming next, and can influence what you
think you're hearing. If you're getting things "wrong" it
should be very easy to tell the difference between your mix
and a commercial CD, as things like too much bass or top
end tend to show themselves up everywhere. It's also a good
idea to trust your instincts, and when something "feels"
right it can very often sound right too.
Just remember, if you find yourself at a point where
you've got files called "I Love You Baby Mix 23" you're
probably in trouble. Go back and have a listen to "mix 1",
you may be surprised what you find.
----------------------------------------------------
Visit http://www.ixlproductions.co.uk - Because Music Is
What you Make It!
No comments:
Post a Comment