jugalo180 said:
i've did my research and i've gathered that it isn't wise to have the same engineer track and mix your song. mainly it's due to ear fatigue.
if i were to hire an engineer to track me during a 13 hr lockout would i be asking for trouble to have him track two songs and mix two songs during that time frame?
if ear fatique usually sets in around 8 hours should i look for a mixing engineer that does not book clients around the clock for mixing? to clarify, should i avoid engineers that put in 16+ hour days mixing various bands?
well that usually depends. If you're working with a good budget, you don't usually consider mixing and tracking in the same day. Not even in the same week.
It's a process that takes many steps before you reach each consecutive phase of production.
Now if you're working as 95% of musicians do on a limited budget, you don't have that luxury. You won't usually have the luxury of having more than one engineer without the price.
If you think with the head of an engineer, asking him to track and mix in the same day are difficult to do well. So yes, fatigue is an important factor. I would say more mental fatigue than ear fatigue.
Most of the time, it's impossible to nail each and every detail within the first few hours of mixing. That's just a fact of recording and mixing.
The best way to go about is to just ask for the engineer's work. Ask him as many questions as you can about his previous work and the experience. You also ask him certain questions to see where his head is at in terms of YOUR music. For example, some engineers are so hell bent on mixing rock music that when a jazz project comes along, they'll work on it, but treat it as a rock mix. Either that or they will just naturally become mentality fatigued faster than a project of thier choice.
-How long did it take?
-What where the circumstances?
-How was he feeling that day?
-How was the band feeling?
-What where the emotions running through the studio at the time?
-How long does it usually take to track and mix a project?
-What's his favorite kind of music?
He should be able to give you good answers.
Of course, if budget and time permit, find yourself either a good engineer who can handle both tracking and mixing on seperate days, or find yourself a good engineer to track and another one to step in on mixing.
-Lee
Rosario