Some Mixing Tips

[Beezoboy]

Harvey I am going to print out those rules you just gave and put them right next to my mixing environment. Not only for me, but for the bands that I mix so that they can get some idea of how mixing down works. That is one of the best explanations I could ever think of. I might omit that keeping people happy thing though. I think too often pride gets in the way of a good mix and I wish I had enough clout to make them realize that.

Ok you have been recording and mixing for a very long time. Do you ever just want to slap some guy that wants his guitar to be the loudest and most overpowering thing in the mix because he has some chip on his shoulder?? I would think because you are older and more experienced someone would listen to you without much argument. Is that the case?

I think drummers are easiest to get along with!!
(I am a drummer)

Beezoboy

[Harvey Gerst]

Originally posted by Beezoboy
Ok you have been recording and mixing for a very long time. Do you ever just want to slap some guy that wants his guitar to be the loudest and most overpowering thing in the mix because he has some chip on his shoulder?? I would think because you are older and more experienced someone would listen to you without much argument. Is that the case?
Beezoboy

You'd think so, but it doesn't work that way in real life. Most guitarists (not all, but a lot of them) seem to want way more of themselves in the mix than other members of the group. I have my own theories about it; some are not happy in the group and want to use the recording as a showcase of their talents for other groups, or they are so focused on their part, they don't understand how it should contribute to the whole song. Either way, it's a problem.

When you mix for a major label, most of the time a group will not be present during mixdown. The mixer and producer are in charge of making those decisions. For three of the tracks on the new Slow Roosevelt album, the record company flew my son Alex (the Producer) out to L.A. to supervise the mixing of the tracks by Mixerman - none of the group was present for those mixes.

[darrin_h2000]

I can see the meeting with Pink Floyd now. First you would offer them cigars, then tell them how they are going to make it and everyone will love them, and then ask which one is Pink.

I kind of miss reading Sjoko's posts when he toured with Floyd, I wonder if hes ever gotten better, I heard he fell ill some time back.


Alan Parsons is like an idol to me, That must have been a cool time to be kicking back with him and Clapton. Does Alan really monitor with those B&W hi fi speakers. I heard he also uses Phase Linear for a referece amp?

[Harvey Gerst]

Well, that's pretty unlikely, since I don't smoke cigars, and they had already "made it", without any help from me.

I had only met Eric a couple of times before, so I don't know why he singled me out to listen to the Band's stuff with him. But it was a lot of fun.

At the time, I don't remember it being B&W speakers (which weren't around during the late 60s, early 70s); it was just a nice hi-fi system, as I recall.

[ozraves]

Harvey, some of Eric's bandmates such as Carl Radle were from Tulsa and he visited back in the day.

A friend of mine knew these guys and has an Eric Clapton story. He was a guitar teacher for many years. He told Eric how kids wanted to learn to play like Jimi but he couldn't teach them the songs. He finally theorized that Hendrix's guitar was never in tune so it'd be hard to teach that. Eric told the guy that he picked up Jimi's guitar once and it was totally out of tune. Jimi came in and grabbed it from Eric and it sounded great when Jimi played it.

Did you ever work with Carl Radle?

_________

Steve
www.piemusic.com

[Harvey Gerst]

I had one of Hendix's Strats for a while and I hated it, but I don't remember it having any bigger tuning problems than any other Strat from that period.

The action was a little high for my tastes and after screwing with it for a week os so, I finally got it to where it felt good to me. He used heavier strings than I did, so going to lighter strings (Ernie Ball Super Slinkeys) made it easier for me, but I couldn't get used to the controls sticking me in the arm pit.

I never met Carl. Other than Eric, who I only met a few times, I knew Buddy Miles, not from Band Of Gypsies, but from Michael Bloomfield's group, The Electric Flag.

[MrZekeMan]

Harvey,

Once again, thank you. I've copied and posted these comments to my archives.

What is kind of cool, is that I've already come to realize some of these things on my own.

For example, the comments on getting away from the song for a while. It is amazing to me how much wrong I hear with a mix when I come back to it, although it sounded alright the day before.

Mixing is fun. Small adjustments can bring about monumental improvement in the overall quality of the song.

Taylor

[MrZekeMan]

Originally posted by Harvey Gerst
I had one of Hendix's Strats for a while and I hated it...

I think I recall you saying one time that he kind of fell in love one of your guitars, a custom built acoustic that you designed if I recall correctly. Something about him refusing to give it back to you for a while. Was that when you had his axe?

Taylor

[A1A2]

Harvey:

Thanks for sharing your stories with us. ALan Parson is my idol, too.

Question, Dark Side of the Moon was known for placing everyone in their own space, and from what I have read, that's a London style, where they have layers of sound in the mix. The book didn't cover exactually how they created the "layers". Can you please roughly define what layers might have meant? Different distance created by reverb/delay maybe?

AL

[LI_Slim]

Great advice for the homerecker about mixing!!!

Harvey, can I suggest, post it in the mixing forum (or it you like, I'll go there and provide a link to this thread)?