Tinkering with mixes (and the solution to it?)

Mickster said:
I put the mix into a group with all of my favorite final mixes of my own previous stuff.........and listen to it a few times in a group. I change the play order around sometimes.
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ah, forgot to mention that too. good point. Although, this might be slightly different than that... before I check the mix on a new system, I first put on my last 2-3 mixes and THEN play the new song. I'm looking for the contrast, overall bright/dark, and any other obvious differences, good or bad.
 
Or...put it in an ipod (if anyone still uses those) and set it up with commercial mixes of songs you like on random play.

Go about your business just listening to music.
When your tune comes on unexpectedly, ANY thing wrong with it will jump out at you.

The key to it working is that when you load it into a playlist, you have to level match it to the other tracks.
 
I actually reckon that the best way to check mixes is to not actually listen to them LOL, what I mean by this is have you songs playing in the home while you are doing something else, play your songs with other commercial released songs, if there is something wrong with the mix it will jump out when you are not really listening to it.

At one of my old studios the best place to listen to the mix was in the band kitchen when having a break, I would leave the song(s) playing in the control room and we would be talking in the kitchen with the sound coming out of the control room door and down the hall, if the mix sounded good like this it was good.

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
I actually reckon that the best way to check mixes is to not actually listen to them LOL, what I mean by this is have you songs playing in the home while you are doing something else, play your songs with other commercial released songs, if there is something wrong with the mix it will jump out when you are not really listening to it.

At one of my old studios the best place to listen to the mix was in the band kitchen when having a break, I would leave the song(s) playing in the control room and we would be talking in the kitchen with the sound coming out of the control room door and down the hall, if the mix sounded good like this it was good.

Alan.
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I do this often. And the kitchen is my go-to area. When you listen-without-listening you can get the sense of how well the thing hangs together. This works very well if you are listening to a CD's worth of material and are checking that the songs are all consistent with each other.

You can disconnect yourself from what you know about the song using time (i.e. not listening to it for a couple of weeks), or using distance (going to another room).
 
It is my firm belief that you can reduce the symptoms but never completely get over tinkering with mixes.

I have material going back several decades. The mixes I did at the time were long sense finished, accepted and used.

However, I have all the projects archived on external HDDs and, sometimes when looking for something else, come across a mix I enjoyed, open the project and see "what would it sound like if I did x, y, or z.

Having admitted to that, before I even try the mixes on other playback devices, my first check is always to sit back, close my eyes and just listen without the distraction of meters, waveforms and so on. It's amazing what i can here without the distractions.
 
nola said:
does anyone have suggestions on how to just accept a mix, even if it's flawed?
I can't stop tinkering with mixes. If i lower x, y suddenly sounds off, and i'm just chasing my tail. It's literally taking days from doing other things like practicing/recording new songs. I hate it. Hate mixing. If i were rich i'd hire a mix engineer instead of a butler!

I've tried things like stepping away and coming back to it, and that works to a degree, but then if i spend just a bit of time on it i'm back down the rabbit hole of "this is 1db loud, this is just a hair too far left, etc" and it's maddening.

I can't afford to send mixes to pros and really just want to know if this is common, if others deal with this and relate, and if so how they handle it?
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hahha ,really , all of us do it . Even go so far as to redo everything from day one. Having a home studio allows this cause it cost no money only time. But,you finally have to say enough or have someone else come and give you his/her thoughts. Don't have to agree but you'll know when all is right.
 
sparky123 said:
hahha ,really , all of us do it . Even go so far as to redo everything from day one. Having a home studio allows this cause it cost no money only time. But,you finally have to say enough or have someone else come and give you his/her thoughts. Don't have to agree but you'll know when all is right.
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Right on.
 
I beg to differ... as I tweak and tweak and tweak, at least as I have been learning, it often results in acquiring a new tool or plug-in.
Argh.


sparky123 said:
hahha ,really , all of us do it . Even go so far as to redo everything from day one. Having a home studio allows this cause it cost no money only time. But,you finally have to say enough or have someone else come and give you his/her thoughts. Don't have to agree but you'll know when all is right.
Click to expand...
 
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