Mixing Vs Recording

N

Noah Nelson

New member
how much time do you spend on recording vs mixing? as a rough ratio i'm guessing i spend 2hrs mixing for every hr recording.. How does that measure up with you?
 
For me, that solely depends on the quality of the talent recording. Generally, time spent finding the right sound for an artist makes the mixdown time go quicker than just throwing up a mic and hitting record. But this is relative to the fact that when musicians already have their tone figured out, and play well from the start, things just seem to mix themselves.

I would say that if you spend twice the amount of time trying to mix tracks than you did recording them, then you likely spent way less than half as much time needed to make the tracks worth mixing. Artist performance and the personality that leads to any given sound is worth way more than adding or fixing things later.
 
..its more like my level of skill of mixing is "guess and check". I tend to come back to my mixes and change everything about it. Especially if i am mixing on top of an "already mastered" beat and trying to make room for vocals
 
Well if you are mixing on top of already 'mixed/mastered' recordings, then your challenge is to make the new tracks fit with it. That is a totally different aspect than I was referring to.

That actually is not as difficult as it seems.
 
Noah Nelson said:
..its more like my level of skill of mixing is "guess and check". I tend to come back to my mixes and change everything about it.
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You might benefit from taking frequent short breaks, or at least checking reference material out every 10 minutes.
Your ears get used to what they're hearing over time, see?

Almost every time I mix for a few hours or whatever I come back and make a lot of changes first thing the next morning.
 
I have never mixed anything the first attempt. Not sure it is even possible. 20 min screwing with drums, and my ears are screwed for a guitar tone.

Not sure what it is you are dealing with Noah, but take it one step at a time. Then spend more time taking steps. Like up the stairs for a sandwich and give your ears a break.

If you are still using the NS10t's then you need one...
 
Are you listening to the answers to the questions you ask Noah? You seem to love to give new members advice, yet .... never mind....
 
I was told years ago to spend more time tracking/mic setup/positioning etc and I wouldn't spend near as much time mixing.

So I started doing that and I still suck.
:p


nah, it actually does cut down on the time spent mixing. But I had to learn my mics and gear better.
And I paid more attention to my input levels as well.

A bit of practice and my stuff still sucks but they suck in a lot less time.
:D
 
Noah Nelson said:
How much time do you spend on recording vs mixing? As a rough ratio ?
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Although there are some songs that took me days to mix to anywhere close to satisfaction, in general no tune ever takes as long to mix as it did to record, when you take it hour for hour. Not even close.
 
I don't really know how long it takes to mix,because I tend to mix as I track. That means that by the time I've finished tracking, the song is just about mixed.
 
gecko zzed said:
I don't really know how long it takes to mix,because I tend to mix as I track. That means that by the time I've finished tracking, the song is just about mixed.
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Yup, same here. It's been a while now, but normally I spend days or weeks tracking and mixing as I go. By the time I'm done with the tracking, I spend maybe a couple of hours doing any remaining mixing and then I call it good.
 
Armistice said:
Well c'mon man... the MP3 Clinic requires more Heat tunes!

:D
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Awww. I wish I had tunes. It's kind of sad. I don't know what happened. It's like someone hit a switch 6 months ago and I just lost interest/motivation. I really miss it, but I just got zip...nada...nothing.
 
heatmiser said:
Awww. I wish I had tunes. It's kind of sad. I don't know what happened. It's like someone hit a switch 6 months ago and I just lost interest/motivation. I really miss it, but I just got zip...nada...nothing.
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Maybe move to a town with legalized creativity tools? lol!
 
jimmys69 said:
Maybe move to a town with legalized creativity tools? lol!
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Ha! Actually, it's legal for medicinal purposes statewide, and Maine's largest city, Portland, recently voted to legalize it for recreational use. Thank god for the slippery slope!

So, I'm afraid I can't blame my creative drought on any kind of, uh...drought.
 
gecko zzed said:
I don't really know how long it takes to mix,because I tend to mix as I track. That means that by the time I've finished tracking, the song is just about mixed.
Click to expand...
I was going to say something similar. Nowadays the line between demo'ing/arranging/tracking/editing/mixing gets pretty blurry. I mean, when I'm tweaking the amp sim controls or trying new snare samples to get the original scratch tracks to fit better with newer overdubs is that mixing, or is that "getting right at the source"? That final session where I make sure that everything is exactly where I want it and then hit Render is usually a very small portion of the time I spend on a recording, but by then I've been hacking on it for a (usually way too) long time.
 
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