What is your most memorable "ah-ha!" moment in learning to mix/record?

dco

dco

New member
Wondering what one or some of your memorable "ah-ha" moments have been in your personal evolution & studies as a mixing/recording engineer.

Was there something you did, or something someone showed you that just set off that light bulb, or put you on the right track, changing the way you work/thought about things?

--

I've had many, but honestly I started recording/mixing in the DAW world. My biggest 'ah-ha' moment was realizing that the way things look on screen really are pretty irrelevant compared to the way things sound.

'Sometimes when working in a DAW you need to just close your eyes and stop trying to "look at sound." It was easy, especially with attractive looking UI's, to fall into patterns of seeing things a certain way on the screen. Then when you bounce the track and listen to it in the dark you're surprised it sounds the way it does.

Also realizing that there are no perfect settings for dynamics processors/time based effects, and that it totally depends on the source as well as the vibe.

Don't be fearful... just listen.
 
Hmmmmm...it was awhile back...

Mixing on headphones, while personally rewarding...generally sucks. :)



Another one was....

Mood lighting in the studio often makes a difference in the recording vibe. :D
 
dco said:
My biggest 'ah-ha' moment was realizing that the way things look on screen really are pretty irrelevant compared to the way things sound.
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The interesting thing for a relatively older guy like me is what a new phenomonon this is, and is one of those unintended consequence of new technology to watch out for. For those who cut their teeth in the "old days" of analog only home recording, the idea of using ones ears and not their eyes was not even an issue, and in a rather counterintuitive way I believe made acquiring one's ears an easier and more natural process back then than it is now.

I don't know what my biggest A-HA! moment was, there are so many of them that I think I have probably forgotten most of them or mistakenly taken them in as "common sense" by now. But I'll tell you my most recent one, one that I've been contemplating just in the past few weeks: that the Internet is homogenizing the knowledge and technique out there in this racket.

Before the Internet, other than a couple of magazines and a book or two, there wasn't a whole lot of information out there that one had any real access to. The consequence was that for better or worse, one usually had to figure thing out on their own in relative isolation short of a few local friends and acquaintenances. The upshot that I see today is a pretty wide vaiety of styles and techniques and knowledge bases amongst fellow engineers today "of a certain age".

Those that cut their teeth in the last decade or so, OTOH, tend to more closely follow a "conventional wisdom" knowledge and technique base acquired largely from places just like this forum, with less variety and difference from person to person than used to be found.

I'll leave it to each individual reader to decide for themselves whether that's good news or bad. I think there are pluses and minuses to both times myself, and is not necessarily strictly good or bad news. Just a noteworthy shift, is all, but one that itself can lead to many other mini-"A-HAs" about how things are done or can be done in home recording.

G.
 
When, after upgrading every piece of equipment and instrument I could to a better version, and still getting crap results, I realised I had to learn to record..

It's the witch, not the wand, as they say... :D
 
miroslav said:
Mixing on headphones, while personally rewarding...generally sucks.
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Damn...we are using headphone due to the lack of funds for "real" monitors. Everyone I have spoke to and the reviews I have read told me to stay away from all the ones in our current budget :/
 
After shelling out how much for pro tools and all the friggin plug ins ..... then along comes Reaper and it's free and just as good, damn it. :mad:









:cool:
 
ncmail said:
Damn...we are using headphone due to the lack of funds for "real" monitors. Everyone I have spoke to and the reviews I have read told me to stay away from all the ones in our current budget :/
Click to expand...

It's not impossible to mix with them...but the problem with headphones is that you don't get the space/air...they are right up against your ears, and that skews your perception.
If the whole world listened to music only with headphones, that would be different...then we would all be mixing with headphones. Now I know these days a lot of people do use ear-buds all day long with their iPods. Thing is…if you get decent mixes with a monitor, they tend to translate well to both speakers and headphones…but headphone mixes often sound odd on a speaker system. Besides the space/air thing…it’s hard to get the EQ right with headphones…especially the low end.

Monitors just work better...but yeah, cheap ones don't help, and of course, great ones in a real shitty room don't help either. You need at least “decent” monitors and a “decent” listening environment. It doesn't have to be a million-dollar setup, but better monitors and better rooms usually = better mixes.
 
For me, it wasn't an "A-ha" moment really. But, when I finally realized that less is more and I don't need to apply every "trick", "technique", and "gadget" that I read about, my recordings starting actually not sucking. Now, I record dry and try to get things to sound as good as they can at the tracking stage, rather then depending on compression, EQ's, exciters, wowifiers, and a bunch of other crap. Now, my raw mixes sound ALMOST as good as my finished mixes.
 
For me it was kind of a two fold thing

First, keeping on buying new gear doesn't make things any better until you can produce well written, well practiced, well played, well recorded material. YOU CAN'T FIX IT IN THE MIX! DON'T BE AFRAID TO RETRACK IF IT ISN"T RIGHT. (espeically in a home studio where you're not paying by the hour). Still working on this aspect, I'm now treating a recording session like a gig and don't even plug in my gear until I have the tune and the tone solidly practiced into my fingers, voice or whatever aspect it my be I'm going to record

Second is sort of related: keep it simple, if you have the above then you need a lot less processing to get things to come together and work as a song

Mixing is just a small part of the process to end up with a song, it's not the main focus, get the music right first.
 
Hmm... probably the most profound "A-ha!" moment in the studio for me was the recognition that a really smokin' musical performance will transcend any recording medium, any recording equipment, and any recording incompetancy (short of not pressing the Record button).

"It's the witch, not the wand" indeed! If the playing is really happening it really doesn't matter whether you're recording on a blackface ADAT or a ghetto blaster cassette deck or a wax cylinder...and conversely, just because you're recording on an A800 with U47s through 1073s doesn't mean you'll get a listenable album.

Performance trumps everything.
 
I just had an "ah-ha" moment after recording some live demos: a little touch of plate reverb goes a long way.
 
It was actually a couple of A-HA moments...................a day. :p

The first and biggest one that helped my sound was....

Quit tracking so damn hot!

Once I started backing off at the initial trim pot and setting my levels down to where they'd peak at say...-12 with an rms of around....-18....my mixes started getting clearer, cleaner and punchier.

(started :o)
:D

The second was kinda related.

By leaving all my faders at unity....Master, Input and individual track faders... and only setting my tracking levels using my input trim.....paying attention to the input db's...
the tune almost mixed itself. ;)

almost
 
Dogbreath said:
The first and biggest one that helped my sound was....

Quit tracking so damn hot!

Once I started backing off at the initial trim pot and setting my levels down to where they'd peak at say...-12 with an rms of around....-18....my mixes started getting clearer, cleaner and punchier.

(started :o)
:D
Click to expand...

Yeah, I still do this sometimes by mistake. It really seems to help when I back off a bit.
 
p_wats said:
Yeah, I still do this sometimes by mistake. It really seems to help when I back off a bit.
Click to expand...

especially when ya figure 24 bit.
The difference in room ya got to work with is HUGE when going from 16 bit to 24.
No sense in eatin up all that room right from the very first stage. ;)

Funny enough, John @ Massive Master is the one that finally got this thru my head.
(thanks John :drunk:)
 
Biggest ah-ha for me was getting feedback from someone else on my mixes. My daughter of all people, who is neither a musician, nor a recordist.
One listen and she'd peg a vocal that's too loud, or instruments stepping on each other.. or whatever. Also could peg a bad intro or ending, where harmonies should and should not be, or use this or that guitar instead... told me to re-track a vocal or solo cause it would be better if it did 'this' inflection in this place or 'that' growl in that place... I tried her suggestions, and man! Better mixes, better playing, better song. Every time. Was weird...

Well... that and switching to 24 bit...
 
bristol posse said:
for me it was kind of a two fold thing

first, keeping on buying new gear doesn't make things any better until you can produce well written, well practiced, well played, well recorded material. You can't fix it in the mix! Don't be afraid to retrack if it isn"t right. (espeically in a home studio where you're not paying by the hour). Still working on this aspect, i'm now treating a recording session like a gig and don't even plug in my gear until i have the tune and the tone solidly practiced into my fingers, voice or whatever aspect it my be i'm going to record

second is sort of related: Keep it simple, if you have the above then you need a lot less processing to get things to come together and work as a song

mixing is just a small part of the process to end up with a song, it's not the main focus, get the music right first.
Click to expand...

^^^^^^ +20,000,000
 
Bob Ross said:
Hmm... probably the most profound "A-ha!" moment in the studio for me was the recognition that a really smokin' musical performance will transcend any recording medium, any recording equipment, and any recording incompetancy (short of not pressing the Record button).

"It's the witch, not the wand" indeed! If the playing is really happening it really doesn't matter whether you're recording on a blackface ADAT or a ghetto blaster cassette deck or a wax cylinder...and conversely, just because you're recording on an A800 with U47s through 1073s doesn't mean you'll get a listenable album.

Performance trumps everything.
Click to expand...

amen! this is on the money
 
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