Soloing while Mixing

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Looks like we have a conflict of writer/player thinking Vs engineer/producer thinking.

And the fact that there even IS such a conflict can be a fundamental real problem, IMHO. I personally find it impossible to consider the mix without considering the arrangement, or consider the arrangement without considering the resulting mix. And how can one consider a "core sound" of an instrument without considering the arrangement and how it's going to fit in with the rest of the instruments? I can't.

Well, OK, I suppose that one may start with a core sound of one instrument as being a key or hook around which the rest of the arrangement will revolve, adapting everything else in the arrangement around that key instrument.

But whoever is playing the producer role for that project had better make that clear from the get-go, otherwise you wind up with the (all-too-common) problem of every member of the band deciding for themselves what they want their own core sound to be (not to mention the assumption by each member individually that they will be playing the lead role), and the mix will wind up being a mess to work with.

YMMV, IMHO, HDMI, 1080P, ETC.

G.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Soloing while mixing? Oh, all the time, I almost never sit down in front of my computer without a guitar on my lap.




















More seriously, I'm a big fan of the "Solo in Front" option in Reaper. I added an additional button to the menu to quickly turn it on and off, but generally when I want to listen to a single track, I'll just use this mode so I don't kill the rest of the instruments, just knock them back -18db.

 

[MCI2424]

Home recording seems to focus on getting a great sound after the tracking is done. Any good studio had the sound down before they put down a single track. The major label productions do take after take to get the performance down and NOT THE SOUND. Many artists have scrapped whole albums and redid them from scratch because the performance/arrangement/etc. lacked what they were looking for. I don't remember a single time when I was working in larger studios that anyone complained about the sound because that was committed from the beginning. Almost all artists replace tracks anywhere from start to finish. That is why they are pro and have made historic recordings. It is all in the production. I can make a great recording of a seriously bad performance and it will still be a great recording.


AND this mini-rant has nothing to do with this thread now that I think about it.

 

[philbagg]

It's called "humor" Phil. He didn't put a smiley, but it was funny nonetheless.

How the hell did I miss that?

Home recording seems to focus on getting a great sound after the tracking is done. Any good studio had the sound down before they put down a single track. The major label productions do take after take to get the performance down and NOT THE SOUND. Many artists have scrapped whole albums and redid them from scratch because the performance/arrangement/etc. lacked what they were looking for. I don't remember a single time when I was working in larger studios that anyone complained about the sound because that was committed from the beginning. Almost all artists replace tracks anywhere from start to finish. That is why they are pro and have made historic recordings. It is all in the production. I can make a great recording of a seriously bad performance and it will still be a great recording.


AND this mini-rant has nothing to do with this thread now that I think about it.

Still a very good point