Do You Mix From Scratch Every Song?

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soundchaser59

Reluctant Commander
What I mean is, do you mix everything from scratch and try different fx and different plugins each time? Or do you have a core set of favorite fx and favorite plugs that you fall back on every mix?

It's fun to be creative and experiment with every bag of tricks on every track on every song, BUT........it's very time consuming.

I recently read an article and watched a few clips that suggest simply having a small "core" of favorite, reliable fx and plugins that you know really well, some mixing tricks that you know well, etc., and using that same bag of tricks and the same "template" if you will to expedite the process and overall get more tunes done with more consistency.

What do you guys prefer?
 
I've got a "template" file that I usually start from. It has the usual ingredients that I will need to start a song. My list: several VST synths, several different samples of drums (kicks, snares, sub kicks), and that's about it. I already have compression on the drums the way I like it, so I don't have to do that every single time. Having said that, I almost always end up swapping samples, effects, etc so that I can make the sounds match what I hear in my head. My template saves me a lot of time on the tech side of things so I can get down to work on the creative side of things...
 
I can't really say I have any "mixing template" or nothin but I do have certain EQ and fx starting points I do.
My stuff tends to be a jumbled mess tho. :o
I get bored and distracted kinda easy so it might take me a couple of months to finish a mix cuz I'm bouncing around to different tunes.

different strokes I guess but I really think I could use a bit of consistency with my stuff. Maybe it's my adhd.


:D
 
I have certain saved presets for plugins that I use regularly (but not all the time): electric guitar EQ (scooped mids); EQ, tube preamp, de-esser for my lead vocals.

If you are mixing a whole album's worth of songs, it will help to have some consistentcy from song-to-song in what you use.
 
I don't have any templates or anything like that, but I work on similar music a lot of the time and end up using pretty much the same setups a lot of the time.

The only thing I'll save and reuse is the drum sound across several tracks (VST), and even then I end up tweaking them per song.
 
I may start doing it one day but at the moment, never. From scratch, everytime.
 
I have a few favorite reverb presets programmed into my outboard boxes....a couple of Plates (short/long) and a couple of Halls (short/long) but that's about it.
Since I mix OTB even when I'm coming from the DAW rather than tape deck...all my outboard gear and my console are always "zeroed" before a new session.
In the DAW I may create presets for a given song's tracks...like if I EQ out a small section of a guitar track, I'll save that as a preset to use on other sections of the same track if needed...but I don't usually save stuff from one song to use on another.

Very often I'll change up my tracking SOP for various elements....that way, even if I had saved mix presets from other songs, they really wouldn't work well unless I also had tracking SOPs that were always identical for each element from song to song.
It is easy to slip into a cookie-cutter SOP if you are not careful...and pretty soon everything sounds the same....
"it's just like the last song, only different". :)
Sometimes that's OK...you may want that same flavor/style permeating all your work...but each song should have a life of its own, so you want to be careful not to end up being just a slave to your SOP, and instead...try to always serve the production.
(I think I just said that somewhere else). ;)

What happens over time is we all develop mental presets...so like, you KNOW that if there's a lot of sibilance on a ANY vocal...you will go and do some EQ cut in the 5-8 kHz range....but that's just more about learning how to use your tools, and often you may need to use the same tool the same way on different things... and that's not really cookie-cutter.
 
Yes and No

As I've become more experienced I have realized the importance of getting the sound right up front. as close to the finished product as possible as it were. With this in mind if I know that I don't want a lot of low end in the guitars for example, I'll cut the bass on the amp, or use a mic with a low end roll off, or use mic positioning to get the sound I want. I also record with FX. so If I know I want some compression on the vocals I'll try to get the sound during the recording (especially since I'm using hardware comps which free them up for other duties in the mix). So in this respect I'm recording with the end in mind, making decisions about how the song should sound ahead of time rather than just recording a bunch of tracks, throwing a ton of FX at them and hope something sounds good. so in a sense I'm starting to mix as I'm tracking with a preconceived notion of the sound as I want it to sound in a mix

I'm down to 6 VST Plugins in my DAW folder plus a 3 band HW EQ on each of my desk channels, 2 channels of HW track compressors, 1 HW stereo bus compressor and 1 HW master bus compressor.

If I can't make the mix work with that then it aint going to happen

However like others have said I start with faders at unity, no EQ or compression (other than what was recorded into the tracks to get the core sounds right) and then I listen to the tracks to see what they need to sit together.

Mixing is the last 15-20% of finishing the song. If 80-85% of it's not already there just form putting the faders up, then something was wrong with the writing, rehearsing, preparation or tracking
 
Bristol Posse said:
Mixing is the last 15-20% of finishing the song. If 80-85% of it's not already there just form putting the faders up, then something was wrong with the writing, rehearsing, preparation or tracking
Click to expand...
Ya know, I agree with you. But I am realizing that it takes a lot of experience to get to the point where this would happen consistently. I'd be thrilled if I were good enough to have every song be 80% of the finished sound as soon as I'm done recording the tracks. I commend you if you are at that point.

On the other hand, I do believe in mixing the basic tracks after recording is done and getting that raw mix as close as possible to a finished product, before sticking in fx and plugins and other forms of sweetening or ear candy. If I can't get in the ballpark with the raw tracks, then I probably *should* be re-recording something.
 
Hmmm...largely from scratch, but...

If I'm doing multiple tracks of similar style material by the same artist, I will try for a pretty similar sound, including things like mic choice and positioning while tracking and the use of the same (or at least similar) settings on any effects I've used.

The most extreme example of this I can think of was, while working with a composer doing musical theatre, he decided to change a particular song from a solo to a duet. The second voice was recorded almost a year after the first but I was able to recall the reverb settings I'd used previously so the two voices seemed to be in the same musical space.

I certainly don't slavishly use identical settings but certainly do have a library of settings I've used before.
 
soundchaser59 said:
Ya know, I agree with you. But I am realizing that it takes a lot of experience to get to the point where this would happen consistently. I'd be thrilled if I were good enough to have every song be 80% of the finished sound as soon as I'm done recording the tracks. I commend you if you are at that point.

On the other hand, I do believe in mixing the basic tracks after recording is done and getting that raw mix as close as possible to a finished product, before sticking in fx and plugins and other forms of sweetening or ear candy. If I can't get in the ballpark with the raw tracks, then I probably *should* be re-recording something.
Click to expand...
Thought this way but there is really no shortcuts to achieving a solid mix. The reason every mix is constructed from scratch is because every song and mix is different. This is why templates dont necessarily work cause your not mixing the same song everytime so whats to predict. I have templates on my DAW very, very flexible templates and on console I have none straight scratch. You will find that you mixes come out better and more detailed and better quality. Now mixing on the go or while recording is something a lot of guys here do and you can definitely at that to your repertoire.
 
jaynm26 said:
The reason every mix is constructed from scratch is because every song and mix is different.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I only record myself at present but never have I had two songs that sound the same or that they've been done in the same room. I go for the sound in my head that I want to hear. I've never used a template. I just start with a scratch track of guitar/piano and vocals to a click/hihat and work from there. Not being able to play the drums, the drums come last for me.
 
Mr Clean said:
I just start with a scratch track of guitar/piano and vocals to a click/hihat and work from there. Not being able to play the drums, the drums come last for me.
Click to expand...
This is what I've done for quite some time, and since I am recording my own tunes (with an ocassional singer coming in) and my own instruments, I thought I might be more efficient and consistent if I pare it down to some core favorites that I use. I do understand starting from scratch each song if I were recording other people, other songs, other styles, etc.

I usually track the instrument I wrote the song on first, with a click, or a simple drum pattern looped to act as a glorified metronome. But then I will do the drums and bass next, usually in that order, and re-record the rhythm guitar and/or the bass if needed, and tweak the drums too, until the core rhythm section is fairly tight and "rehearsed."

I noticed that I have been falling back on a set of favorite plugins and favorite "tricks" that I think give me a better sound, or closer to the sound I hear in my head, and those mixes tend to take shape a lot quicker than the mixes where I go looking for something new and dramatic to dazzle my ears. After all the hours I've spent looking for the new and the dramatic and the dazzling, I see now that most of those hours ended up being wanger wankers, not much to show for it, as I end up going with what I know sounds good. Maybe I just don't have very many good plugins?

Should I have to hunt and wade thru dozezns of plugs hoping to find ear candy? Or should I have a few really good plugs that fit 80-90% of the musical needs I have? It's kinda like that tremolo pedal that I never use.......how often do I need it? How often do I need a dazzling EQ plug to put on the panning delay imager plug that's bling blinging the shimmer cathedral reverb plug?
 
soundchaser59 said:
I usually track the instrument I wrote the song on first, with a click, or a simple drum pattern looped to act as a glorified metronome.
Click to expand...

I do this all the time. I make a repeating midi beat for the length of the track and start from that. I just prefer to do all the instruments first before the drums. I'm by far no wizard with drums, sadly, but I find it easier to get what I want for the track at the end. I can hear the fills etc. I never use pre-mapped midi samples. I always write my own and try to loosen them, mess with the velocity of each drum as I go. Takes a while but it's how I learnt. I've never like the sound of samples.

soundchaser59 said:
I noticed that I have been falling back on a set of favorite plugins and favorite "tricks" that I think give me a better sound, or closer to the sound I hear in my head, and those mixes tend to take shape a lot quicker than the mixes where I go looking for something new and dramatic to dazzle my ears. After all the hours I've spent looking for the new and the dramatic and the dazzling, I see now that most of those hours ended up being wanger wankers, not much to show for it, as I end up going with what I know sounds good. Maybe I just don't have very many good plugins?

Should I have to hunt and wade thru dozezns of plugs hoping to find ear candy? Or should I have a few really good plugs that fit 80-90% of the musical needs I have? It's kinda like that tremolo pedal that I never use.......how often do I need it? How often do I need a dazzling EQ plug to put on the panning delay imager plug that's bling blinging the shimmer cathedral reverb plug?
Click to expand...

I used to trawl through plugins, looking for the magic one to make the magic sound. I guess everybody who records on a computer has at some point, and newbies will continue to look for the elusive magic plugin that makes a track or mix sound fantastic. Sadly, if it sounds shit already, all the plugins in the world will, 9 times out of 10, make it sound shitter!

Personally I use 2 or 3 different Comps, EQ's and Reverb's, PSP Vintage and very little else. I deleted the mass majority of my collected plugins as I never used them, some of them I'd never even looked at!
 
Bristol Posse said:
Mixing is the last 15-20% of finishing the song.
Click to expand...
This kind of fits my concept of "the song". I see it as a process involving a few stages, which is partly why, for me, songwriting per se, in and of itself, is somewhat overrated.
Bristol Posse said:
If 80-85% of it's not already there just form putting the faders up, then something was wrong with the writing, rehearsing, preparation or tracking
Click to expand...
I'd say that's highly dependent on one's conceptualization of the song. Some people are into ultra processing/editing/altering what is written and tracked and end up with no less a song.
For some, mixing is no less an artistic endeavour and performance because it's at this point that conception {the initial idea} which has led to the embryo {the song} which has become a baby {arrangement} and developed as a child {tracking} is now being raised to become a responsible and balanced adult {the mix}.
I'm not sure where the mastering comes into the analogy ! :D
 
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