Habit

[aaronmcoleman]

I'm working on some new stuff right now...first time in a LONG time (soon to come to mp3 clinic)!

My question is, do you ever find yourself doing something out of habit just because you usually do it?

I was recording some acoustic guitar parts, and cut put a HPF on it because I usually do that to acoustics in the mix, and it sounded like crap, so I took it off and it sounded fine. Why did I mess with something that sounded ok? Just a habit I guess.

 

[Elton123]

I sure have done that. I really try to focus on what is needed or NOT needed depending on arrangement, instruments, style etc. I find on acoustics, I'm nor rolling them off as high, but finding the low freq that resonate and cut those with a tight Q. I apply that eq first, then shape the sound, if necessary with a second eq. I have plugs that work well for fine cuts, and others I like better for general eq. I do however find that if I have done a decent job tracking, i have to do very little processing.
Sorry about the game yesterday bro, but not that sorry.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

The first thing I do when I start a new mix is try it with no eq/compression/effects. Dynamics and spectral problems (and opportunities) will make themselves apparent.

Even if you are really sure how you want something to sound, once you add other stuff it will sound different. If you start by soloing each instrument to tweak plugins in isolation you'll quickly lose perspective. You can even start losing perspective on the whole mix if you don't take breaks. I like to stop for 1-5 minutes every half hour or so and go outside to listen to real sounds. It can be traffic noise or leaves rustling in the wind, just as long as it's not coming out of a speaker.

 

[RAMI]

This one of the reasons I don't use anything resembling a "template" of any kind. When I start a new song, I open a completely new project, even though I'm tempted to copy the settings for some instruments from my last project. I really think I've learned more about mixing from this than I would have if I relied on past projects as a reference.

 

[Armistice]

Depends.... if I'm using the same gear / set up and I've successfully applied X treatment in the past and this is a similar piece of instrumentation, then yes, but I'll call it "experience" instead of habit...

Besides, my acoustic always DOES need a HPF.... every damn time. It's such a boomy beast.. just a matter how much and how high..

 

[miroslav]

There's an old-school term for the studio console..."zeroing the board"...putting all faders/knobs to their "zero" positions before starting a new session.

It might help to think in terms of "zeroing" your production plans before a session so as not to just do stuff out of habit or some typical SOP, at least from a creative perspective.
For some more mundane/logistical tasks, it's not bad to have an SOP so you don't have to waste mental time on it, you just do it same as before, which I think we all do to a degree.

That said...sometimes plugging the bass into a specific DI on a specific preamp is *THE* thing to do, especially if you like the sound and you don't want/need to keep changing it.
There were/are many records made using studio production SOPs, and it's not always a bad thing....and recording a full album, sometimes having a cohesive sound from song to song is the way to go...sometimes not.

Lots of options....all leading to one question: "How does it sound?"

 

[Guitargodgt]

Just today I was micing a snare drum (no overheads, I was making samples) and out of habit I flipped the polarity of the bottom mic...

Well it sounded like shit, haha.

Was more in phase left alone that when I flipped it.

 

[JimmyS1969]

I am one to go with habit at times. Especially with typical group routing of drums. I would surely never use a template for anything other than basic drum setup tho. Every band/player is different. At first, I even wanted to mix every song by an artist in the same project so I wouldn't lose anything. Same mix throughout the project. That became lazy and redundant. Now I track, do a rough placement and mix of the whole project, then separate them into individual song projects. Give each song it's own life.

Once one realizes that each track deserves it's own mix, unique to the song, and how easy it is to listen to each one individually, it becomes easy to find what each tune needs. Holy crap! That was a bunch of commas. Better make a template for that! lol!

 

[wtfuhz]

Just go with whatever sounds the best to you. What makes music production so fun for me is that it's different every time.

 

[aaronmcoleman]

I don't use any templates, one because I'm not really to great with Reaper yet, and haven't bothered to figure out how, and two because every song I do is different. A lot of what I end up doing is applying the same EQ and compression to tracks...I guess 75% of it is experience, and 25% of it is laziness/habit.

I just think it's crazy how often I/we do something just because we always have and it may not be what is best for the particular song.