how i increased my mixes ten fold

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brownbearTLE

New member
As a lot of people, i started out by recording my own band for pre production to give to a nice studio. (let me say this helped us be prepared for the real deal) and after getting hooked on recording, i've been increasing my skills since then.

Sorry for the backstory, so i'll jump straight to the point. When i started i was god awful. i search the internet for hours and hours for mixing advice, the "how do i do this" and "good tips", to just looking at settings for a compressor. Still my mixes came out terrible.

Then one day i recording a really good indie band. They also needed some pre production for a good studio. Instead of thinking "hey this guy told me to place a mike here, his mixes are good so i'll do that to", i experimented! After everything was printed in the daw, i actually listened to each element and instead of eq'ing just to eq, set a preset, or took the same exact advice someone posted i took my knowledge and applied them to the song.

This may seem redundant for people who know this, but honestly, listen to your mixes, your OWN mixes. Don't get me wrong forums like this or websites give you great advice to increase your skills, but at the end of the day you're the one mixing the song.

Just trust yourself.
 
It is truly when you stop trying to enhance for the sake of it, and start listening to what is presented to you, that everything starts to make sense. :D
 
If the band is good, the mix seems happen so much easier and be so much better
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This is very true. One project i did was a metal band that had terrible arrangement, it needed so much editing, and just poor playing. People said "the mix sounds great, but the band sucks"

But what i'm getting at here is that people ask how to make a cake with the perfect ingredients and procedure without just tying it themselves. They'll even go as far as buying new equipment without making their skills better with the tools they have.... if that all makes sense to you guys :)
 
brownbearTLE said:
But what i'm getting at here is that people ask how to make a cake with the perfect ingredients and procedure without just tying it themselves. They'll even go as far as buying new equipment without making their skills better with the tools they have.... if that all makes sense to you guys :)
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It is a valid point. To often people decide that they need to drop all this cash to get what they are told is "good gear" however, they never use what they have to develop their skills and understanding of audio concepts and techniques. The best gear and band in the world will not make you a good engineer.

If you are an artist, it does not matter if you have 5 dollar walmart paint or top of the line paint, if you don't know that blue and yellow make green, then you are in trouble... You NEED to learn the concepts, techniques and principles of sound and experiment. Or like you mentioned a cake. You can give a none shelf the ingredients, but unless you know how to put them together, you will come out with a giant mess.
 
But how does all that lead to this:
i increased my mixes ten fold
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You're making 10 times more mixes? Your mixes are 10 times louder? Your mixes are 10 times faster? Your mixes are 3 better than "Avenged Sevenfold"?
 
brownbearTLE said:
But what i'm getting at here is that people ask how to make a cake with the perfect ingredients and procedure without just tying it themselves.
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This to my mind is the crux of the matter. With the instant availability to everything on the web, many seem to have lost the spirit and ability to try things out for themselves. Also the understanding that no matter how much you look on line, some things still need to be learned, practiced, worked on and improved over time. There aren't cheat codes or power ups to instantly make recording, mixing, writing and playing better, we are not characters in a mixing video game.

Also there seems to be an extraordinary need for validation. So many questions about what random people one has never met think you should do in a circumstance they know nothing about except for what was posted in a two sentence question on line. Whatever happened to self confidence and a sense of adventure in this life? What do YOU think you should do in YOUR circumstance?

Rant over

And my mixes are three worse than the Jackson 5
 
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You're making 10 times more mixes? Your mixes are 10 times louder? Your mixes are 10 times faster? Your mixes are 3 better than "Avenged Sevenfold"?
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Lol, i can actually physically fold my mixes ten times. Thats just how we say around here to "increase" and i explained how i increased my quality... sort of. Its mostly how i increased as

Briston Posse i feel as though mixing is a puzzle and an art form, its all subjectively put together by the audio engineer and how the song grooves. Yet, most people starting out want others to paint the picture.
 
RAMI said:
But how does all that lead to this:

i increased my mixes ten fold
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You're making 10 times more mixes? Your mixes are 10 times louder? Your mixes are 10 times faster? Your mixes are 3 better than "Avenged Sevenfold"?
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I thought he was going to tell us about some herbal supplement that makes your mixes bigger than most other guys'.
 
Yeah, I have lucked out so far by inviting really good bands into my studio. The next one may be a bit of a challenge. Though they are paying in advance for me to record as well as produce their tunes. The desire for more gear is driving my inspiration on this one.

When recording truly good talent, things just seem to fall in place. Unprepared ones just make things more like work. Hell, I do most stuff for free for good musicians. Kinda like a drug dealer doing his own product huh? Bad business, but it makes me feel good! LOL!
 
jimmys69 said:
When recording truly good talent, things just seem to fall in place. Unprepared ones just make things more like work. Hell, I do most stuff for free for good musicians. Kinda like a drug dealer doing his own product huh? Bad business, but it makes me feel good! LOL!
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I can attest to this as well. I have "recorded" some bands where their drummers could not hold time, or their bassists were tone deaf, etc.....it is seriously a huge struggle and half the time I don't want to put my name on the recordings because they are well recorded pieces of crap. However, I have recorded some better musicians. Often times some really tallented acoustic guys who are well practiced with good vocals and instrument ability where it is so easy and FUN to engineer and produce the albums as you can give a suggestion and right away hear it the next take. It makes it pretty fun and always sound better.
 
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