How Long Do You Spend On Your Mixes ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter smellyfuzz
  • Start date Start date

HOW LONG DO YOU SPEND ON YOUR MIXES ?

  • 1-2 Hours

    Votes: 26 23.0%

  • 5-12 Hours

    Votes: 36 31.9%

  • 2-5 Days

    Votes: 23 20.4%

  • 1-2 Weeks

    Votes: 28 24.8%
  • Total voters
    113
smellyfuzz

smellyfuzz

New member
My ½ Track is in the shop.

This has forced me to play with the mixing of some recorded tunes I have.

Since I'm still a student of recording, these months I have had no mix down deck
has been a blessing (I think).

I feel my mixing is getting better.

BUT, how long do you guys take to mix a song ?

I general of course.


Sean
 
I end up spending at least 3 hours and up to 8 hours on a mix.
 
5-12

... depending on how many times I manage to fuck things up
 
Depends on how "tweaky" I want or need to get with it.... could be 12 hours, or 3 days!

If the time/project permits, I prefer to mix a single song over a 2-day period - setting up the mix and initial tweaks during the first day... then performing the actual mix the next day. This gives me a fresher take on the mix the next day and any oddity that I didn't hear before usually jumps out at me.
 
I have no clue because I write electronica, so mixing and composing are completely intertwined. At the rate I'm going though, I'm sure mixing amounts to many, many hours per song.

barefoot

http://barefootsound.com
 
Yo Fiber of Odors:

How long?

How good do you want your end product?

I just do what Bear does after I read his message to me.

I push up the faders and call in Darth.

In truth, I have spent 20/30 hours playing around with mixes, reverbs, delays. That's why recording is so much fun.

Also, a good mic and a good mic pre and a good reverb unit will help the mix.

Green Hornet:D :D :cool: :p
 
I'd say it really depends on the situation and the quality you want from the final mix. When I was recording bands, they usually didn't have the cash to pay for more than 2 or 3 hours per song. They wanted(or should I say they could only afford)to mix 4 songs in 3 or 4 hours since it was mostly teen, out of work using their allowance bands.

I'll usually spend around 3 to 4 hours each on one of my songs.

RF
 
If I'm in a pro studio doing something for a client, I usually take about 6 hours/song. If I'm at home and at my own leisure, I'll spend maybe a week of listening to it then coming back later and listening some more.
I kind of throw up a mix and fine tune it for as long as it takes.
Headphones, speakers, low level, loud level, stoned, drunk. I try to listen to it from every different angle. hehehe.
 
Obviously it depends somewhat on the level of complexity of the music. A 64 track song with lots of special mixing effects and automation will certainly take far longer than a simple singer/acoustic guitar solo song.

But typically anywhere from two hours to three days. And usually the first song on a project (at least a project of similar sounding music) takes the longest. After that, a lot of the track settings can be used on other songs.
 
I might start a mix on a Friday night and set up basic levels, pans, and effects. That might be anywhere from a couple of hours to four hours.

Then I will come back to it on Sunday and mix most of the day making adjustments to the above and see if the effects are working and to see if I missed something on Friday night.

If I don't get to it again on Tuesday, it might not be until the following Friday before I call it a final mix. If I listen to it days apart and nothing has changed to my ear then I consider it finished.

I always give my ears a rest between sessions. I've had surprises in the past from a one-night mixing session that have had to be fixed because my ears get used to hearing things that are or aren't there.
 
It all depends.If everything was tracked well then it usually takes a little less effort.But,if the tracks were rushed and forced then it becomes a lot more time consuming to get a healthy sounding mix.It is a good idea to do several mixes of each song so that you have many options to choose from rather than spending a WEEK on a single mix.Also,listen to your mixes through several different sound sources and while listening move around the room and listen for things that stick out or sound unbalanced or unpleasant.Then get yosef a gravy bisquit!
 
I learned a new thing today... I have been working on a demo for a kid-girlie-band-dance-releasethecommercialpiginsideme-type of thing and after tweaking the thing for days now and not finding the right sound it finally hit me...

The guy who wrote the tunes also played the keyboards, but his parts were not well played :( .. so I got to sneak behind his back and redo all of his parts (with my non-touch-sensitive keyboard and 'humanising' all velocity levels :D ) and *shabamm* all parts fell together !

Mxing a small demo for my dinner-jazz-band took me exactly the time to listen to the tunes once...

A good performance mixes itself.


Herwig
 
I "mix" every track as it's recorded, and, as the song progresses, I make adjustments.... Then, when the song is done I spend like 15 minutes doing a final "tweak"...

Thats about it for me and mixing these days.

Joe
 
Herwig, what means this "dinner jazz"? I am intrigued by the combination. Should label reps be booking their flights to Ghent to investigate the next musical trend? Imagine Homer saying "Mmmmm. Dinner Jazz!"

Also, any tips on releasing-the-commercial-pig-inside-me? I'm really bad at it.
-kent
 
Wow. Alot of quick mixing. Doesnt anybody go back to retrack a vocal? A guitar part? Drums? Perhaps double sometyhing with a dif mic? Am I the only one that has spent several weeks to a couple of months mixing a song? Usually the more tracks in a song the longer it takes. Songs with 50+ tracks (which double when you take into account doubling, and delayed panning) can easily take weeks.
 
Well there's always an exception, but I'm refering to paying clients rather than my own stuff. I already give too much time away on editing and such. If I charged for all the time I end up putting into stuff I do for others, well, no one could afford to track here. I hear a clam come by and most of the time I just can't let it go by. So 3-8 hours is about where I draw the line unless they want to pony up more cash for a higher degree of polish.
 
I usually mix as I go. By the time the song's recorded I'm usually half way there. THen I'll usually let it sit for a day and come back to it fresh to re-evaluate the choices I made while tracking and finalize the mix.

THen I spend the next 2 years tweaking, burning a CD, listening through different sources....tweaking, burning a CD, listening through different sources....tweaking, burning a CD, listening through different sources....tweaking, burning a CD, listening through different sources....tweaking, burning a CD, listening through different sources....tweaking, burning a CD, listening through different sources....tweaking, burning a CD, listening through different sources....


Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com


p.s. For paying customers, I usually just stop at paragraph 1.
 
Aaron Cheney said:

p.s. For paying customers, I usually just stop at paragraph 1.
Click to expand...


I stop there too and then offer them more time and mixing for a better product.

Generally, as time goes on, the better the tracking the quicker the mixing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top