Mirror Technique

DM60

DM60

Well-known member
Any thoughts? Kind of long, but I didn't hear anything that was bad, but it is an interesting approach.

 
Watching this whole video, I thought this seemed like a useless idea when reference mixing seems like the better idea.

6:30 he mentions to use professional reference mixes in conjunction with this. I feel like that just makes this kind of a novel idea as a fun way to say, "wow, this is what I started at, and here's what I'm done with," but I don't see how it really helps any more than a reference mix does.
 
I dunno. I didnt watch it all the way through. Didnt excite me much.

It seemed more like it was getting a copy or snapshot of the original to compare the "processed" track against.

I didnt get the "mirror" deal. But then again I have limited knowledge of daw recording, only analog.

I like to watch this stuff to learn, for when I integrate digital into my studio.
Sadly I didnt make it all the way through this particular video..
 
The main take away to me was, if you just have a baseline audio mix, nothing but levels as a reference point. When you make changes to the mix, you have a point of reference. A professional reference would be to use to reference your final to a master. Where this method would gives one a better idea of what has changed from the original.

It makes sense to me. How does the mix sound pre-processing, verses post processing.
 
Well that is useful. But seems like common sense. Wouldn't all daws have some similar, simple function to get back to the original unprocessed version?

For me, with analog, I just turn off the effects sends and eq when I want to compare.
 
DM60 said:
It makes sense to me. How does the mix sound pre-processing, verses post processing.
Click to expand...

While it's always nice to A/B...the problem or consideration with this approach is that FX/Processing for a mix tends to be a journey in stages. You don't ever go from no FX/Processing to all you FX/Processing in one pass.
So...as you add a little of this or that...you can A/B back with the previous "version"...but to add a bunch of FX/Processing over time, and than drop it all out and go back to nothing...mmmm...hey, if it helps, do it...but I don't know how helpful it would be...?

I mean...you build a mix...it's not just one layer of FX/processing....and when you add/change something, you get acclimated to that sound...and THAT is your new reference, and then you move on.
Not to mention, there is a lot of "spot" FX/processing that can happen in a DAW, so it's really not easy to remove all of that and get back to your raw, original tracks with a click of a button.
The best option would be to just save a "raw" file version before you start...but again, to use an analogy...if you build a house, and you slowly add things, change things, and you watch it evolve...who cares about seeing it again at the foundation level? :)

That said...I do agree that if you find yourself struggling, and/or hearing a mix run away on you into something you don't like...then yeah, by all means, stop and strip all that shit out, and start at the beginning.

In the end...use what works for you, nothing really wrong with any approach if it gets you where you want to go.
 
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