Mixing Bias

[RawDepth]

I realized the other day that when I am mixing songs that I may not be very fond of, I tend to have a harder time finding the sweet spot or getting it to come together as a final mix. On the other hand, when I mix songs that I really enjoy, everything seems to just fall into place with little or no effort. Am I being flat out Biased?

How do you find the focus and control to do a good job on all songs equally and fairly? Is it just old fashioned discipline and work ethics? Or will it come about with experience?

I guess I kind-of already know the answer. I just wanted to know if anyone else was guilty of this too.

RawDepth

 

[MadAudio]

I have an easy solution: only record music you like!

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I realized the other day that when I am mixing songs that I may not be very fond of, I tend to have a harder time finding the sweet spot or getting it to come together as a final mix. On the other hand, when I mix songs that I really enjoy, everything seems to just fall into place with little or no effort. Am I being flat out Biased?

Short and simple? Yes. . The bias may not always be working quite the way you might think, either. The mixes that "just fall into place" may not always be quite as "in place" as you might think. That bias often cuts both ways. And, no, I am not scolding you; this is an issue that most of us have to deal with at the beginning, and can be understandable...for a while .

How do you find the focus and control to do a good job on all songs equally and fairly? Is it just old fashioned discipline and work ethics? Or will it come about with experience?

Both of those are necessary to overcome the bias. It's kind of like a rookie defense attorney that gets disillusioned when they find out that many of their clients actually are guilty and they have to get them off anyway. A lawyer that only phones it in because they do not believe or even like their client is a lousy lawyer. The way to overcome that is to consider the judicial system itself as the client and not just the human; the lawyer is there to exericse the job of lawyering to the best of their ability. If they don't they are not just letting the client down, they are letting the system down. It's the same with audio engineering; think of it not just as serving the song, but as serving the engineering itself. Every song is an engineering challenge, whether you personally like it or not. Get your satisfaction out of serving the task of engineering well, out of liking the task itself, and whether you like the song itself becomes almost irrelevant.

But there is an even better answer, I think. Don't overcome or sidestep the bias; eliminate it. Open up your horizons and your tastes a bit. Are some songs just plan bad songs? Sure. But the more musical interests you develop, the more you'll discover that many songs you didn't like previously are not because they are poorly crafted songs, but simply because your tastes were narrower before. And an added bonus is that there are things that can be learned by working in new musical directions that can be applied back to the stuff you like the best that you could probably have never thought of otherwise. Love the music and it'll love you back.

G.