Mixing, when do say enough is enough??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Muzzaman
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Michael Palin, maybe. Otherwise, you'll be mixing on your car stereo for a long, long time. ;)

G.
 
If I could get a mix done in 10 minutes, I would, I'm not interested in the endless tweak. Bit difficult when a piece is 22 minutes though !
It's easy to know when to stop. When it sounds how you want it. Although mixing is definitely creative, it's not really there that the creating is done and I suspect that some folk that have problems knowing when to stop have those problems because they view the mix as their opportunity to create a meisterwork rather than to organize what is already there.
 
It's been said that what separates the artist from the rest of us, is the artist knows when to stop. (While I have brought up artist, when I hear someone say of a piece of art- you hear it more about modern or abstract art- "That's nothing- I couldda done that," I say, "Yeah, maybe- but you didn't." )

When we did the Rock n Roll summer camps last summer, my son would mix until he and the camp director liked what they heard, then bring it out to one or two cars and play it there. If it sounded good there, they were done. We were paid by the band recorded, not by the hour, so we were under the gun to get it done as fast as possible, while still sounding "good."

How do you define "good," you ask? Here you go:

Good enough is best.
 
We were paid by the band recorded, not by the hour, so we were under the gun to get it done as fast as possible, while still sounding "good."
Which is one of the great ways to end the "never-ending mix", when you *have to* get it done in a limited amount of time. When your client only has a hundred bucks left to pay you, it's amazing how fast you can finish a project and be happy with the results.

Start treating yourself as if your time actually has value and it costs you to spend so much time frittering away on a mix, and you'll learn how to make the most of it real quick.

G.
 
the last studio I worked in had one guy who was endlessly tweaking, never liking the result, that means he don't have a strategy how to approach the specific mix.

strategy is built through listening and evaluating the parts of the song.

the stage of the mixing process is the most important, because there you are building the borders, today with so much equipment and plugins and sound timbres and colors, borders become even more valuable.

most of the problems I see in my students mixes is at the first stages, they put too much on their mind, try to isolate the elements needed for a good mix and build a good strategy, when your strategy building skills becomes better, you will notice that you will achieve the results you want a lot faster.

check here for more information about this subject :
Music – DM
 
my cars stereo's actually is actually better quality than any other music listening device i have, I really need to ship the rest of my gear across from the UK someday...maybe once Palins president :)



Yeah, buddy, just go ahead and hold your breath 'till THAT happens...:laughings:
 
you mean its not gonna happen? damn when did you guys get smarts? :)
 
The thing about checking a mix in the car is not so much about the quality or otherwise of the car's stereo.

It's more about (in my view) placing the song in a different environment, one that separates you from the work you've been doing on the mix. It is a way of mentally pretending you've never heard the song before, and it is useful for discovering aspects of the mix that may have slipped past you in the OCD-intensity of studio mixing.
 
Can't stand bad mixes in my sets, or the set just gets killed for a cool min
 
I totally agree with the different environment point that is very useful :)
 
As a mixer, you can't un-know what you know. As you play back a mix, your brain reminds you of all the things you've done: here was the spot where you dropped an extra vocal in, here is the place where you added a panning effect . . . and so on.

To listen to your mix objectively is trying to achieve the impossible because of this. But somehow you need to try and hear it as if you were another person doing so for the first time. A car helps. So does playing it while you listen from another room, or hearing it on the radio, or on someone else's system.
 
Oh man, what a great read. we've all been through this. "tunes never get done, just released" I've come to believe two things. One, taste aside, there is a point where the mix is right. Meaning, considering the program material you are working with, everything is eq'ed, panned and balanced properly. Everything has a place and can be heard and there is no dispute, only taste. How long it takes us to get to that point is up to our skill set , level of experience and limitations of our listening environment. I asked a well known engineer once how long a mix should take and he replied "one day, take it to the car, and make any revisions the next day". How nice would that be huh?!?!
Two, a good mix translates to any listening environment, but alternate environments will quickly point out problems in your mix. Use these alternate spaces to your advantage by getting to know how they color the sound. If you have different spaces for playback, get familiar with them by listening to stuff you know well, then you will have a source of reference when you bring your stuff in.
 
"one day, take it to the car, and make any revisions the next day". How nice would that be huh?!?!
And that would be taking one's time. Unless one is working with tape cutting and splicing, or mixing a particularly sophisticated project, spending more than a couple of hours on a mix at most should not be necessary.

G.
 
Yes. I meant to say, he would mix it, listen and then make any necessary revisions the next. He didn't mention how long he spent on it.
But, can only be done in a proper mixing environment
 
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