mcolling said:
you folks are being awfully secretive! i sincerely doubt that telling what order you mix in is going to jeopardize your sound or career.
come on!!!!
Alright, but if you tell anyone, I'll have to kil....nah man, of course I'll be willing to share some info. After all, that's why I even spend some time everyday on this thing...it gets the gears going before the long work day.
Anyway, my procedure in any studio:
1) Set the coffee machine for overdrive
1.2) Lock the door and make sure to shut off anything that will be distracting (Just make sure not to try and shut off your significant other, it's difficult, I've tried)
1.5) Faders up to unity
2) Calibrate all my outboard gear (if I'm working with outboard gear) and set my monitoring levels
3) Make sure to have all tracks grouped and sorted properly
4) Pan out all my tracks to my personal tastes
5) Listen to the song one last time before I get knee deep in work
6) Listen, edit and mix drums
7) Listen, edit and mix bass
8) Listen, edit and mix anything percussive
9) Listen, edit and mix guitars along with any keys, synths, strings, etc
10) Bring up all tracks as a whole and get a basic mix going
Total time: 30min to an hour
If the client is willing to shell out the good money then I continue to mix the ultra fine details, then go deeper into editing techniques and any creative extras that will give that particular edge.
Total time after that: 8hours-12 hours
Final step: Collect money, get in car, go to a strip club or something that dosn't envolve music.
