This is certainly a great mix of a great song @ColdRoomStudio . I listened side by side with the mix you posted before and this one is louder and punchier so it does present the song more aggressively than your mix does. But to my ear, which is definitely not reliable, your mix has some tone and detail that is less obvious in this mix. I suppose there are always tradeoffs and the overall impact is most important so I guess you’ve made the right choice.
1 Like
Thanks Ingo - I really appreciate your careful listen and your comments!
I was prepared to do a finished mix of this myself, but when Rob said he was keen to mix it, I was really interested to hear what he would do. I just fell in love with his mix.
Sometimes, after you’ve spent a lot of time slaving over a production, it is a really lovely, freeing feeling to just hand it off to someone who is really capable, professional, who you “gets” your vision, and you know will do a fantastic job!
Sure, I could have gotten stuck into the minutiae and got him too tweak and tweak every little detail, but that is just not me. (He offered to make revisions, btw).
If I listen to a mix and I love it, I don’t go looking for problems. As a musician who also has some mixing ability, I can instantly recognise a great mix, because I actually start listening to the SONG instead of the mix.
Once that happens, I tend to turn off the critical side of my brain and just let it wash over me. I still really value the ability to enjoy listening to music, and I never want to lose that.
I’ll probably get Rob to mix another track of mine, and to master my album.
2 Likes
That is a great point that I should pay more attention to. Kind of like not seeing the forest because you’re too busy looking at the trees. Thanks for explaining that.
1 Like
So much of music production is this. It seems you have to develop what I call the “Zoom Reflex” - the ability to mentally zoom in and get super-detailed, but then zoom right out and see the big picture almost simultaneously…
I guess I’m probably more known around here as a mixer, but the only reason I got into mixing was to facilitate getting my songs done… and as much as I enjoy mixing, I’ve always wanted to see where someone with superior skills to mine would take my productions…
One of the things I’ve realized about my mixing is that I think I’d kind of reached a point about 5 years ago where I was confident in my skills, but my style was anchored very much in the early 2000s, and I haven’t really kept up to date with what is happening right now… so, to my ear, what Rob really brings to the table (in addition to a great mix) is a more contemporary feel, which I think I can learn from.
…In any case, it has been a really valuable experience.
2 Likes
I would have trouble distinguishing skills from taste at some point. If I don’t like the result which is the problem?
Seems like there’s a lot of things at work here, the mixer has his skills and style preferences, the artist may have some input there and the producer should definitely have some say about what the overall feel will be. And the label, well they are in there too right? That’s the traditional model of course so nowadays it might be one person doing all of that which isn’t easy.
I suppose your intended market matters a lot too? Boomers listen differently (the ones that can still hear) than millennials and so forth. I know I’ll never get it all right!
1 Like
They are related somewhat, I guess. However one of the skills of a great mixer is to determine the artist’s/producer’s vision from the material given them, and then adjust their approach accordingly.
Assuming that the mixer is of a professional level, in most cases the problem would most likely be a failure to communicate. Part of being a great mixer is being a good communicator.
It’s collaboration pure and simple. Collaboration requires a good degree of trust between the collaborators. Trust comes from good experiences. At some point, you have to take a chance on someone based on their track record. There is also the aspect of a willingness to relinquish some control. You can’t have complete control and collaboration. I’ve found that the reward from relinquishing control by collaborating far outweighs any potential risk.
Haha, that’s something I don’t really bother with. The term “market” implies that there is a financial exchange taking place… and that is simply not the case. The main consideration is that it pleases me. If it pleases a few other people on the planet, then that’s a bonus!
1 Like
Interesting discussion. I think we all get really tied down in our perception of what something we wrote should sound like as a finished product. I know that I’ve never truly achieved what I first heard in my head; every step of the recording and playing process becomes a bit of a compromise, and eats away at what you imagined in the first place.
Having trust in someone with differing but similar tastes and abilities is huge in freeing up your creativity. On the production side, they’re able to hear where things are going, but also add valuable twists and turns that the writer was too preoccupied to recognize. On the mixing side, the burden of tweaking every track ad infinitum is taken off the artist’s back, leaving the artist with only minor issues to tweak after hearing the full picture instead of 48 individual puzzle pieces to adjust.
It all revolves around having someone whose ears and opinion you trust, because once it is finished everyone hears it through their own filters and perspective. For me, it’s ideal to hand off all the ingredients and trust the bakery to finish the cake.
1 Like
Well said! Often, when you collaborate with people you trust, you don’t end up with what you anticipated, you actually end up with something better and more exciting - The whole ends up being greater than the sum of it’s parts… or, in the immortal words of Jagger/Richards:
“You can’t always get what you want,
but it you try sometime,
you just might find,
you get what you need.”
The mixing on this is very good. It started wide, got narrow and intimate and then super big and wide during the chorus. It also built up as the song progressed. It is a nice song, but the production and mixing is really impressive. I liked the guitar solo too. You did a great job on this.
1 Like
Thanks for taking a listen, Chandler. Yep, Rob did a great job of mixing this.
Glad you liked the guitar solo - It has some bendy stuff that I really love doing…arrangement-wise, I did something a little different that I had always wanted to incorporate in a song…The solo is a different chord pattern from both the verse and the chorus - Kind of have the solo as a little song-within-a-song…
One of my first influences (electric guitar-wise) was Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, and I always LOVED how “Down to the Waterline” (1st track from 1st DS self-titled album) does exactly that - just goes off on this little journey of it’s own, like a cross between a bridge/middle 8 and a solo.
Thanks again!
1 Like
So this popped up as new for me, which it is, but from March! No matter, I was interested, and I wanted to listen to the song as I scanned the thread. First and foremost, a first rate performance and production of a first rate song that deserves to be the single, so basically, Andrew, I have nothing new to add I suppose. The twist in meanings of “too much” were surprising and pertinent, a little extra serious in a very upbeat and catchy song.
1 Like