Haaaaaaa! That’s cool! 
Watched the whole thing.
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OK, I guess you’ll have to decide what kind of mechanic you are?
Are you a SAAB, Dodge or a Honda mechanic?
Or do you “service all makes”? - Nothing wrong with that.
If you’re an “all makes” guy I guess you’ll start with a default algorithm to get the sounds and levels of the drums and bass right first - then add stuff in?
If you’re a Ferrari mixer then you’d obviously work with a specialized skill set.
No matter what you do, you’ll need to stop judging yourself so harshly. Cause it don’t impress me much…
Could you have mixed this?
they say “look at the big picture”…but the flipside of that is that they also say “be in the moment”
maybe you are trying to think a little too far ahead? trying to compete with Atlanta and Nashville. Okay, so you are a one man operation trying to compete with a whole studio or a whole region or what?
Id think youd have to build things one client at a time and even Pensado or CLA can still only do one mix at a time. You cant worry about what business you are ‘losing’ while you are busy satisfying whatever business you already have
The confidence thing etc. thats a huge subject and who really understands how it all works?? But at some level i think we have to accept that we as individuals do have something special to offer and some people will like it and some wont.
And things can “turn around” in a sense to where eventually YOU stop worrying about pleasing THEM (perceived “big shot” regional label guys etc) and instead THEY start worrying about how THEY can try to be the lucky ones that YOU decide to squeeze into your schedule. Picture 2 label guys at the country club “aww man, i tried to get Jonathan but he was doing Frankys record. Franky always gets the best guys! dang it. I wish I had Frankys pull”
It gets abstract like that to where people attribute magical powers to “famous” people. Like if CLA adds 2db at 40hz its magic whereas if someone else does it then its just adding 2db at 40 lol. Its not the kind of thing you can calculate with the left brain etc
So id say, yes, do look ahead a bit to where you want to be in a few years time, but also be the best you can be at the level where you are right now and do the best job possible for those clients and try to enjoy it at the same time.
Are you at the point to where you need an assistant? maybe you need someone who can do simple things like mix prep blah blah to save you some hours?
also, just to throw it out there. A lot of what we fear doesnt even exist. All of this “my mix has to stand up against this guys mix” blah blah. Probably at least 80% of that is in your head only. All you can do is make the best mixes you can and keep learning as u go
We all have some niche that we will thrive in
my life is so much simpler. im just trying to get a kick sounding right lol
I need some Zen or something.
To be honest I dont even like mixing most the time because the tracking isnt very good.
man JK you might have to be a producer or mastering engineer and hire a mix eng.
most people dont do everything.
look at EMI’s structure a training period from tea fetch boy to button pusher to mastering then to mixing eng then Senior Mix Engineer then wanting of the Producer credit…
ears and gear…and hands on experience and books and zen…sometimes buying the gear si the easiest part it seems.
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have you put together presets for specific instrumentation and stuck with it? If I didn’t do that it would take forever to get through mixing and I would have no consistency.You don’t need it for everything but certain time wasters it sure is handy. Vocals come to mind. I built a preset when I was struggling through vocals for a high end client. Finally got to a place I was really happy. I created the preset and damn if it doesn’t work for every vocal type (male at least).
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@Jonathan:
This, confidence and even a slight touch of arrogance are all part of it. You’re talking about trying to compete both with the quality and workflow speed of people who have developed a style and are sticking to it. You kind of have to take the approach of “Well if it’s me doing it, you know it’s damned good” and make quick decisions about getting from point A to point B without sweating over all the details. The other guys templates and processing chains are used to allow them to be most of the way there by just getting levels right. This frees up time for fine polishing things, rather than forming the clay into something.
Develop the Jonathan Sound and rely on it.
Venuestudios; thanks for the starting point, you were much more concise than me. The credibility issue allows lots of mixers to be very formulaic and get away with it. The results can still be great without overthinking every step of the way.
I have a lot of these in a template then use ‘import session data’ as needed. I certainly do use these when handed a track where multiple songs were recorded by the same session players at the same tracking facility. I do sort of have some go-to defaults, and upon hearing the source I can usually narrow it down to about two or three.
What was it? Just out of curiosity
When I get out to the studio next I will let you know. We are in the middle of a snow storm here on the east coast.
I’ve been thinking about this sooooooo much over the last week. I’ve taken some time to go back and study some of the mixes as well as the ones some of these competitors developed. And I started narrowing down whats slowing me up.
Your first couple mixes when trying to hit a home run with certain clients can be make or break. Sometimes they give you the chance to revise them, sometimes they just move on. So when the credibility thing isn’t already presupposed, its a bit nerve racking to be under the spotlight
The point is you’ll always be nervous, because you want it to be great. By being confident in the foundation of your process, you will identify more quickly how to get the most out of the mix. It’s all an opinionated crapshoot from there, don’t be afraid to exhibit a little self validation.
V V V seems to be the case 
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Ive heard that before where the rough mix is chosen over the 2900hr mix sweat and bad breath version that was done over 4 days without eating and was edited to perfection.
Over playing it too, reading GM/Producer talking of the LetITBe rot sessions being horrible and then if that wasnt bad enough JL might ask “was take 69 better than 34??”
the Pensado story was interesting, being under pressure helps…time windows. Makes me think in HR land you can mix the same song for 5 yrs trying to make the greatness shine and it might not be as exciting or as well received as the 5 minute jam song joke tune written and recorded and mixed in 1 hr, for the pet dog shitting on the ex-wifes photo that was laying on the floor of the garage by the dumpster…weird how that happens.
Listener: "that was a great fun track!“
RecordngEng” "yeah that was a joke track, did it in 1hr…what do you think of the other song though, I spent 5yrs working on it and used a $5000 microphone…what did you think of it?"
Listener: “ah its ok…but the one about the dog shitting on the picture was great!”
I started feeling a little better when I heard you guys start mentioning this, and Dave’s comment was more affirmation that its probably not as bad its felt the last week or so.
Your comment about the mixes reminded me of how everything is all just perception. And how as @Cristina said in the other thread…its all just someones opinion. Steve Slate told this story…is about relative opinion on the gear end vs the mix end, but every is so just personal taste!
Here you go Jonathan. I know of one person who will approve of this preset… I can generally just drop this in and I am good to go. The order is the Klanghelm followed by the Boz Bendeth.
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I approve of this preset.
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told ya.
Ah! Yes. I can see where that would be pretty universal. Cutting around 200, boosting 3K, then adding some air Can’t go wrong with that!
I’m always late to the party…but I’ll give you my take for what it’s worth. This will probably be my shortest post because I think the issues are cut and dry…at least to me. 2 possible issues or a bit of both.
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Listening environment: the biggest waste of time that stopped me from getting work done quickly and accurately was a bad monitor set up. I second guessed everything constantly, fought with processing and certain frequencies just weren’t in the cards. I got new monitors, a sub made a few room corrections, started using ARC by IK multimedia, and my whole world changed. I can mix any project from start to finish and have a good handle on it in less than 2 hours. 4 to 6 hours for bigger mixes, and if we’re doing an entire album, 6 to 8 hours per song max unless we’re under the gun. We’ve realistically tracked, edited, mixed and mastered in 2 weeks for 10-12 songs. Make sure your gear tells you what you need to know without second guessing.
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Knowing how to achieve sounds and knowing what to do with them: this can take forever if you’re not in tune with sound identity and how to process certain sounds. You may just need to brush up on certain processing tricks before taking the job on, or you try to experiment a little on the side when the client leaves if you have to. I don’t know how long you’ve been at it, but it’s been about 38 years for me.
In that time I’ve learned lots of old school as well as new school tips and tricks. I often times feel like a doctor and have to constantly update my skills. I welcome that but I can say this, the newer stuff doesn’t impress me. It all seems to try and cut corners but with the sacrifice of quality. That said, I can whip stuff up nearly as fast as the new stuff and preserve the quality.
At the end of the day, you may just need a little direction from someone that may be a little more advanced than you are right now. I once had a client who was one of my rivals, come to me and ask me for help. As part of my.business, I offer video lessons (or in person) where I take a mix and totally annihilate it instrument at a time while showing how to make things sound good in seconds. I’m not trying to sell you…but this guy came to me, swallowed his pride and opened up his mix to me, flaws and all. I was quite surprised at how far below me in knowledge he was. He talked s good ballgame always, was cocky, and always had clients.
Well, after one in-person rape and redo of one of his mixes, he had an epiphany and “got it”. Sometimes we miss the obvious, other times there are things we simply don’t know. As I worked.on each instrument of his mix, I showed him all the different ways he could process, I showed him when a track was garbage and should have never been accepted as well as how to salvage it.
2 years later, the guy felt so good and was so happy…he closed his business. LMAO! Yeah…it’s funny…the reason being? We got along so good, I offered him a job and he works in my other studio. Hahaha!
In any case, the two things above are my first response items. If they are both in good standing on your end, nothing should be an issue other than maybe you are in a tough spot being in the area you’re in with competition. I don’t have much competition because no one in my area does the specialty items I do. We have 15 studios in my back yard…none of them.affect me. I do enough online client work from all over the world to where it’s a good enough living without my other studio and the physical walk-ins. Grab your niche. And if you ever need.to talk, shoot me a message.
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I’m probably ok here…at least I think for now. I looked into moving into a JBL or Augspurger system but my monitor chain and converters are basically maxed out for the scale of my room. I don’t think there’s much else I can do.
Noted.
I’ve been wondering about this for a while now. I’m trying to figure that part out. Reached out to some instructors recently, but its gonna require traveling out of state for several months. I’m trying to figure out how to not let the downtime wreck the company while I’m away. I may have to hold off until I have an employee in place who can run the entire facility.
The ones in my backyard don’t bother me…the ones I’ve been loosing work to in Nashville, Atlanta, and Dallas are infuriating and pissing me off to no end. I don’t expect to be able to compete with LA and NY studios. Those major dub stages will win jobs purely on the equipment and the cubic square footage of the rooms, and the operator skill is a complete non-factor at that level. That’s a little ways down the road. But I’ve got to figure out a way to win more consistently on the smaller regional stuff that’s right infant of my face here and now.