The Mindset （考え方）

So this weekend, I'm planning on knocking out a couple more songs. Also though, time permitting, I'm going to be hitting you over the head with the first article in a series I'm writing about the path I've taken in trying to become a self-recording musician, and what a horrible (yet awesome) prospect I've come to realize that is. It sounds grim from that description, but fear not, the message is positive! I've come a long way with my recording and mixing in the last year or so, and it's in no small part due to a lot of help I've received from people on this gigantic cluster-fuck we call the "Internet", so it's time to start repaying the favor. Hopefully I can help some people at various levels of experience get their head in the right place for this life-long journey we call Recording.

As a (poorly and quickly written) warm-up act to the main event, here's a post I made recently on Studio Central. It's a reply to some guy who apparently has been "producing" (yeah, he's a hip-hop newb) for 5 years, and hasn't improved at all in that time. I'm presenting it in a largely un-edited form for your amusement. Enjoy...

Preface: Don't think this as me being offensive or mean. I'm not. But this is important, and I think you're running around in circles right now.

First of all, just a nitpick, but producing and mixing are separate tasks as far as I'm concerned. Many producers mix, and many mix engineers produce, but they are completely separate disciplines IMO. Those who do both really well (which is rare, in my experience) generally are able to do so because they have developed the abillity to wear different hats, and not allow too much bleed between the tasks.

Anyway... If you've been recording and mixing for 5 years and your sound hasn't evolved, then there are really only two possible explanations as far as I'm concerned.
1) You are fundamentally limited by your equipment. You are getting the absolute most you can out of whatever POS stuff you're using, and there's no way for you to progress as long as that's what you're working on.

2) You are not even getting close to the maximum potential of your gear. You have not made a concerted effort to branch out and try different things in order to really learn your gear and to discover what does and doesn't produce sounds that are pleasing.

My money's on #2.

Time does NOT equal Experience. Unfortunately, it sounds like you have been simply burning time without gaining much useful experience. Think of it like this... If you just tread water constantly, you will not become a better swimmer simply by
virtue of being in the pool. If, however, you make a conscious effort to continuously try different ways of flailing your arms about in order to move forward, eventually you will hit upon something that works, and then you can start trying variations on that, until eventually you are likely a very capable swimmer.

Leaning how to mix is not magic. It is NOT easy. However, it is also NOT about (for example) knowing that a slight boost at 3500 can often make vocals stand out a little bit in the mix, or that one of the first things you can do in a crowded mix is cut almost all the low-mids and below out of vox and distorted guitars in an attempt to gain some headroom back and let the bass and kick breathe like they should, or knowing the formula for calculating delay times from the song tempo. All of that stuff is important, but it's not what's going to make you a good mix engineer.

Phew... What IS important is teaching yourself how to listen critically, and how to think like a mix engineer. Listening is 99% of mixing. The "doing" is easy; you can learn that in a book, or through experimentation. My cat can move a fader (though not on purpose, I don't think). Learning to listen is a life-long pursuit.

Important Note - hearing and listening are two completely different things.

Once you're actually listening well, quality monitoring is essential, as it will allow you to hear more things to listen to. If you are not really listening in the first place though, quality monitors are just speakers that often don't sound quite right to people who aren't mix engineers.

I say this as someone who is practically killing myself with the hours I put in on mixing outside of my regular day-job (which doesn't exactly leave me with a ton of energy at the end of the day). I've been recording and mixing in some form or another for about 8 years now (although the first 5 years were nowhere near as serious as the last 3), and I'm just now starting to feel like I'm really coming into my own. Moreover, I'm still not really "satisfied" with where I'm at. Frankly, I don't think I'll ever be satisfied, and that's the way it should be. There's no point in mixing where you know all the answers. More experience simply lets you make better guesses about where to go (and how to get there) more quickly.

Sorry, that was horrendously long-winded. Hopefully SOMEBODY got something out of it... Good luck.

Brian

Anyway, hope you enjoyed that little rant. More (better written) installments are coming soon. Stay tuned...