Anyone else have clients who want to rush the mixing process

Freddy Mercury once sang "I want it all, and I want it now"... and that's the mantra of today, along with "and I want it cheap".

Wonder if it's just inexperience/youth. Seems to be an entitlement to the mid 20's set that - I swear - I didn't have. I have someone I'm working with - for free (on spec so to speak) - that can be a little pushy...It's this sense that I'm the moron that doesn't understand what's going on. It's gotten so tiresome that I'm almost to the point of cutting ties regardless of their talent.

They probably don't know how good it /could/ sound, and only know how good it currently sounds because you did a good job on the production side of things. So, in their mind, it doesn't need much to be finished.

I like when they start asking, "How much do I owe you," half way through the mix.
I say, "Do you want me stop now."

I always discuss budgets up front. If its tight, I usually suggest doing fewer songs and doing those well instead of half-assing all of them.

Basically, it's inexperience, and naiveté.

I used to cherish the times when I got to work with a musician who knew more than me, it was boring as hall if I was the better musician. When I was a producer, I hired the best studios and engineers, this way I could concentrate on the job, ( I was writing and producing commercials then), and the little I know about engineering I learned sideways, as it was never my focus, though I enjoyed mixing.

Perhaps because of the potential for so many people to "DIY", when it comes to music production, some people are clueless about what it takes to get a great sound, or they don't think it matters anyway.

Most people I've met under 30 have never heard an actual stereo system.

I remember one time I was over at A & M Studios and I walked into Studio A to see a friend who was 2nd engineering.
Shelly Yanks was mixing a song and working on a kick drum sound.
The phone rings. It must have been somebody from the Record Co. asking how the mix was going.
All I heard was. "I'm working on the kick drum sound. It's only been 8 hours, what do you expect."
I can still remember that till today.

I think it's a money issue often and not just in relation to mixing.

It's important to explain the whole process to the client.
Often the less experienced will think that they will be walking out with a finished product at the completion of tracking.
For instance the time spent editing tracks in preparation for mixing can take many hours and is usually done without the client being present.
This can be an issue when justifying the total hours spent on a project as some people think they are only accruing billable hours while they are in the studio and actually being recorded.

I try to explain it like this...

1. Set up mic's, get drum sounds etc
2. Tracking
3. Retakes, comp'ing etc.
4. Overdubs, comp'ing etc.
5. Prep for mixing, waveform editing, limiting, normalising, de-essing, de-noising, phase aligning drum tracks etc. (mixing prep should really be considered part of the mixing process and I don't usually want the client hanging around during editing etc. as they tend to get bored and impatient)
6. Mixing, multiple versions, if OTB then recall sheets, photos of settings required etc. repatching etc.

I guess some were around in the 'old days' when there was something called 'a budget' that was adequate enough to allow a week for getting drums sounds... I wish.

These days, more than ever before, as soon as you determine all the mics are working, it feels like the pressure is on to hit record and get a great sounding take straight up.

I say let's speed demo all of them and see how long that takes/costs, then talk about doing it right....how many?  If they can't afford the pre-pro demo, they can hardly afford to do anything right.   Wait....that's all of my MOST FAMOUS RECORDS!   F me.....

In this day and age where the single dominates, and people don't care so much about albums anymore, it makes sense to do the job right on the best songs.

People are loath to make decisions, even when they know they did a half-assed job writing a song and just haven't bothered to cut it.

Speaking for myself, many of my favorite records only have 9-10 songs, and beyond that you often have filler anyway, what really belongs on b sides or to liven up a set.
Worst case scenario you save a song for next record or EP.

I find cutting things refreshing!

I'm continually amazed at the predictability of bands to hate their best songs.  Uphill battle to get them to work on those.  

How about the band/artist who has barely finished tracking and then organises their album launch, locks in the date, venue, sells tickets and then asks you at the start of mixing their 12 track album on Wednesday

BAND: "Do you think you'll have this all finished by the weekend?"

ENGINEER: "Um... Which weekend?"

BAND: "This one coming up. We got our album launch this Saturday night."

ENGINEER: “You are joking right?”

BAND: “What’s the problem… you only gotta mix it. That won’t take long will it?”

ENGINEER: “Then it still has to be mastered, that will need to be booked in”

BAND: “Don’t worry about that! Our sound guy says that’s all bullshit. Mastering is just a scam to get more money out of you. Sounds good just mixed. Don’t wanna spend money on something that makes f*ck all difference.”

ENGINEER: “What about getting the CD’s and the artwork done? Who have you organised to do that?”

BAND: “Don’t you do that here?”

ENGINEER: “Excuse me?!!”

BAND: “Haven’t you got one of them CD burners? Our drummer has and he’s always burnin’ CD’s. I watched him, it's real easy. And if he can do it, anyone can.”

I kid you not, the above is not made up.
Horror stories like this do exist!