Are you Mystical or Mathematical.....

When mastering, it's a fine balance...

Clearly, I find myself to be a " – "

I would say I am a G.

1.Do you, Go by feel, and instinct when choosing a sound, a piece of gear of plugin - or do you use extensive A/B comparisons to decide between your options?

When choosing a plugin, gear or sound I go by instinct, experience. If that doesn't work then I dig into the comparisons Plug B vs Plug C and if that's not it my approach is wrong and different technique is used to achieve result.

2. Mix with faders (virtual of physical) - or do you draw / trim volume timelines?

Faders on midi keyboard and virtual w/ mouse.

3. When you EQ, do you go by ear - or do you drop an analyser on your source?

Ear and soloing frequencies on pro q2 or PT EQ3-7, used to use an analyzer 5+ years ago when I didn't trust my ears and monitoring.

4.Do you go by faith, by what “just feels right” to you, feeling your way through - or do you look for empirical evidence when deciding whether or not to follow a pathway?

In mixing for me its more free flow, instinct. In mastering its more empirical and A/B. Mastering Ex: Did the 4Khz .5db boost add presence or does 5k work better? Then A/B or maybe 3khz is aggressive so a small cut will increase clarity in the 4K and 5k.

5. Do you approach a mix from an artistic perspective - or do you approach it from an analytical perspective?

60-40 Artistic maybe 65-35. I never use a template ever, each song is different. Also use a lot of UAD plugins that don't have numerical readouts, so a lot is feel with Reverbs/ compressors/ eq's.. I have go to plugs and use them but it's never exact copied settings like when AE gain stage into their fave set settings on their HW to get the desired sound. I get analytical on stuff like MB comp or DYN Eq/ DE-Ess, however am still using my ears and not an analyzer.

6. Do you like to move automation levels around during the mix in an organic and continuous motion - or do you like to trim volume grids and use compressors and limiters to hold things in place?

Well for the most part I like to compress / eq / limit to taste and use automation post fader post plugins to create " motion "

7.Do you work quickly and instinctually - or are you methodical and deliberate about your choices?

When mixing for a client I work quickly and instinctually especially if I have already Mixed their music before. If it is the first time, or my own music intend to be more methodical however I am not trying out 10 compressors on the lead vocal and picking one.

8. Do you like collaboration during a mix - or do you prefer solitude while mixing?

I usually work alone but have no problem working with others or constructive criticism. I like to get a really good almost finished rough and send off a snip for approval / feedback. Recently clients have been thrilled with the first mix/ master they receive which is awesome for both parties 😀

9. Do you embrace human imperfection ( to a point of course. ) - or do you tend to edit material to be perfect or close to it? (Certainly differing styles point one direction or the other.)

I work in mostly Rap RnB and Pop so it's more towards the " perfection " side however I have become more tolerable of breaths lol, hate when the life or soul is mixed out / gone because it's over edited or over Mixed or limited to death.

10. If you’re writing / producing before you mix, do you prefer to record live parts like shakers, drum hits, simple keyboard parts, etc. and have "room sound" as part of the instruments sound - or do you MIDI sequence what you can and lock em down - getting a nice pure sound?

90% of my productions are ITB. I have live drum samples I created and recorded and like to mic my petite kimball piano for " live " feel.

11. When mixing, do you prefer to hear “air” from a mic in the sound of an instrument - or you you like a more “clinical” dry sound so that you can manipulate it to be exactly where you want it to be?

Whatever fits the context/ sound in my head the best. For Rap and Pop Vox the dry upfront mike works nice, however for R and B or ballad / singer songwriter material I backup singers off the mic to get more room sound, 1-3 feet. As far as the piano for production, spaced pair or xy is cool for " air/ room / live natural feel "

12. Do you embrace problems and turn them into positives - or do you seek out and destroy problems and either replace or ditch them?

It depends on my rapport with the client, I do whatever I can mostly to keep what is sent and turn it into " gold " 😂On the other hand if I have to mute or delete I will. The better the rapport the more freedom I have Mix wise to make the song the best it can be.

13. Are you additive in your approach - or subtractive?

Whatever it takes to get the mix/ master/ production to sound the best, without specifics it's hard to elaborate.

14. Can making a "wrong" decision actually empower you into mixing better - or must you alway make the "right" decision to proceed?

If it sounds good it is good.

15. Do you prefer the beauty of computer recall - or do you prefer to wing it with an old school approach?

A little bit of both, i like to print a few vox thru HW and don't always copy the settings or write them down, I use my ears. Also when using HW on the mix bus I have compressed the mix to taste as I printed the mix, very old school workflow. Other times I draw in a fade, no HW is used and i just print and listen. I love recall and DAW.

16. Feel free to add questions of your own.  I think this can be a fun and enlightening discussion….. Cheers, bp! -

Thanks for the interesting thread & questions hope more of us participate

I used to hate mixing, feels like washing the dishes or polishing pottery to me. I'm also not very keen on woodworking. But I've had to adjust to both.

I would say I'm a more technical mixer. My main goal in the past 5 years has been to get better results in less time. I've mixed thousands of songs and demos. Probably 15 releases for "other people" and nearly as many for "myself" as well as things that never see the light of day and no one has heard but me.

I would describe my process as haphazard and crude, and unfocused. Sort of like what Tom Elmhirst said about his style of mixing. But I know when it all "Comes together" I can recognize that moment most of the time. Having people in the room or on the end of an email exchange can help with not taking things too far past done. Working quickly and in broad strokes is really helping me out. If something is getting pressed and sold in public I'm going to be using the fine toothed comb quite a bit more heavily.

I tend to embrace the imperfections. Some people respond positively to this. I've been called "raw" but I've also been working on my polish skills lately, to have options. Tight and perfect is NOT in my DNA. I can't even draw a straight line. I am attracted to things with rough edges. Practicing drums to a metronome has been blowing my mind lately, as well as tightening up my vocal pitch precision and guitar chunking all just from the simple metronomic programming of my feet and hands. Incredible.

I like loudness, I like distortion, I have to keep myself in check sometimes, so I do watch the meters. I also like to mix and track at the same time, sometimes. Although usually there are a few hours at the end of any session purely focused on mixing. Anything past the 3-4 hour point gets into window dressing and futile changes with loss of objectivity. Cramming a full mix into that time frame has been a productive goal I've gotten better at reaching.

Speaking of trends you mentioned, the darker sound of the past few years has found its way to my mixes. I mix on speakers with very bright tweeters also, so it keeps my 12 K knob from going up too far. I'm more interested in throbbing bass tones these days anyway.

One thing I like to woodshed on, and talk about on RGO, is getting good tones from specific instruments. I've gone through drum sounds, vocal sounds, and more recently guitar sounds and it all really helps a lot when starting a session. Mostly getting it right during tracking, so you can give that cherry on the top in the mix rather than going into search and rescue mode. This has been a really productive "diversion" for me, vs strictly cranking out material. Just honing the craft, practicing instruments, tracking and mixing all of it. It's a really good thing to do when you're not "inspired" as it were. Or build a damn compressor or something. Take a day off now and then too, smell the roses.

Magically reverent to the laws of physics!

Both

I think almost everyone sees themselves as a mix of the 2, as that's what the job dictates, but I imagine most people see me as more problem solving than creative. I learn things, and I read a lot of technical papers when I was first learning and I try to apply that understanding creatively. Sometimes it is - today I was running drum loops into the MS-20 and hand triggering the filter with the keyboard, tomorrow I'm using my bathroom as an echo chamber. But a lot of the time it's planning recording sessions meticulously and selecting mic's based on technical advantages, including understanding of things like the propagation patterns of various instruments.

I think it requires a huge amount of technical knowledge to be a genuinely creative engineer and I think being a creative engineer often means doing what the client wants with as little compromise as possible, rather than just parlor tricks.

I have been thinking about this. I think I go back and forth....literally during the process. I start with OCD track level setting....organized bussing....sort of "audio problem solving" at the track level....then, I come back and while I don't think "mystical" would be the word I use, I mix quickly. THEN, there's another round of troubleshooting based on context....then at the end, I'm usually mostly listening over and over for an hour or two....sitting back away from the desk, seeing what sort of "pulls me" in the wrong direction....addrress....come back and check the prints with fresh ears in the AM before moving to the next tune.

I think a lot of the big name guys get away with being more "work quickly from the gut" because they have interns and assistants to do all the math before hand for them.

I feel like this... also , big difference when you are the creator as well... when I mix other peoples stuff, I am decisive and confident...

cheers

Wiz

There is just one way to solve this take your Ritalin....

OK. Hands up who's lying