How do you approach mix change requests?

You get 3 revisions so make them count cause after that you're getting charged xxx an hour.

Unless you are sitting in on the mix. In that case I charge more from the get go and if you sign off on the mix that’s it. Hourly fee after that. I got dragged into having people sit in on mixes and “instruct” me on how to do my job, then they take their mix home and hate it. No thanks! Not dealing with that anymore.


Also - I only deal with 1 member of a group via email. The band “leader” is in charge of compiling the mix notes and revisions and sending them in 1 concise email. I don’t need to be involved in any in-fighting over who thinks what guitar needs to be louder.

This is the whole crux of the problem. This dude is giving me mix changes listening through earbuds and Presonus speakers. Luckily, there haven't been any major "this isn't as punchy as xxxx" but this is why I'm VERY selective on who I work with. Gotten to where I can tell who's going to be more trouble than they're worth.

It would cost them a fucking arm and a leg if they paid me hourly. And then you have to deal with them questioning whether you're working fast enough. I think - as someone said above - 3 revisions, then charge hourly for changes.

I always make sure to give a long-ass spiel in advance about keeping egos in check and how my view of music is about serving the song not the individual egos in the band. I warn them I'll probably mute some stuff. I warn them I might chop some stuff up. I tell them I'll do anything to serve the song and help them make the song better in the revision process until the song starts being sacrificed by the "more me" or ego phenomenon. I tell them that often looks like three or four rounds of revisions before we start undoing the mix and accidentally making it more about egos, expectation, and opinions than about the song.

Then I'll ask them what they feel the goal of the mixes is: is the goal to present the song in the most emotionally resonant way possible or is it to stroke someone's ego. NO ONE HAS EVER said "to stroke someone's ego."

Sooooo...that lets us as a whole creative unit enforce a rule on the mixes:

No one can comment on their own thing. If it ACTUALLY matters someone else will notice it and bring it up. I don't care if a singer thinks they're pitchy in a spot or they sound too weak in a moment (often times I WANT that weak moment...humanity!). That's their fear getting in the way of allowing for emotional connection. If a drummer says "that was pitchy" then we all know it's distracting from the emotional effectiveness of the song. If a singer is like "I'm a little flat" I don't care. If it was actually a problem I probably fixed it already...especially since it should have been handled in tracking!

This is kind of a playing chicken with the artist. If they trust you and your mixing as much as they trust themselves and their tracking then the mixes should be fairly close after the first version or the first revision. Of course, we can end up in round six of revisions pretty quickly but I think it all evens out in the end. If I go the extra mile for a client with love and enthusiasm for the project and they leave feeling good about the whole thing then that's a win. If they elect go to someone else for the next project and they get nickel and dimed on every thing you can guess who they're going to go back to for project number three (unless the second production absolutely slays the first one).

In working with artists who aren’t accustomed to working with pro mixers, I set expectations that we can probably get to where we need to be in three or fewer revs. Because I’m producing, I’m the one who generally has to monitor over-editing. In general, I encourage experimentation until it seems like it’s resulting in different, not better.

If I’m working with a mixer who’s giving us an “indie rate”, I’ll also set expectations that we should be extra conscious of providing timely, and comprehensive feedback.

I think some young artists may think they’re getting a deal because the mixer somehow thinks they’ve “struck secret gold”, and are “investing” in undiscovered talent, but I try to frame it as a trade deal: The mixer is offering a lower cost, in trade for patience (they’ll squeeze in the project in between label stuff), and timeliness (not forcing the mixer to wrangle feedback). Of course the mixer thinks the music is good - they wouldn’t even take the project if that weren’t true.

Lots of good stuff in this post.

I just need to be more business oriented. I probably let myself worry too much about what they might think about me instead of knowing the value I bring...truth is, they probably could use someone saying “stop - this is excellent.” My problem is I often think “shit - maybe they’re right.” And lots of times I learn something from it. But the bottom line is the bottom line. Enough learning. Daddy needs to get paid and move on. Another hard thing is this: I’ve very rarely run into an artist that I’ve thought “holy shit, this is amazing.” Good? Sure. Personal investment to the point of thinking I don’t care how much time I spend? I can count those on one hand.