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Post by svart on Jun 24, 2021 14:20:41 GMT -6
I'll start.
For the life of me I'm terrible at matching tones, especially guitars. I have tried so hard and fail almost every time. I think I have it and then after my ears rest it's totally different than what I thought I heard. Trying harder only makes it worse.
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Post by notneeson on Jun 24, 2021 14:39:42 GMT -6
I'm not patient enough to listen to the client's rough mix. Occasionally I miss a featured instrument as a result, but it's nothing a quick recall can't correct.
And I'm stubborn about "make it sound like X" requests. I can give you "inspired by" but copycat stuff is uninteresting to me and I'm bad at hiding that fact.
If I think your request is BS, it's a lot harder for me to do a great job, despite being very service oriented.
And I don't really like drum buss compression. In parallel works for me, but never in line. Maybe it's me.
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Post by thecolourfulway on Jun 24, 2021 14:47:55 GMT -6
Acoustic guitar. My #1 enemy. I swear other people can just stick a mic in front of one and get a better sound than me, I think it’s a curse.
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Post by Pueblo Audio on Jun 24, 2021 14:54:21 GMT -6
I'll start. For the life of me I'm terrible at matching tones, especially guitars. I have tried so hard and fail almost every time. I think I have it and then after my ears rest it's totally different than what I thought I heard. Trying harder only makes it worse. When I have found myself in this situation, the problem is not you (as a mixer). The problem is the recorded track is missing an essential element which you are (probably) trying to draw out. You push and shove, bend and stretch the signal with all the tools and software you can throw at it. And after a period of struggle your ear might finally hear that one specific thing you hoped for, but miss the collateral damage else where. Next day with fresh perspective makes things obvious. It’s a pointless dance around the same spot on the floor…. To no avail. In my experience, getting a guitar tone is tough and the only great success I’ve had is nailing it at capture. Fix in the mix is often too late because you can’t walk out into the studio and here that artist’s sonority in real life; to know what you might be missing in the capture. When stuck like this , an unpopular solution is to re-track that part. Unpopular but so rewarding.
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Post by christopher on Jun 24, 2021 15:21:55 GMT -6
I'll start. For the life of me I'm terrible at matching tones, especially guitars. I have tried so hard and fail almost every time. I think I have it and then after my ears rest it's totally different than what I thought I heard. Trying harder only makes it worse. That might be impossible: I used to work a guitar /amp repair place and saw every kind of guitar and amp come through. And only certain ones had “the magic” out of thousands. When you hear it, it is as close to cheating as possible. Finding that guitar and amp combo that actually is magic is extremely strange to see in the flesh. And of course the best players hoard that stuff and guard it with their life! The amp guys tried to clone an amp: measured every part for tolerance drift and made an exact knockoff. Great amp, didn’t have the magic. Could have been the speakers? The transformer? The biasing? Whatever it was they could not find it. That really helped something click for me. on a related note, often when I’m not enjoying something, it’s because I want to record it differently. What makes me feel better is..I solo the track and pretend the monitor is the instrument, in this case a guitar cab, and record it. Usually the original track works as a close mic, so I use LDC as a room mic. I usually need some extreme EQ afterward, and might have to slide the track around to align phase. Usually allows me to feel a lot better.
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Post by christopher on Jun 24, 2021 15:41:50 GMT -6
Something I’m really bad at is staying positive toward myself. I’ve been working on it, but I’m overly critical of myself often, and it’s very detrimental. Trying to stay positive throughout a project is tough for me. Im getting better about it, if I notice negative thinking I make an effort to stop it, it’s helping me be more productive.
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Post by gwlee7 on Jun 24, 2021 16:13:30 GMT -6
I haven’t learned how to really separate instruments in my mixes yet but that’s because I just don’t have the experience and time under my belt. My tracking is much, much better and that is certainly helping. However, you guys mix stuff and it’s like a race where all the participants are in their own lane and are moving towards the finish line. I mix stuff and it sounds like a demolition derby.
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Post by wiz on Jun 24, 2021 17:16:46 GMT -6
I haven’t learned how to really separate instruments in my mixes yet but that’s because I just don’t have the experience and time under my belt. My tracking is much, much better and that is certainly helping. However, you guys mix stuff and it’s like a race where all the participants are in their own lane and are moving towards the finish line. I mix stuff and it sounds like a demolition derby. Hi bud the pan pot and arrangement is the trick with separating instruments.... cheers Wiz
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Post by srb on Jun 24, 2021 17:45:20 GMT -6
I don't tolerate very well musicians who can't cut the gig. Or those that aren't adaptable in the studio to changing up the feel or the arrangement on the fly. Sometimes it gets the better of me.
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Post by indiehouse on Jun 24, 2021 17:46:50 GMT -6
I haven’t learned how to really separate instruments in my mixes yet but that’s because I just don’t have the experience and time under my belt. My tracking is much, much better and that is certainly helping. However, you guys mix stuff and it’s like a race where all the participants are in their own lane and are moving towards the finish line. I mix stuff and it sounds like a demolition derby. Same here. Creating space in the mix for each instrument while at the same time not mucking with each instruments tone is a constant struggle. That and I think I still suck at compression, which I guess is part of that.
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Post by kevinnyc on Jun 24, 2021 18:26:08 GMT -6
I don't tolerate very well musicians who can't cut the gig. Or those that aren't adaptable in the studio to changing up the feel or the arrangement on the fly. Sometimes it gets the better of me. I’m right there with you...
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Post by jeremygillespie on Jun 24, 2021 19:34:23 GMT -6
I can edit instruments till the cows come home. Or bring players in to replace band members that aren’t up to snuff (only with their consent). But dealing with singers that can’t bring it to the table is one of those things that makes my head spin and I have a tough time dealing with that frustration.
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Post by deaconblues on Jun 24, 2021 22:18:36 GMT -6
I don't tolerate very well musicians who can't cut the gig. Or those that aren't adaptable in the studio to changing up the feel or the arrangement on the fly. Sometimes it gets the better of me. I’m right there with you... Same. Adaptability is key and is a better environment for happy accidents.
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Post by theshea on Jun 25, 2021 1:25:07 GMT -6
bass, kick, low end definition ... i am working on it but it only gets better veeery slowly.
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Post by jmoose on Jun 25, 2021 10:48:56 GMT -6
Self production. I find it extremely impossible to split my brain in two halves.
Find I'm either concentrating on music... playing my instrument and musical communication... or the nuts and bolts of running a session. Can't figure out how to do both without one suffering greatly.
Have had that conversation with many bandmates.... but Moose you make records why can't you record this? I'd much rather go to a studio & let someone else worry about levels & making sure tape is actually rolling... mics crapping out in the middle of a take.
Pre covid my band planned on releasing an EP. Had a shop picked to cut basics... I'd handle overdubs and depending on the amount of arguments we had, at least attempt to mix but probably send it out.
Production by traffic control vs actual knob turning? That I can do!!
With the regular old producer engineer hat on not much scares me anymore.
Though I'll say that the hardest lesson to learn was that we're always mixing. Everything is mixing. Hanging microphones, picking snare drums acoustic guitars or distortion pedals? That's where mixing starts.
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Post by EmRR on Jun 25, 2021 11:45:24 GMT -6
for starters, a Clearcom feed in one ear and the mix in the other......
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Post by mrholmes on Jun 25, 2021 18:50:21 GMT -6
Mixing acoustic guitars can be tricky for me…. Making toms sit is a nightmare…..
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Post by guitfiddler on Jun 25, 2021 19:03:17 GMT -6
I can relate to happy accidents, sometimes it sucks, sometimes it's great! I believe most of it is in the tracking! When a project is recorded in three different studios and some tracks just don't have the juice, it can be a very difficult task to get things to come together without talking to the artist to come here and re-track! That has made me a better mixer, but I still feel like I'm still missing that 5%!!!!! Another thing that drives me crazy, when I use my UAD stuff my guitars sound great, and everything else lacks. When I use my Apogee rig everything just sounds better, more polished, more finished, more punchy, just better! I'm not making any claims, just saying for me, I'm back with Apogee for a bit until I upgrade to Protools HDX.
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Post by popmann on Jun 25, 2021 19:14:20 GMT -6
Recording my Yamaha U3 is a PIA to me. It always involves moving mics around on a per song basis....dialing in individual parametric EQs to address some issues....and then honestly it sounds "fine". Guess what also sounds "fine"? Any decent Steinway grand sample.
I think end of the day....the U3 is more "indie" than I want to sound.
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Post by ragan on Jun 25, 2021 20:00:33 GMT -6
The recording part. Also the mixing part.
OH WELL I STILL LIKE IT AND I AIN'T STOPPING.
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Post by spindrift on Jun 25, 2021 20:18:44 GMT -6
Producing. Either I engineer or I produce. If I do both, one or the other suffers.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Jun 25, 2021 21:22:54 GMT -6
So far, no matter how much I think about it, my record keeping of mixes falls short. I have run many mp3's and WAV files of a mix to send to others for tracking, then when I update the mix, send new mp3's to the artist and other musicians to track to. By the time I'm done I've run or sent 100 variations of a track. I need to simply catalogue and use dates and long names to differentiate which version of a mix it is. But for some reason, I just haven't figured out a method that I use without forgetting to do it properly.
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Post by mrholmes on Jun 26, 2021 10:30:43 GMT -6
So far, no matter how much I think about it, my record keeping of mixes falls short. I have run many mp3's and WAV files of a mix to send to others for tracking, then when I update the mix, send new mp3's to the artist and other musicians to track to. By the time I'm done I've run or sent 100 variations of a track. I need to simply catalogue and use dates and long names to differentiate which version of a mix it is. But for some reason, I just haven't figured out a method that I use without forgetting to do it properly. Someone should invent a project save function … oh wait LogicX is capable of doing exactly this…😻✌️
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Post by mrholmes on Jun 26, 2021 10:33:48 GMT -6
Double post
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2021 11:18:43 GMT -6
1) How high to high pass filter. Sometimes less is more and sometimes you just want to cut all that mud out. For fast double kicks, I had to learn to go higher to cut out the 50 or 60hz build up that can sound like bad mains power during fills.
2) Getting stuff done while separating the creative and the technical sides of my brain while mixing. Originally before I knew what anything really did, I just turned knobs like a mad man to get what I wanted. Then as I started measuring more and learning more, I stopped turning knobs as much. My mixes got worse and sounded not done, often indecisive. Now I realize I should go nuts but measure in an entirely different session. Otherwise I won’t get anything done. Still I’m bothered occasionally by indecision.
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