My Mixes Suck

I realize that in the quest for power, I've gone compression/volume mad. The volume wars got to me, even though I didn't realize it. I'm an old school audiophile and should know better, but it's so damn seductive, a little more push on the make up gain and I think, oh, there it is..

I listen to digital files for working, but for pleasure, only vinyl will do..

Hi Martin,
I thought quite a while about it. I listened to your mixes and they sound pretty good to me. This said, i am not into alternative country or country at all.
I can clearly read you don't meet your own expectations and don't know what to do to come to a more rewarding outcome.
There have been some very good remarks made. Two of them i find most useful and i want to explain why...
Nobody of us knows your image of the perfect mix, maybe you are not 100% sure of it, too.
Sometimes i sit in front of my own stuff and i simply cannot hear in my inner ear what the mix should be like. This most certainly only happens with my own stuff.
For me, there are 2 or 3 things that i try to do nowadays.
Rule No.1 is staying away from the mix for a while. This is to forget any bias you have from the role beeing a musician and take over the position of a mixing engineer/producer. Forget the role as a musician and become the customer, the radio listener, the consumer who hears the song for the first time. Then listen to it, and it becomes much clearer what distracts from the main character of the music.
Most of the time, 3 things happened:
1. Too much compression or limiting. Solution: Multi-stage compression with just like a few dB in the track and another few in the group bus or so, beeing gently, using fader riding or leveling instead (first one preferred), even forget limiting or compression in the master bus completely except it is really part of the music (say in dance productions this IS the case often...in country possibly totally not)
2. Swamped low end and lost drums. Solution: Going back to the drums and bass sections when the rest of the mix is done and see what happened, even start them from scratch to get more definition with the mix that wasn't there when you started the whole thing...
3. Missing featuring of the vital/interesting stuff. Hope this makes sense to you. I mean, you hear what is the most interesting stuff in the song, what do you want to feature for your listener, what gives the song the special kick, is it this one extraordinary solo that should stand out, is it a cool rhythmic line, a special thing in the voice that you want to make stand out? What could make this song beeing something special? Especially here, the distance you get from the role as a musician is important.
The things to be featured may be e.g. very simple things, and otherwise, things that were hard to play or complex for the musician in you can sometimes make their way into the background but still work and make the song interesting for the second time listener. Not at all like you would think as a musician but as a consumer.

Hope this all makes sense to you somehow and can help at least a bit, even if it's just for brainstorming...

Best regards,
Martin

MJB what helps me a lot to make excessive use of Magic AB. If it is my aim, to set a K-16 I search for songs which are around K 16.... I compare my mix to the professional ones in Magic AB ø 30 Minutes. This plug in is a TRUE helper. And it helps to reset the ears too. Some 90s Stevie Wonder stuff is even K 20 and it sounds amazing. You say you cant mix commercial/pop music with dynamics? I say fuck it. Just try to to do it, and you will have pure fun. The stupid mastering house can ruin it later.

I should add, and I mean this seriously....

You, with the standard or your work, are at such a level, that changing a preamp out is going to make bugger all big picture difference.

You are looking at gear and your wallet to fix a problem that isn't there ( i know, my wallet staring is legendary 8) )


What you are producing is of a really high standard.. changing from whatever preamps you are using now , to D4 or Capi or whatever is not going to cure your ills in my opinon.





Getting back to basics with your gain management and getting some perspective on your own song, is the path I reckon

cheers

Wiz

You guys are all really great cats, thanks for all the truly helpful suggestions and encouragement.

You're right Wiz, gain staging is something I need to get a handle on, and might be half the problem. Another part of my issue is my benchmarks are stellar productions done in world class studios with the finest producers and engineers, the best gear, and talent that's in fighting shape, like Lyle Lovett's "Road to Ensenada", and vibe like Ryan Adams. I have the ears to hear though, so I feel I'm just not getting there. 

Most likely, I need to just keep moving forward, until I have some great friends to work with again.

Some of the guys here are offering some help and collaboration, and I'm excited and grateful.

mrholmes, great suggestion, thanks. The video at air windows was interesting, and certainly worth a try. I went to air windows, but couldn't find the link to download the free Channel 4 plug. I sent an email to Chris asking how to get the plug.

thanks mrholmes. I got the download, but when I went to my download folder and clicked on it, instead of the usual installation prompts, my UAD Apollo console show up. Strange..

Just listened to two old tracks. One was a comparison of two mics, mine and the Lauten Atlantis. It was done on a renovated Neve board with no processing. When I did it, i thought the Atlantis was impressive, but gave the nod to my mic by just a little. Today, it was no contest, my mic just killed the Atlantis, one was sibilant, pushy in the low end and flat sounding, the other, clean and clear. On another finished track that was released on CD, I could hear the LA2 pumping. I thought, why didn't I notice this before, it's so obvious. Only then did I realize, only my monitors had changed.

I love when you get a thought or idea and only after a happy accident do you figure out what's what. There's no bias or expectation. So, clearly, if my mixes still suck, it's no longer the fault of my monitors.

Yes, and transparency is required ;-)

I need to final mix some songs I started a long time ago, and it's tricky getting them to sound good. I'll have to do the 'start the mix all over again" thing unfortunately,,

THIS is true for all of us mixing our own stuff or artists we know well, love, whatever...

I guess ward said it (or was it drBill ?), there is one strategy to finish a mix fast and professionally. Care less.
Actually, i had a good laugh reading this comment, because it really seems so true to me.

If you are in love with the product, involved as an artist or personally related to the artist, you want to give the very, very best, get too much into details that actually do little to the result, probably miss some of the more obvious problems of a mix, and in many times you might achieve the opposite of what you want and are not happy with the result.
I always hope i am flexible enough to listen as fresh as possible to my own stuff, just like it would be a totally unknown track from an unknown artist, get it's real vibe and try to make it work...
The viewpoint of the artist is not what i want to have at mixing time. I most often would feature the wrong parts, make solos too loud, and wouldn't give the rhythm sections and bass the attention they deserve - despite the fact i am a bass player!
...

Just turn everything else up! (is what someone who's never mixed before would say)