Turtlerock Forum

You know, I love music, writing , recording, playing.

I really love recording and mixing.

But, its such a humbling endeavour. You spend all day, mixing... a tweak here, a tweak there....

Then 8 hours later you get to the end. Run off a mix, go take an ear break for an hour come back after a sooting cup of tea and a few durries.

Then you hit play, eagerly awaiting your sonic masterpiece, whilst mentally taking notes for your grammy acceptance speech....only to be hit in the ears, with the solid and clear message.

"Wiz, you blow chunks"



So, your ego takes a battering, you bypass all the plug ins you have used during the day, and realise the song was better off without any of it.

Then, you log on to turtle rock to have a little whinge...8)

Then you go and make dinner for the family, watch some mindless TV, with your iPad on your lap, and during the ad breaks surf looking for that piece of gear that will make it all better...all the while knowing, deep down, the studio fairy could drop off a SSL or Neve and a boatload of outboard gear overnight, and it honestly aint gonna change that much. Apart from the distraction of wiring it up and staring at it.

Well that was my day and plan for the evening...hows yours going?

8)

hahahahha......pretty much identical .....except for the ciggies

There is a piece of gear that every home studio has that is responsible for more anguish and self doubt amongst recordists than any other piece of equipment, and often without realising it recordists keep endlessly buying other pieces of gear in order to try and take their mixes to the next level, but it never quite happens. New speakers, new amps, More EQ's, you name it, nothing helps much.

The room.

you are not alone

I remember a poster on gearslutz who lamented he and a friend had been trying for 8 hours to mix a track right. Each time they celebrated victory, they'd play it back again, and - it wasn't right.
Then, during the fourteenth attempt and the tenth hour, the guy's wife, carrying a load of washing, and without stopping, walked past the studio door, stuck her head in and said "Snare's too loud".

Yes, humbling.

that's pretty priceless ^

That whole experience resonates with me. Definitely lost count how many times I've overworked a mix. It can happen all too easily in mastering as well.
Early on, mixing from tape I had just finished a mix and remembering i had read it somewhere, stopped the reel on each song as i rewound the tape to hear how the mix translated. One stood out as quite a gnarly mix that really suited the song and I never would have set up a mix like that had I started fresh. That mix ended up on the CD with just a small adjustment to the vox.

Hmmm, if I had a dollar for every mix that sounded perfect the night before....

relax, tomorrow you'll listen and know immediately what's wrong, and be able to fix it!

record direct to stereo, chat up birds, win at life