Foolproof way to check your mixes

[joelpatterson]

This is just a simple, psychological ploy.

I imagine for a second that I'm listening to something someone ELSE has done, because it's easy to see the flaws in something you're not bound up with emotionally and struggle-ishly.

Not that I'm overly viciously competitive or anything, but I play this little game, and if I say to myself, yeah, sure, what I'm hearing is something I would admire, then I know I'm doing okay.

Or if I say, yeah, they did okay, but the piano sounds like someone spread out aluminum foil over the strings, I got work to do.

[JGriffin]

Getting to that point of objectivity is the tricky part.

[John Jeffers]

This is where multiple personality disorder really comes in handy.

Yeah, what he said.

[jebjerome]

I do this too, but sometimes I cannot tell if I'm truly able to get away from it enough. Generally, though it is a good exercise.

Alsos the simple questions, would I like this if I heard it randomly? or would this move me/interest me/whatever me? if I heard it randomly help me separate the wheat from the chaff.

[junkyardtodd]

My take on this is to give a copy of it to someone else, and then I listen to it again, and imagine that I am actually that someone else listening to it, instead of myself.
This sounds stranger when I see it in print, but it really does work for me.

[drumsound]

I like to listen while in other parts of the studio. It's my 'party test.' If this music were on at in another room at a party, would I want to seek out the music and listen closer?

[lanterns]

i like to record a song and then throw it away. that way, the job is already done.

[jmoose]

This is just a simple, psychological ploy.

I imagine for a second that I'm listening to something someone ELSE has done, because it's easy to see the flaws in something you're not bound up with emotionally and struggle-ishly.

Not that I'm overly viciously competitive or anything, but I play this little game, and if I say to myself, yeah, sure, what I'm hearing is something I would admire, then I know I'm doing okay.

Or if I say, yeah, they did okay, but the piano sounds like someone spread out aluminum foil over the strings, I got work to do.

Hmmm...

How do you get yourself into that mindset? Usually when I'm working on something I'm so close to it and since I know where all the bodies are buried so to speak, that I can't listen to it as though it were someone else?s work. Plus, generally I have an idea of what the mix topology should be before I touch a fader and since I'm working towards that sound in my head it's hard to separate myself from it.

I know I'm done when I'm either dancing & boppin' around a bit, adjusting less & less on each pass or ideally both! Frequent breaks helps and I when I come back to the room I'll hit play and listen to the mix a couple times before doing anything. It's soooo easy to 'overmix' and take the life out of a song without really trying. 'Ya know, knob turning for the sake of knob turning. If you listen to the song and know what it should sound like stylistically then it'll tell you what it wants and it'll also tell you when it's done...that's usually when I stop hating it and roll the 2-track!

[joelpatterson]

Hmmm...

How do you get yourself into that mindset?

jmoose, you're a moose after my own heart. I also get the feeling of "hidden hands" guiding me towards what I need to do. I fall back on this sneaky ploy only when I'm sorta halfway aggravated/disgusted/frustrated by something about the mix that just won't come together. When everything's working out fine and you progress towards the solid groove unimpeded, and reach the transcendent point of boppin' around like you say, then there's no need to second-guess or question any decisions. But when I go back and forth, say snare too loud, snare too soft, snare too dominant, snare too submissive, and I seem stuck in a cycle of recrimination and reget--

That's when I flip a little internal switch and suddenly I'm here to critique just what the hell is wrong with this mix that _________ has sent me. I think "removing" myself from how I got into this mess lets me approach it fresh. And my viciously competitive nature just SIEZES on the flaws, and puts it in a whole new light. Thank God I get to do this out of the stern gaze of the artist. It would be humiliating to admit all the wrong turns and dead ends I stumble through to get to this cool, happenin' mix.

[drumsound]

Thank God I get to do this out of the stern gaze of the artist. It would be humiliating to admit all the wrong turns and dead ends I stumble through to get to this cool, happenin' mix.

AMEN!

[JGriffin]

Play the mix for someone else. Preferably someone you know has a discerning ear, but really anyone. Stand next to them while you both listen. Take note of anything that, when you hear it, you hope s/he didn't, or anything you feel you have to speak up and explain away during the song.

[lsn110]

I actually love non-technical opinions from generally disinterested people. My wife will hone in immediately on what she likes or doesn't like if I ask her. She still listens to music without getting analytical, which is a perspective I lost long ago.

Sometimes those opinions take translation, but they're usually right.

[jmoose]

jmoose, you're a moose after my own heart. I also get the feeling of "hidden hands" guiding me towards what I need to do. I fall back on this sneaky ploy only when I'm sorta halfway aggravated/disgusted/frustrated by something about the mix that just won't come together. When everything's working out fine and you progress towards the solid groove unimpeded, and reach the transcendent point of boppin' around like you say, then there's no need to second-guess or question any decisions. But when I go back and forth, say snare too loud, snare too soft, snare too dominant, snare too submissive, and I seem stuck in a cycle of recrimination and reget--

Yeah, for me it's more about 'feel' then individual instrument sounds. If the mix hasn't come together in two hours or less I usually pull all the faders down & take a half-hour break before I get back to it. Usually I'll do something mind numbing like play video games or post on a board while I blast Slayer or something that musically is totally unrelated to whatever I'm working on. But it depends on how far off the mark I am. If it's super close I might leave the faders as-is and slowly tweak after the break, but if it's WAY off the mark I'll pull to zero and start again rather then attempting to polish poo.

I can't remove myself from the process...after all...I'm not just part of it, in some ways I AM the process. Taking the artists wishes and the songs desires while the thought process in my head blends 'em all together with my ears & hands doing the work of the mind.

[joelpatterson]

.... in some ways I AM the process.

That is so absolutely true. I always feel like we're, all of us, working at the level that is just beyond where the sound is. At the level of the sound, someone is singing and playing a guitar. If it sounds "real life," then it's good... but at my level, I'm trying to paint the picture that says, "Life is so short, and so vivid when it happens, you shouldn't get lost in thinking about it, you should live every minute." So that when you listen to the song, whatever the lyric is about, you find yourself having this wondrous reverence for the magnificence of being alive at certain times. That's the "real" job.

I really like the way you summed the thing up.

[joeysimms]

I actually love non-technical opinions from generally disinterested people. My wife will hone in immediately on what she likes or doesn't like if I ask her. She still listens to music without getting analytical, which is a perspective I lost long ago.

Sometimes those opinions take translation, but they're usually right.

Absolutely. My wife will hear a mix and immediately say "why is the guitar so loud?" "I can't hear the vocals". It's easy for her to hear. It's very hard for vocalists to mix themselves loud enough. It's also hard for guitar players to mix themselves quieter! I am both!