Typical Time Frame for Mixing

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Sun May 17, 2009 6:06 am

Usually I will do 1 3/4 songs a day when I am mixing a record.

I will mix 1, then get to the point of a mix before I leave for the day, possibly even printing a mix 1, and leave it up overnight and come in and make sure I still love it in the morning, then move on. so 2 get printed in a 8-10 hour day, but then i listen once more to the second one of the day, the next day.

I have mixed 12 song records in one day, though, and I have mixed 12 song records in 12 days.

Never more that 1 song a day, ever. that would make me crazy (er) ...

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Sun May 17, 2009 4:43 pm

I prefer a song to a song and a half a day as well. I also prefer to be alone for the first part of the mix process, so people aren't bored to death when i'm doing stuff like cleaning up noise, in between tom hits, etc... people don't need to be looking at the back of my head for two hours while i get things roped in and ready.

However, a portion of my work is with really small budget bands that either don't think they need to spend the time or money, or just don't know to spend the time and money.

I'm currently in the middle of a five song "demo" that was tracked in a day and a half, and 3 out of the five songs mixed the second half of the second day.. finishing up the last 2 songs tomorrow night..

however, i've spent some time "off the clock" as well, to help get this done within time/budget.

I don't like working this way, but sometimes I take these jobs. Would be nice to have at least a day per song everytime though.

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Mon May 18, 2009 9:23 am

I like to spend whatever time it takes to get the song to really vibe and speak.

Sometimes the songs jump out atcha, sometimes they don't have any vibe left in them (thin the herd time) and sometimes it just takes plain ol' elbow grease to get it to work.

I usually quote clients one day per song. 8 hours. My ears drop off after then, so I can't use them until they've rested enough.

Cheers

Cobiestudios · Post by **Cobiestudios** » Mon May 18, 2009 9:47 am

It all depends on the mileage. I don?t have a lot of experience doing this, just 3 records under my belt, a lot of demos, and stuff. A week ago I noticed that I mixed a song in 4 hours, I was surprised because I got the feeling I made it faster compared to what I?ve done a year ago.
I think mixing is like sports you have to excercise your body to be in good shape.

Alfonso

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Mon May 18, 2009 3:09 pm

Cobiestudios wrote:It all depends on the mileage. I don?t have a lot of experience doing this, just 3 records under my belt, a lot of demos, and stuff. A week ago I noticed that I mixed a song in 4 hours, I was surprised because I got the feeling I made it fast compared to what I?ve done a year ago.
I think mixing is like sports you have to excercise your body to be in good shape.

Alfonso

very true.. i'm able to last longer now.. mmmmm stamina. used to be my ears would be done after 6-8 hours, now i can stretch to at least 9-10. just depends on the attitude in the control room as well...

Rick Slater · Post by **Rick Slater** » Mon May 18, 2009 8:36 pm

I usually get one done the first day. This involves a lot of set up and getting all the gear setup. The rest of the days end up being two or three song days.

cenafria · Post by **cenafria** » Wed May 20, 2009 11:01 am

I try to mix a minimum of four songs per nine hour session. A song a day isn't a realistic ratio in my world (for better or worse). When I started out, a song a day was what I was "taught". I soon realised I wasn't going to get very far if I wasn't able to work faster.

I remember reading that "The Blackened Air" was recorded and mixed in six days. That was a slap in the face for me. One of the best sounding records I'd ever heard. Sixteen songs. Six days.

Steve Albini's keynote address for the tape op con and his application of the Laffer curve to studio time (as in money spent) vs greatness of the recording was also pretty eye opening for me.

Like everyone says, it varies a lot from record to record. I've done twelve mixes in a day a couple of times. Seventeen once. Six a day is pretty common. If I'm doing two a day I feel like I fucked up somewhere. Basically, that I'm far from what the band wants.

I rarely post but after seeing so many "a mix per day" I felt like a wierdo.

Javier Ortiz
http://www.myspace.com/estudiobrazil

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Wed May 20, 2009 11:27 am

cenafria wrote: I remember reading that "The Blackened Air" was recorded and mixed in six days.

wow that's humbling. i read that the last neurosis record (also done at electrical) was tracked and mixed in 6 days. that albini fella, pretty good at making records.

Rick Slater · Post by **Rick Slater** » Wed May 20, 2009 1:25 pm

It really depends on if you tracked it and if you are in the box you are probably making tweaks all along the way. It also depends on the arrangement. Four tracks of strings, eight tracks of guitar, ten tracks of drums, three tracks of bass, and six tracks of vocals tends to take a lot longer than say a punk record or a hip hop track.

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Wed May 20, 2009 7:53 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
cenafria wrote: I remember reading that "The Blackened Air" was recorded and mixed in six days.
wow that's humbling. i read that the last neurosis record (also done at electrical) was tracked and mixed in 6 days. that albini fella, pretty good at making records.

yeah, that's pretty fucking wow. it would take me 2 years to track and mix a neurosis record.

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Wed May 20, 2009 7:54 pm

woah, a neurosis and jarboe track just came on after typing that.

fossiltooth · Post by **fossiltooth** » Thu May 21, 2009 10:24 am

trodden wrote:
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
cenafria wrote: I remember reading that "The Blackened Air" was recorded and mixed in six days.
wow that's humbling. i read that the last neurosis record (also done at electrical) was tracked and mixed in 6 days. that albini fella, pretty good at making records.
yeah, that's pretty fucking wow. it would take me 2 years to track and mix a neurosis record.

True, but this is usually the case when the music being mixed:

1) is mostly live performance-based
2) is fairly sparse in density of arrangement,
3) has arrangements that have been perfected in live settings,
3) was performed by great players,
4) has realism as the aesthetic goal,
5) doesn't require diversity in mixing style,
5) and was tracked well, with the mix in mind.

In these cases mixes can go much more quickly. Hell, you could reasonably mix a whole record in a day or two if all this falls in line and that kind of mix style fits the aesthetic. Sometimes in these cases the mix can become almost a formality.

...Also, it doesn't hurt when all of your mixes sound exactly the same.

(No offense to Albini!)

It really depends on each project, but I find myself roughly spending either 4 or 8 hours on each song more often than not.

permanent hearing damage · Post by **permanent hearing damage** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:28 am

like everyone else is saying, it depends.

my average is 1-3 hrs per song. lots of variables out there. i've done 10 min per song or 6+hrs per song before, as well.

kakumei47 · Post by **kakumei47** » Sun May 31, 2009 12:06 pm

Like with most people, this totally varies. I've done a full-length in a day and a half that I'm happy with, but if we have the time one song in six hours to a day is usually ideal, and if the clients have a bunch of edits and dense instrumentation and want to do different vocal treatments for lots of layers of vocal parts and there's a lot of automation happening I can't imagine getting a song done well in less than that. If there's a ton of computer processing involved I have to print effects several times, which slows things down a bit for me.

The two projects I worked on this week both had a lot of stuff going on, and in one we did three songs in a day and the other was one song each 8-hour day. But the other week I mixed a five song demo in a short day, but those songs were all pretty much treated in the same way...

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