Tracking vs. Mixing

[surf's up]

For you, which of these processes came more easily and did you make the biggest improvements on earlier in your development? or are they linked through some inextricable symbiosis so that one can never really isolate these functions. Do you feel getting to a certain level of competency and skill was more important in one or the other to the overall quality of your recordings and ability as an engineer?

[Doublehelix]

Tracking for me...without doubt.

I love the challenge of getting great sounds to tape without EQ! Mic and/or Mic pre choice, mic placement, instrument tweaking, etc., this is all like a very complex puzzle for me, and I take great pride in making sure that things sound great at the onset. I love to encourage great performances, and when you tie that all together with getting the right sounds going to tape, the song almost mixes itself!!!

To be honest, mixing for me is a bit of a pain in the butt, and I really don't enjoy it. I tend to be overly critical and analytical, and it is nowhere near as much fun for me. I know several of my friends that are just the opposite, so this is definitely a personal thing.

I am pretty good at getting a mix 95% of the way there fairly quickly, but then I tend to get bogged down in the details, and it takes me forever to finish a mix. I really have to force myself to sit down and mix since I really don't enjoy it.

[drumsound]

I found tracking easier to grasp. I just got for really full and appropriate sounds. I can screw with sounds six ways to Sunday if it's recorded well in the first place. I also can let the mix be a creative place by having good tones to start with. If I have to go about making the sounds workable while mixing that eats up a lot of time and brain energy that I'd rather put fourth creatively.

I used to get really anxious about mixing because I felt I wasn't good at it. I kind of had an epiphany when I did my first mix in my new room four years ago. I was really able to take the very first song I mixed there to a new level from where it was at after tracking was finished. I was already at the point of enjoying mixing, but at that time I felt like I had become a mixer.

I like doing both and feel I'm equally qualified. I often track with the mix in mind. As I'm tracking the basics I'm thinking about how the song needs to progress. Then in overdubs I'm adding the things to get me there. On vocals I'm striving for the character of the song to be clear. I like to push the song towards where the mix will end up.

Then when mix time hits, I've got a nice solid framework to build upon. I can add the elements that have been in my head since day one, things that the clients often really dig, that I knew would be there for a long time, even though they have not heard them.

[Luke]

I am an analog guy, no automation, so mixing can be a real bitch. I have to get it right from beginning to end. With 24 tracks, and some of those tracks having different instuments/parts, it can be a daunting task, very stressful.

I enjoy tracking much more, playing with mics, pres and positioning. Much more fun for me.

[curtiswyant]

I hate mixing unless the results are obvious and drastic. Tweaking every little nuance for hours on end is not my bag. I would rather retrack something 20 times than try to fix it in the mix...but hey, I'm usually only recording/mixing myself so it's easy.

[lyman]

or are they linked through some inextricable symbiosis so that one can never really isolate these functions?

that made me think. sure, they're intertwined to an extent. during the mix process, you can really learn a lot about what you should and shouldn't have done when you tracked. mixing is a great window into the tracking process and doubtlessly shortens the learning curve associated with tracking.

if all you ever did was record tracks, you're not going to get better as fast. on the other hand, if all you did was mix, i think you'd at least get a good sense of what sounds you might want to capture during the recording process. i dunno.

one thing that helped me was mixing something that I DIDN'T record. in that type of situation you're hearing things for how they really are, you're forced to approach it a little more objectively. that frees you up a bit, or at the very least makes you a little more open to working with the mix to make it as good as it can be. instead of already having your mind made up as to what it "should" sound like.

[tommy]

I feel like I've made leaps and bounds with mixing although I love doing both. With tracking, particularly with drums, It's always something a little diffferent from before. I dont have a set way of setting up. Sometimes it's way too many mics, sometimes just 2. Sometimes stereo overheads sometimes none. It's been nerve racking trying different setups each time for drumkit but super worthwile and educational for me.

[operator_tape]

both,


There is a great feeling of capturing it right and with the feeling you are looking for

then spending the time to tweak the song so that it works well and sounds great.

Both are an art in itself, it helps to do both

[Ryan Silva]

I think this has a lot to do with when, and how you started recording music.

I did a lot of 4-tracking to sketch ideas, but until I got a computer and some cheap mics I never really did much mixing. So most all of my mixing experience has come with automation in the box. Never near as intimidating, or difficult. I think a lot of '24 track on tape' kindda engineers must go absolutely crazy, I can?t imagine a world without automation.

I absolutely love to mix and edit, and set up complex panning automation to keep things moving.

On tracking: I worry about tracking more than mixing because it's hard to get people to play there best, and that?s what makes it or breaks it. Out of tune guitars, drives me crazy. It's not that I haven't grown to love out of tune guitar parts; it's the general inability of most people (my self included) to tune their damn guitars. Thirdly, I have to turn the AC off in the control room when I?m 'getting sounds' .

[Ethan Holdtrue]

Man I dunno. I have been spending litteraly 99% of my time trying to get better drum sounds when I track AND mix, so I've kinda pushed everything else aside... which is now starting to bite me in the ass a little I think. Though I have to admit, for a guy who was untill a little while ago only recording drums (and everything else) through an old layla 24/96 and a old blackface ADAT through a 16 chanel carvin board, I have gotten pretty good at tracking and mixing drums (or so I tell my self).

I guess now that I feel like I have tracking and mixing drums 'down', I can move on to work on other things.

Tell me whatcha think?
http://www.myspace.com/midgetstealer <- 1st song is rough, the other 2 are final mixes (all unmastered)

[tommy]

I think a lot of '24 track on tape' kindda engineers must go absolutely crazy, I can?t imagine a world without automation.

You can automate mixes out of the box. People still do it. I use to. Not so much anymore. I actually prefer printing real time these days. Way more fun.

[NewAndImprov]

Definitely mixing. I always feel like I'm under the gun to get a good sound fast when tracking, usually because the artist has limited funds or time. So I don't often feel like I get the chance to try different mics, placements, pres, whatever. For example, I recently tracked drums for 5 tunes on a singer/songwriter project in one day. Had a great drummer, got a good sound, nice, big roomy sound, but now I wish for at least one song, I'd gone for a deader, 70's iso booth kind of sound. Not that there's anything wrong with the sound I got, but another sound would have served the tune better. The budget doesn't really include retracking.

Since my studio is in my house, I'll spend a lot of time off the clock working on a mix, just going into the studio late at night and tweaking about. I also get a lot of projects that are tracked elsewhere to overdub and mix, so I feel like my mixing chops are pretty good.

[joel hamilton]

Both.

If you track well, your mixes sound better.

Sometimes "mixing" is really "balancing" when all the sounds work well together with no monkey business. Sometimes not.

Seeing a million variables, and knowing how to get what you need to make it work in the face of all these variables over a million sessions is what makes you "better" at both.

I have never met anyone that was an amazing mix engineer that couldnt track a stellar record, and vice versa. Some people are slightly more "en vogue" for each of those two skills, but any one of them could track or mix a great record, dependding on what you are looking for...

[drumsound]

I have never met anyone that was an amazing mix engineer that couldnt track a stellar record, and vice versa. Some people are slightly more "en vogue" for each of those two skills, but any one of them could track or mix a great record, dependding on what you are looking for...

Excellent point!

[Brett Siler]

I used to like mixing more but it is really starting to go the other way. Like mentioned before you aren't gonna get a good mix if it's not track well. I am getting tired of over loading my CPU with plugins so I am really try to get the tracking pretty close to how I want to mix to sound.

The most definiatly go hand in hand though.