Long Distance Mixing

[A National Acrobat]

So I was reading the 'HRS. / SONG spent mixing and RATES CHARGED???' thread and had a somewhat relevant question.

I have a few clients that will drive 2 hours to the studio for sessions and I'm very grateful. That being said, they left me 'in charge' to mix down their session and paid for one day of mixing. I simply throw the final mixes on my server and let them download a zip file of them.

They are overall satisfied with the mixes and I didn't mind running back to the studio to take out some vocals they didn't like and lower levels on some background vocals.

Now the band is making noises about wanting a more 'trigger' sounding kick drum. Funny, since I already used Sound Replacer but slightly compressed and EQ'd it so that it wasn't blatantly obvious it wasn't a sample. This shouldn't be too difficult but I'm going to:

1. Make sure they like the new kick drum sound.
2. Reapply it for every single track and then bounce down, yet again.

Since their initial day of mixing has been used up already, what should be the proper protocol?

Doing this long distance mixing has been beneficial in regard to not having 'too many cooks in the kitchen' but I sense it could turn into a game of sonic-whack-a-mole with '...just one more thing'.

In short, should I be a good guy, go reapply a new EQ to the ten tracks or say 'that's going to take a few hours'?

[chris harris]

Since they didn't mention the kick stuff either before the mix or before you made the revisions you already made, then I wouldn't give it to them for free. If you do, you'll definitely be setting yourself up to do a lot of off-the-clock tweaking.

Just tell them that it'll take a few more hours of mixing and that they'll have to pay that. They should understand.

[A National Acrobat]

That sounds fair enough. I appreciate the insight. Thanks.

I generally have a hunch when to draw the line with this sort of thing but never want to be a jerk about it.

(well, secretly I do)

[cgarges]

Since they didn't mention the kick stuff either before the mix or before you made the revisions you already made, then I wouldn't give it to them for free. If you do, you'll definitely be setting yourself up to do a lot of off-the-clock tweaking.

Just tell them that it'll take a few more hours of mixing and that they'll have to pay that. They should understand.

Agreed completely.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Nick Sevilla]

"You want more click on your kick?"

"I want more clink in my pocket"

I usually allow for ONE round of changes to a mix. Anything above and beyond that is at the same hourly rate as before, in other words, "we're not done mixing, and I ain't done charging"

Cheers

[nortstudio]

Subatomic is right. Too often we end up questioning whether we have a "right" to charge for our work and time. And once you open that door, there are far too many clients that A) see it as so easy (and free) that they will ask for a bunch of changes, and B) fail to respect the extra time you are giving to the project.

In my experience, clients are typically not TRYING to take advantage, but if we don't set the tone up front, there is a certain amount of respect for your time that flies right out the window.

Since we know that almost every client will be looking for some type of tweak after a mix is done - particularly for unattended sessions, it's best to set a price for the tweaks ahead of time. Even if it's minimal, the client will think before they start asking for a ton of changes. Or at least think first, so that you can nail all the changes in one recall session.

[A National Acrobat]

What do you think about rough mixes?

If the band in question runs out of time and/or has a lengthy drive back home from your studio, they ask if you can burn down rough mixes and send them as MP3's.

If I'm going to tack it on to their ongoing tab, I don't see any problem with this.

But yeah, I'm starting to run into this sort of thing more often now.

'Can we get rough mixes?'

'Sure, you have an hour to kill?'

'Oh...no, we need to hit the road. Can you just bounce them down when you get a chance and email them to us?'

Why yes I can and the clock continues to run.

And yeah, long distance mixing is a thing of the past for me now.

[nortstudio]

No question that rough mixes are part of the "clocked" session. The fact that they are not there while you are WORKING doesn't mean you are not working! Know what I mean?

Fortunately most bands with some experience do understand this. If they do not, you need to take it upon yourself to make sure they DO understand it.

I did roughs the other night for 15 songs. That took 5 hours - without even really messing around too much. They were there, and made simple requests. 5 hours work needs to be charged 5 hours rate.

[cgarges]

Absolutely! There's this kind of weird thing going on now where lots of people think rough mixes just happen by waving your hands over the gear and out pops a CD for them to take home. It seems like I'm having to do a lot more explaining to people lately that rough mixes actually take at the very least the time to actually listen to all the songs before the disc gets burned. And yes, that's all on the clock.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Nick Sevilla]

I've been getting used to printing whatever mix is up before I go to another song all the time, in whatever state it is in, and not spend ANY time "mixing" the ruff mix. X time that song is long, and I force whomever is there to stop and listen without adjusting anything. It's surprising how much less editing there is to do, and more re-arranging the parts, as in "get rid of this idea, maybe tomorrow turn up this other one...) instead of endless tweaks, we all hear the overall song, simply because I refuse to tweak anything on the rough at all, and quickly move on to the next song. It can be very illuminating to the artist and oneself.

That's why they're called rough mixes.... they don't have any additional mixing in them. NO tweaking, level adjusting, nothing. Just whatever the mix was on the headphones from the last person who overdubbed on it or worked on it.

Then at the end of the day, I have all the songs that were worked on, whether a CD is asked for or not.

When I go to final mixing, I can call upon some of the better roughs, which mostly did get burned to CD, and reference them faster, if one happens to have some "magic" in it.

Cheers