Whether you’ve recorded here at FSS, or you’re bringing tape/ sessions/ audio data from another studio to finish at FSS, mixing here is an excellent choice. The control room is ideally suited for critical listening, we have a variety of extremely high quality monitors available, our signal path is pure and solid, and if I’m the one at the controls, you’re in highly competent hands.
Here again, there are all types of mixing sessions. Some projects seem to mix themselves, for instance music that has been well played and well recorded, and which doesn’t call for lots of special effects is often better left pretty much as it is, rather than messing around with wild compression, EQ, and delay. On the other hand, I’ve mixed sessions where one notices a difference of just a tenth of a decibel, and the tiniest of details make a huge difference in the overall impact of the sound. There are also those mixes which get experimental, where we play around with crazy effects and wild automation; these can be tons of fun, and eat up tons of time! Then there is that OTHER category: the attempts to correct sessions that were badly recorded, less-than-ideally played, damaged, difficult. These, too, can be an exciting challenge for me, but I increasingly avoid them, because no matter how much magic I can work, the results will never be as good as with well-played, well recorded sessions.
If you’re bringing in digital audio from elsewhere, be aware that FSS runs Pro Tools, and I cannot open Logic or Cubase (etc.) sessions. I CAN open .OMF files, but usually the disadvantages of this format outweigh the advantages. OMF tends to be useful for transferring files between Avid and Pro Tools sessions (which is what it was designed for), and not much else. To prepare your Logic (Cubase, etc.) sessions for mixing here, you will want to consolidate any tracks with cuts in them into continuous comps, make sure that all files have the same start point, NAME your raw audio files descriptively, pertinently, and logically (and briefly!), and export them to separate folders for each piece, so that I can import them into Pro Tools. This may sound complicated, but it’s not, really. I’ll be glad to advise you on the particulars.
If we’ll be mixing analog tape, please give me fair warning. I’ll need to spend an hour or two setting up; there will be recabling to do and I’ll want to have an overview of your session so that I can prepare compressors, effects, etc.
I am often asked how long it will take to mix a session. I don’t know! No one knows! I’ve mixed whole albums in an afternoon, and I’ve taken months to mix a single song. Here again, preparation is the key, so it pays to know what you’ve got to work with, and to know what you hope to achieve on going in. How much editing will need to be done? How many technical problems will we encounter? How good are the original recordings? How polished do you want the final outcome to be? What sort of effects do you like? How much would you like to experiment with sounds?
There is a phenomenon that I like to call “volume inflation” that one often encounters in mixing sessions. It goes like this: “…sounds pretty good, but I think we need a little more piano here…” Then “…yeah, that’s it, but now the voice needs to come up a bit.” Then “…hey, are the drums starting to get lost?” And after a while, everything is turned up to its maximum, and compressed to hell, and starting to sound worse and worse with each passing moment. It’s like a bad hairdo: you can tease it and tease it, and sooner or later it’s going to attack you!
So try to remember to think reductively, rather than additively. Not “more piano,” but “less guitar.” and remember that even where all the tracks were recorded separately, what we’re going for is a cohesive whole. A change to one element of a mix affects all the other elements.
Ego can also play a major role in mixing, and sometimes that’s not good. It’s only natural: the guitarist listens most closely to his own guitar, and neglects the accordion… The accordionist then enters the scene and finds herself much too quiet in the mix, so we turn her up. Voila! The volume inflation has already begun.
Sometimes it’s best to let someone completely unbiased mix, completely alone (like me, or the producer and me together, or even the producer’s Uncle Mike). Other times it’s best to delegate one or two members of the group to mix, who in turn can take a CD home at the end of each mix session to play for the others. Sometimes the solution is a combination of the two: the accordionist comes by after lunch to offer suggestions, but actually the singer is in charge. It varies from project to project, but it’s always good to have a plan in advance.
If we’re mixing analog, it ill behooves us not to get finished mixes within specific time-frames, because the analog desk at FSS does not have automation, so there will be no “total recall” option.
If the mix is in Pro Tools, we can always do minor tweaks later. Usually this is an advantage, sometimes it is not.
And remember this simple rule, regarding the things that get left out f a mix:
If it doesn’t have a specific reason for inclusion in the mix, it doesn’t belong there!