HOME, HOME AGAIN
I can see the landing lights.
I believe that within the next week or so we'll have the Strikes Again! demo done. We've got final mixes of 2 out of the 5 songs ("The Human Cannonball" and "Can't Stop Now") and will be tweaking the remaining 3 songs this week.
Thursday night looks like a "Hell Disaster". This one's about how we're in the middle of a Hell Disaster, and it's soft and sweet (if your definition of soft and sweet is loud and nasty).
The remaining two songs - "Ripped Open" and "Cure All" - will have some minor adjustments made by me, sans the band. When a song is really close to being finished, it's often quicker (and more effective) for me just to bring her in alone. I don't know why, but I think it has to do with being able to concentrate solely on the sound, which is hard to do when you're also trying to figure out what the people around you are thinking. Maybe it's also 'cause I can dilly dally around without feeling like I'm wasting someone's money.
I've never been very good at wrapping up projects. When the end is in sight I feel like I'm in one of those dreams where I'm running but not moving... it always seems like there's one more thing I need to do to finish up. Committing to a final mix is never easy, especially when you really like the music you're working on and want to present it the best way possible.
I've tried to explain my views on mixing to various friends and colleagues...
- A mix is not the most important part of a production. The song and the performance are.
- A bad mix can ruin a good song and a good performance.
Damn!
- One mix is as good as any other; it's all subjective.
- A bad mix can ruin a good song and a good performance.
Drat!
- There is no such thing as a perfect mix, only a perfect mix session.
- A bad mix can ruin a good song and a good performance.
Fiddlesticks!
When I'm alone with a mix, when I can actually crawl inside of it and let the sound and the experience wash over me, it's heavenly. When it first starts to work it's transcendent.
Then you listen to it the next day and think "eh... I'm not sure." It'll make you want to hang up your headphones and unplug your monitors forever. Back to the top. Pull the thread, let the sweater unravel, and try again.
There comes a time, for every song, when I admit to myself that I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm bluffing my way through this thing and someone's gonna catch on. "Wait a second, weren't you a bio major?"
But not this time.
11 Comments:
Do your thing, man. I'm of the opinion that the band shouldn't be there at all, you just send them mixes (and drinks), take feedback, and head back in.
I'm also a big fan of shooting the entire band after tracking is done....
I used to be of another mind, but I'm with Jackson. The only reason I like to hang out and be there when you're working is to learn a thing or two from you. Otherwise, if it's something I recorded, I'd rather just let you do your thing.
I remember an interview with Angus Young in which he commeted that they had wrapped the tracking of the Back In BLack sessions and he thought that they might be onto something, but not anymore psyched about it than with any other of their records. Then they got the Mutt Lange mix back and was so blown away that he called his brother and said, "Have you heard what Mutt has done with our record?" Hell, Angus was in another country when it was being mixed.
Don't get me wrong - I love the guys in Strikes! and am always happy to have them around.
It's just that, often, I can serve them better if I'm alone. It's weird.
It's not weird at all, it's a dead on accurate statement. In my days in the big room, anybody doing mixes would say they'd rather just be there by themselves if it was an option. The only exception was when the artist was as well versed in the process and gear as the mix engineer.
Mutt.... I got a blog about him comin' as well.
Hint: If I had a head like his I'd bleedin' bury it.
If Mutt mixes my next record, that means I know where he is when I am banging Shania.
Mutt is a complete flake, but you gotta admit he's made some monster records.
Who can forget "Pyromania"?
Or Foreigner '4'?
Both those records are post Mutt meltdown. Consider Def Leppard's High n Dry against Pyromania. That's what marrying a hottie model will do to your ears.
"Pyromania" had some big hits. I think that was the record that introduced me to Def Leppard (via MTV)... which one had "Photograph" on it?
I must admit, while I was in college I saw Def Leppard at the Hartford Civic Center. This friend of mine had tickets....
I'll say this - they sounded pro. I had low expectations but they knew what they were doing.
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