Mix of the Month
Happy New Year! I hope you had a fun holiday weekend. I'm still sitting in bed with the flu, but I've managed to make a constructive time of it.
About 10:30 PM on Monday night I ran across an educational opportunity. I'm a member of a Facebook group called Home Studio Recording. Mostly it's just photos of home studios and questions about gear, but I have occasionally found some inspiring or educational threads.
HSR's Mix of the Month is not a contest but a friendly way for audio engineers to learn from each other. We all download the same raw recorded tracks from a willing recording artist and then create, share, and comment on each other's mixes.
In December, the group is mixing "You Know Better" by Hannes Keseberg. I didn't think I'd have time for this, but I couldn't sleep, so I downloaded the files and spent the next three hours in bed with my laptop, Garageband, and earbuds while my sweetheart slept next to me.
The next morning, I checked the results on the laptop speakers. Hearing some issues, I grabbed my studio headphones, made some fast adjustments, and posted the mix to the Facebook group.
Checking out what others have shared, I heard wild variations in mixes. Some were bright, others dark. Some are heavy on effects. Some took liberties with the artist's arrangement. I learned that variations in the mix drastically changed my perception of the artist's intention.
I listened to my mix again later in the day. It's good, but I had more ideas so I put my headphones back on and invested a few more hours making adjustments. At the end of the day I uploaded mix v2.
I'm learning that it's easier for me to mix other people's music than to mix my own. I enjoyed the separation of the songwriting and mixing stages because it enhanced my ability to think about the mix.
I also learned that I can mix pretty well using only GarageBand and my Sennheiser HD600
headphones if I have well-recorded tracks. I mean, the software is limiting but the results were better than I expected.
You know... I could do this for myself.
Since I'm going to make it big, I need to prepare for a time when I'll have to send tracks to an engineer for mixing. I can start practicing now.
OK. From now on, when I finish my tracking session work, I'll export completed audio stems and open them in a fresh project file. This will be like "sending them" to the mixing engineer. Cool.
About 10:30 PM on Monday night I ran across an educational opportunity. I'm a member of a Facebook group called Home Studio Recording. Mostly it's just photos of home studios and questions about gear, but I have occasionally found some inspiring or educational threads.
HSR's Mix of the Month is not a contest but a friendly way for audio engineers to learn from each other. We all download the same raw recorded tracks from a willing recording artist and then create, share, and comment on each other's mixes.
In December, the group is mixing "You Know Better" by Hannes Keseberg. I didn't think I'd have time for this, but I couldn't sleep, so I downloaded the files and spent the next three hours in bed with my laptop, Garageband, and earbuds while my sweetheart slept next to me.
Checking out what others have shared, I heard wild variations in mixes. Some were bright, others dark. Some are heavy on effects. Some took liberties with the artist's arrangement. I learned that variations in the mix drastically changed my perception of the artist's intention.
I listened to my mix again later in the day. It's good, but I had more ideas so I put my headphones back on and invested a few more hours making adjustments. At the end of the day I uploaded mix v2.
I'm learning that it's easier for me to mix other people's music than to mix my own. I enjoyed the separation of the songwriting and mixing stages because it enhanced my ability to think about the mix.
I also learned that I can mix pretty well using only GarageBand and my Sennheiser HD600
headphones if I have well-recorded tracks. I mean, the software is limiting but the results were better than I expected.You know... I could do this for myself.
Since I'm going to make it big, I need to prepare for a time when I'll have to send tracks to an engineer for mixing. I can start practicing now.
OK. From now on, when I finish my tracking session work, I'll export completed audio stems and open them in a fresh project file. This will be like "sending them" to the mixing engineer. Cool.
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