08/03/2024
Studio tips: I find that there is an attitude amongst some musicians where they think it’s ok to leave a mistake in a take, to not be as tight as possible, or to not start with a great source tone. Basically the thought has shifted to “they can fix this in the mix, they can edit that later, etc.”
I’m my opinion, this is a huge mistake. I always say that how good a song comes out is 90% in the writing, performance, and recording and 10% in the mixing. When I am sent files to mix, the first thing I do is import them all into a session, turn up the faders, and listen. If things already sound pretty cool and I’m already bopping my head, I know that the mix is going to be sick by the time I’m finished with it. But if I press play and the first thing I feel is that this needs a ton of editing or fixing just to get this to a C- level, or worst, just to get it to a point that I can even start mixing, I feel that the best it’s going to be is maybe a B or B- in the end. Which really sucks. I want your songs to be sick. For example, If you track a great guitar tone, then my job is to touch that tone as little as possible. I’m just trying to make it fit better with the other instruments in the mix, but the goal is for it to retain as much of what you did as possible. You spent thousands on guitars, amps, and pedals, and thousands of hours learning guitar. I assume that you want “You” represented in the song.
But of it’s a terrible recording and everything sucks, yes I can edit it, I can reamp it, I can throw 50 plugins on it, or I can take your DI and run it through a Neural DSP plugin and make it something totally different. But that sucks because I just robbed you of you. Which to me as a musician myself is a tragedy.
So next time you are recording, take your time and make sure every step of the way you ask yourself, is this sounding awesome? Am I happy with my performance? Am I hitting the emotional impact that I intended with these tracks? I ask you to take your time and care a lot about this process because you and your music deserve that. And I promise you, if you send me a song that’s at a B before I’ve touched it. It’ll be an A++ when you get it back. Don’t ever let anyone care about your music more than you do!