In everyday life, one of the worst things we can do is compare ourselves to others.
We’re all at various stages on our journey and drawing comparisons between yourself and others will generally leave you feeling a little disappointed. Sometimes, it’ll provide you with motivation. The exact same can be said about mixing.
Now, you might be wondering why I promote using references so much if I view comparisons as a predominantly bad thing. I feel it’s a much different type of comparison; you’re comparing the music you’re mixing with tracks you love and that you know have been mixed by professionals. You’ll definitely feel disappointed that your mixes don’t initially sound that good but over time, and with a lot of work, you’ll get there.
It can be really disconcerting to work hard on a mix and it falls short of the standard of your references
You can still hear all the amateur qualities in your mix vs. the “radio ready” mix. I know exactly how that feels and I still have those moments when I compare my mixes to the best in the business. It doesn’t feel great, but you’ve two options:
- Throw in the towel and give up
- Get your mix sounding the best it possibly can at that moment and move on
I always take option 2 but that doesn’t mean I haven’t produced some awful mixes in my time. My progress over the years has often been slow and methodical rather than taking massive leaps forward. I made lots and lots of mistakes starting out and I still make new mistakes all the time. I am not a robot.
Want to know the best thing about me making all those mistakes? I can help you avoid them!
So, here are the 5 quick steps to improve your confidence as a mixer:
- Dig into your hard drive and pull up an old mix
- Save it as a new session and first analyse what you did previously – make notes on what has changed in your approach
- Clear all the plugins, panning and automation, pull all your faders down and clean up any routing or organisational issues
- Import your old mix as a rough reference and take notes on what you’d improve
- Mix the track again and beat the old mix!
When you’re done, compare the old mix to your new mix. This is powerful because the only person you’re comparing yourself to is you. It’s you vs. “old you”. If you’ve been working hard at your mixing skills and learning new things, there will only be one winner. Whether it’s an improvement in speed, technique or uniqueness, you will have improved in one or all of those areas.
I feel this is by far the quickest way to improve your confidence as a mixer because you’re not comparing yourself to one of the best in the business and you’ll hear how quickly you’ve grown as a mixer in such a short space of time.
However, if you’ve completed less than 3 mixes so far, I’d hold off on using this method until you have 5-10 under your belt.
In the early stages, it’s much better to complete as many new mixes as possible rather than going back over old ground
I guarantee you that when you hear the night and day difference between the new mix you produce vs. your old mix, you’ll be feeling very confident about your skills and your growing experience. That’s because your taste is constant and you’re getting closer and closer to closing that gap between you and your favourite mixing engineer.
So, have you ever done this or do you intend to try it?
Leave a comment below and let me know!
professional sounding mix every time...
SK,
It’s hard to explain my experience with mixing. I was a live performer running my own sound (not with a lot of knowledge or information) for many years. But I mixed just the same and learned what always worked and what never worked….it was a matter of practicality.
I was also recording my work with engineers those 55+ years who (most of the time) knew what they were doing so I learned a lot by osmosis. I acted as a producer instructing the engineers on what I was looking for…..once again, a practical way to work when you’re on a deadline.
Since leaving audio engineering classes, I don’t feel I’ve completed one mix because none of them seem finished. I’m still practicing and learning techniques of mixing (which is the most important thing for me at the moment).
I will be pulling up songs from my portfolio to remix as I know what they’re supposed to sound like.
I like your ideas…..another thing to consider while I’m finding my legs as an engineer.
Thank You,
Peace
I hear you Dave. Given your vast experience, your taste for what you want will be killer. Go with your gut on your mixes and make them sound the way you want to hear them. I think you’ll find that you’ll get to finished mixes a lot quicker by relying on that rather than getting bogged down in the technicality of it all. The technical stuff will come in time and I know how immersed you are in it all right now. While technique and mixing concepts are very important, no one else has the “Dave Michaels taste” and that’s what makes you unique as a mixer.
Thanks. I keep hearing ‘go with your instincts’ from many sources AND I have always done so. But like all ‘newbies’ to a discipline, my confidence level is not cranked very high yet.
It’s helpful to have people who are further along the path to bounce things off of when you’re ears get whacked from listening too long to the same tune……
Thanks for your feedback.
Definitely ‘go with your instincts’ Dave. I understand the confidence issue but you’ll power through that. Keep going!
this is some of the best info I have read on mixing…as a relative newcomer to the daw universe..I voraciously read and watch everything that I can learn from…yours is some of the best..thank you!!!
Thanks for your very kind words, Doc. You’re welcome! When’s the Americana/country/full blown rock album due?
Good points. However, it can really feed your perfectionism if you let it. I’d been studying and learning mixing for three years and in the interim had released an album. I got to a point in my mixing expertise when I thought I could consistently produce a decent result. Then I went back and listened to my album and really got depressed. So I remixed all twelve tracks on that album, plus six tracks on a recent EP. By the time I was done – I felt much better about the results, but pretty much everyone I talked to couldn’t really notice much difference. So I guess it’s pretty subjective and relative. I agree it’s good to keep practicing on your skills and trying to improve. But at some point you’ve got to draw a line and call it good or you’ll be torturing yourself forever…
Thanks John. I agree that going back and mixing more than one track is overkill. I also agree with you that there’s a point that you’ve got to draw a line and call it good. If there were no deadlines and no pressure, we could easily be fiddling with EQ’s and compressors on one song until the end of time. But where would that get us? That’s why I advise getting through a body of work in the early stages as quickly as possible. But you’re well past that point now – which is awesome! I get what you mean about only you noticing the difference, but I’m sure it made you feel a lot better.
Yes i have done this many times and yes it works great , but just the listening alone to an old mix that i haven’t heard for a few months makes me go” eeek , that’s terrible “, (which is the reason i go and remix it in the first place) , but the fact that i’m realising how terrible it sounds shows me how far i have come, not just in mixing but in ear training its self , which is a massive part of this journey we are all on. The more refined our hearing becomes the quicker the whole process becomes, at least that’s what i’m finding out lately. I also agree with the personal taste point, as this has even popped it’s head up listening to pro mixes, where i think to myself ,” i wouldn’t have mixed it like that”. I guess that’s why stereo systems have graphic eq’s, to account for taste. or maybe i’m just to obsessed , great article Stephen.
Thanks Pete. Great comments and I’m glad you’ve tapped into your unique taste. Awesome!
This sounds like a really good advise on getting better at mixing and music making process in whole. I will definetly try this when I will have some more mixes in my pocket, because I just recently started my journey into this world of music.
I`m really enjoing and learning from your tips, so thenks for that and keep it up!
Thanks for the kind words, Raymond. Yes, get some more mixes under your belt and give this a go when you’re feeling like you have a nice portfolio. You’ll be pleasantly surprised!
S,
I’ve been recording since the 60’s so I have a ton of mixes to play around with. I’ve been doing just that recently, pulling up old mixes and re-doing them. It’s a real eye opener and it definitely shows how far I’ve come from my beginnings to now…..that covers a lot of ground.
I do recommend this exercise for people who’ve been doing this for a while.
And BTW, I really look forward to hearing what you do with my “Rage” tracks.
Peace
Looking forward to it too, Dave 🙂