Production and mixing

[batmura]

Hey Neil,

The discussion on the Spiral Architect board had me think for a moment. Since you're in the Stateside all the time, there's no way you can actually produce any European bands. So when they contact you to mix their stuff, do you just tell them to go record on their own or with a different producer, and get mailed the tapes so you can work on them?

If that's the case, is there ever a moment when you think "oh shit, if I'd produced this disc, I'd have never let them do this lick or use that drum fill" or whatever?

Just goes to show how different mixing and producing are. I see many producers getting flack for discs they just "mixed". It seems some people associate good sound quality with being a good producer, no?

What I mean is this, you could mix the new SA disc perfectly rendering it a great sound, but if the guys make totally different decisions than yours in the studio while writing and recording the new disc, you may still be criticised for having "screwed them over".

I'd love to hear your take on this.

Cheers,
Murat

 

[NK]

Well, you do make a good point. As Andy Sneap pointed out in his forum, we often get poorly recorded stuff to mix, which obviously can reflect badly on the end result. There's definitely only so much you can do with EQ and other tricks. Things like tuning and timing, and poor performances are often the hardest to fix, and certainly would have all been avoided had someone been more on top of things and making sure those didn't get through during the recording process.

Production is all about getting strong performances as they are recorded. Engineering is the actual technical aspect of getting the sounds and recording them. Mixing is the final putting together of all the pieces, but if those pieces are flawed or weak there's often very little we can do to fix that. Of course there are many other important aspects of production, like the psychological one, keeping everyone positive and happy, keeping the album on budget, generally keeping the project on track and focussed etc.

As far as European bands etc. I don't usually have a choice in selecting who they work with - I just pray that whoever does work with them gets good sounds and doesn't send me a nightmare that I have to try to "rescue". That's beyone my control of course.

Neil K.

 

[Ermz]

I'm just wondering Neil, generally, do people other than yourself have strong input into the mixing process, or is it all up to your discretion?

 

[NK]

I'm just wondering Neil, generally, do people other than yourself have strong input into the mixing process, or is it all up to your discretion?

By that, do you mean the artists that I work with, or do you mean other people who do the same job as me? I usually work closely with the band/artist on the mixing to make sure everyone is on the same page and happy with the way it's going etc. I'm not the type of producer/mixer that doesn't want anyone else around for the mix, although in many cases I do end up working alone due to scheduling or in many cases the fact that the band lives overseas etc. In those cases I make the decisions as to how things start off, and usually upload mixes to a server so that people can check out the progress etc. if they are unable to be present. That way I can get feedback (hopefully) fairly quickly and adjust things accordingly. Thank God for the internet, because that would have been pretty much an impossibility in the past. This way I can move forward at a steady pace and hopefully avoid a situation where remixes are necessary and costs get out of control etc.

Hope this helps.

Neil K.

 

[Ermz]

Thanks Niel, that did help.

I'm just interested in seeing how different engineers approach things. Down here there's been a guy that's taken me in and let me be part of a few sessions and he always mixes with the bands present, because he doesn't seem very concerned with putting his stamp on their sound. Whereas there are other local guys that never mix with the band present under any circumstance, and only really hand them the mix when it's all been done.

So it's interesting to see how different people approach it.

Thanks again.

 

[NK]

I think there are a couple of different perspectives. I've always considered the recording and/or mixing process a "team" thing, so if for example I work with a band on the tracking and they then are unable to be present for the mixing, perhaps due to touring committments, I never feel as comfortable as if they had been around for the mix. Seeing the entire project through keeps everyone on the same page and usually ensures a band that is totally happy with the end result.

Labels will often suggest that a band not be present for the mixing, mainly because they sometimes fear that too much time will be spent arguing about how things should be balanced etc., and that of course ends up costing more. I can certainly remember one or two sessions where a day or two was eaten up by going round in circles trying to make everyone happy and not quite being able to, as sometimes the band members will have differing opinions from each other as to how things should sound. I find it's usually a good idea to have a "team" concept of how the mix should be so we're all on the same page from square one. That way everyone rolls with the process and ends up happy.

Also, as I've said before, anything I work on is the artist's music, not mine, so it's very important to me to keep it sounding like them and not putting a sonice "stamp" on it from my perspective. I feel it's really not my place to do that.

Neil K.

 

[Atheist]

I have one technical question. If a band wants to send you a recording for you to mix, in what form it has to be? On a DAT, in form of Cubase (or other) project files (+dirs)...?

PS. And it's allways mentioned that you can't leave USA, but I somehow missed why.

 

[NK]

It's usually best to either send Pro Tools sessions, or alternatively files exported from Cubase, Nuendo etc. or whatever the artist is using.

I'm still waiting for a replacement Green Card after my last one got damaged several years ago. I'm British but (hopefully temporarily) stranded in the USA.

Neil K.

 

[Atheist]

That's flexible enough.