Ever get worried you're repeating yourself?

[AndrewB]

I'm starting to notice that, as I start to near the end of a mix, that the kick sound is very similar to a different song that I've mixed. Or the snare sound. Or really any other element to a mix. I do like those sounds (or else I wouldn't be repeating them!), but I'm afraid that I'm repeating myself out of laziness, or because I'm just letting my personal tastes affect my mixes too much.

Anyway, my question for the Sneap forum is, what is the difference, really, between finding "your sound", or just repeating yourself and sounding the same?

 

[Tommy Evans]

I think if you mess with a kick (for example if youre using samples) once and save your fx chain and then recall that same kick/chain for every new project without messing with it more, that's lazy and unprofessional.

BUT...

if you pull up that same kick on a new project and start from scratch with it, and upon completion of the mix, it happens to be similar to your previous chain, then thats when you're "creating your sound".

 

[Ermz]

When you're working on roughly the same genre of music day in and out, there are only so many conceivable ways you can mix the same things in a different way, whilst still managing to follow your aesthetic tastes and make it 'sound good'.

As we're at a point where the mix engineer is continually injecting more and more of his/her personality into the mix, you're going to run into these issues where: hey, you only have 3 amps, and since every band you mix also wants reamps, they're going to end up with similar amps you've had on past productions. Or hey, since all their drum tracks sound totally unusable, you only have a finite amount of solid drum samples to augment them with.

It's very difficult not to repeat yourself in some way, shape or form from project to project. Unless you completely ditch all your knowledge, actively decide not to use any of your go-to gear, and just do completely alien and strange things from project to project, it's just going to keep happening in some way.

 

[Melb_shredder]

When you're working on roughly the same genre of music day in and out, there are only so many conceivable ways you can mix the same things in a different way, whilst still managing to follow your aesthetic tastes and make it 'sound good'.

As we're at a point where the mix engineer is continually injecting more and more of his/her personality into the mix, you're going to run into these issues where: hey, you only have 3 amps, and since every band you mix also wants reamps, they're going to end up with similar amps you've had on past productions. Or hey, since all their drum tracks sound totally unusable, you only have a finite amount of solid drum samples to augment them with.

It's very difficult not to repeat yourself in some way, shape or form from project to project. Unless you completely ditch all your knowledge, actively decide not to use any of your go-to gear, and just do completely alien and strange things from project to project, it's just going to keep happening in some way.

Was going to write something... But I think this thread can pretty much be ended right here

Having said that. If you're getting sounds each time that may be similar to you, but you are getting to point B despite numerous different routes to get there, then I'd say that it IS becoming YOUR sound.

 

[Derykus]

Does a Porsche 911 from the 80's resemble a Porsche 911 from today? Do you consider ze Germans to be lazy?

 

[olif8]

I'm guessing the reason your mixes all sound the same is because you're using kick 10, snare 12a, JS cymbals and Podfarm on every single song.

Having your "own sound" and repeating yourself aren't correlated. Repeating someone elses sound on every mix is not finding your own sound.

Also, don't be too distraught that you haven't found your own sound at the age of 14, it will come in time.

 

[greyskull]

When you're working on roughly the same genre of music day in and out, there are only so many conceivable ways you can mix the same things in a different way, whilst still managing to follow your aesthetic tastes and make it 'sound good'.

As we're at a point where the mix engineer is continually injecting more and more of his/her personality into the mix, you're going to run into these issues where: hey, you only have 3 amps, and since every band you mix also wants reamps, they're going to end up with similar amps you've had on past productions. Or hey, since all their drum tracks sound totally unusable, you only have a finite amount of solid drum samples to augment them with.

It's very difficult not to repeat yourself in some way, shape or form from project to project. Unless you completely ditch all your knowledge, actively decide not to use any of your go-to gear, and just do completely alien and strange things from project to project, it's just going to keep happening in some way.

Yes ermz.
Although on the Flip side; if you're tracking things. It can be hard to break habits you get into and end up stale.

 

[Tommy Evans]

Had no idea dude was only 14. He speaks and articulates like a grown adult. So props to you bro. I honestly thought your pic was like your son or something.

 

[derekmoffat]

I'm guessing the reason your mixes all sound the same is because you're using kick 10, snare 12a, JS cymbals and Podfarm on every single song.

Having your "own sound" and repeating yourself aren't correlated. Repeating someone elses sound on every mix is not finding your own sound.

Also, don't be too distraught that you haven't found your own sound at the age of 14, it will come in time.

no need to be cruel man. this is actually a good topic and he never mentioned anything like that so you don't need to just assume that's what he is doing. And if he is, that's his business and it still doesn't deal with others on the subject. Others can apply responses that have been said (Ermz's response for example) and change the way they approach their next mix, whether it's completely experimenting and trying something new or loading up saved channels on all of the faders.

Personally, I like to save all of my channels and I'll tend to use them on other projects. Makes it easy so I don't have to load up 50 inserts of VCC, 35 compressors, eqs, properly gain stage 75 tracks, and so on, not to mention it's even more effective when you have tons of deadlines to meet. The mix always sounds different in the end anyway. Different players, guitars, cymbals, vocalists, tuning, mic and mics positions, etc. It's surprising how just one or two elements of a song can completely change the mix.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yeah but it seems to lie mostly on the guitar side. There are only so many ways (without being shitty) a 5150 or a Recto can sound through a guitar cab with vintage 30s.

Drums on the other hand... no I somehow manage to avert using the same shit over and over. I think that is bound to change the day I get a studio kit though.