Why you should have your music mixed by a pro

[daveotero]

First off, this isn't really aimed at anyone on this board. There are loads of people here that don't consider themselves pro, yet still churn out killer mixes. More aimed at the "we're gonna buy an M-box or a Behringer interface and save tons of money producing our own album" type.

All the details on this page.

Warning: Vocals come in around 0:25. You might want to stop it before then. Should be plenty of time to get the idea.

 

[Ben Johnson]

Pretty impressive!

It sounded like a total disaster beforehand.

 

[noarin]

wow.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Holy shit dude.
You guys (pros/really nasty dudes on this forum) always amaze me with how well you maneuver that fricken "protools" button hahah.

 

[KeithTidd]

the title should be "why you should have a pro record your music" because you ended up reamping and sample replacing it all anyway. if it was properly recorded, you might not have needed to do any of that.

 

[Metal Overload]

Dude!! you saved them!!
Excellent work.

 

[daveotero]

the title should be "why you should have a pro record your music" because you ended up reamping and sample replacing it all anyway. if it was properly recorded, you might not have needed to do any of that.

Well, I actually couldn't reamp as there were no DIs. And yea, there is plenty of sample in there but I actually ended up using a pretty healthy amount of his snare.

 

[daveotero]

Thanks for the comments guys. I hope the post didn't come off as being pompous. Reading back I can see how it might have and that definitely was not the point. It just kinda cracks me up to listen to the two mixes back to back. I was actually surprised as hell that it came out halfway decent. I only took the job because I had a last min cancellation and didn't want to be sitting on my ass losing money, but I'm glad I did because I learned a few things.

1. Its healthy to mix projects where you don't have complete control. I rarely have to do this and it seams when I do I end up learning a lot.

2. The 2 guitar tracks were very different from each other tone wise. Another thing I rarely do but for this mix it worked out and gave me a nice thick and wide image.

3. Made me focus on mixing the song as a whole more. If you solo one of these guitars it's gonna sounds like shit, no way around it. I did almost all of my mixing with everything but the vocals in there and I think I got it gelling together much quicker than I would have otherwise.

Aside from all that, it was extremely refreshing to start and finish a project the same day.

 

[dreamcatcher]

awesome work, dude

*kills self*

 

[Djabthrash]

Wow.

 

[Mat Laperle]

ahhaah awesome!

 

[D20]

DANG!!! Nice!

 

[Keregioz]

They mixed their song in mono???

 

[Tommy Gun]

Well done.

 

[jangoux]

Dave, sounds much better even on small speakers. Nice work! Whats that effect after the snare on 00:06 ? I am listening on small notebook speakers so i have really no clue what's that.

 

[nwright]

Their mix is pretty weak, but I gotta say on my computer speakers here, the drums were shockingly decent. Much better than what I'd hear around here.

Your mix is pretty killer, though. Nice work.

 

[spioraid]

This is exactly the kinda thing that's brought me to where I am as an audio engineer. I was part of a punk rock band as bassist, then out of necessity I became drummer. I then became in charge of recording our songs as best possible. Of course knowing ZIP about recording I thought my first generation iMac's built in microphone would do the trick as room mic. My early demos are hilarious at best. Right before the band disbanded I got tired of crappy recording and have been teaching myself everything I can about the recording process. I've still got tons to learn but I'm far away from where I was.

Unfortunately it's taken me years to get here and lots of failed attempts at recording/producing/mastering CD's. It's completely worth hiring a pro to do the work. Even some of us here on this board that record and produce our own albums we send to a full time pro to get it mastered. There's no shame, just a great polished product.

Your work in that song is excellent! Perfect testament to what should be done in that setting.

 

[Aaron Smith]

Haha, those guitars sure were EQed into submission! I bet the settings were pretty extreme. Those vocals are still pretty gross though...not the production, I just mean it sounds like that guy shouldn't even be the singer, haha!

 

[Zombietakeover]

yeh i agree theres no helping the vocals
they are horrible in both versions

 

[daveotero]

Ha, you can't say I didn't warn you.