[amagras]

Originally Posted by simon.a.billington

Unfortunately, I don't have the same self control when it comes to plugins, but I think we should keep context in mind when talking about minimalism in mixing.

Now I could be wrong, and I'll certainly be putting myself to the test over the next few months, but I'm presently with the mind that instead of doing more with less plugins, the "alternative" approach to this is to do less with more plugins.

So for example, instead of slamming a bass guitar with a single compressor we could potentially achieve the same, yet smoother results, by processing it a little bit with a Bass Rider, a little bit with a regular compressor and maybe a little bit with the low band of a multiband compressor. Effectively doing the same amount of compression you would with one plugin, but spreading the load so you're demanding less from your processors.

So it's still minimalistic approach, in a way, just applied with a different strategy. I've heard people do this before and some legendary mixers talk about doing things this way too, I just don't recall who. Anyway, its a philosophy I plan to explore over the next few months, but still keeping minimalism in mind. So if I feel something becomes redundant, I won't hesitate too much to drop it altogether.

I wasn't talking about doing more with less plugins. Like you I hear better results when I use several and more subtle changes on the program. My point is about my perspective as a mixer, when I start mixing without waiting for the complete arrangement and edition to be done I end up adding more plugin and processing than required almost all the time ending up with a product that's way overcooked. That of course is because I mix my own music. When I get a session from another producer i can hear exactly what the song needs which is usually not much.