When to let it go????

[Speed_45]

Great point JFreak... and I do plan on doing that. I have prearranged with the mix/mastering team to be there when it is done and have allocated an amount of time for Q&A before, during and after the project. These guys are great and are all for it... aka.. they know I am not a threat to their business .. :)

Thanks for feedback and tips!

Originally Posted by JFreak

You can always ask for feedback, as in "what were the biggest problems with this mix" -- especially so, if you are using same ME from time to time. Everything is always easier to fix in the mix, so the ME will appreciate this question and should gladly take the time to answer. ME would be happy to just do quality check and return your track unchanged. That will probably never happen, but the goal is Me needs to tweak in 0.x rather than 1.x changes

[Speed_45]

I have that very thing in mind... I have an older release that I did a few years ago.. I know of things now that I would have done different/more of back then knowing what I know now.. I plan to go back and bring those cuts up to date using today's experience. I am looking forward to reinforcing some of this knowledge and better tracks! :)

Great way to learn and prove out theory, I suppose.

Thanks for tips!

Originally Posted by JFreak

Beat me to it



Sometimes (if you have the time and are a bit bored) it is also good to do this in purpose. Just take an old song and mix it again from the scratch. Notice yow your skills have developed.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

My advise is make it as good as you can within a reasonable timeframe and let it go. We do this with big artist tracks as no one is gonna solo a track and will never hear what you arE describing. You should hear some of the track stems we get from the highest paid producers and I say that as apposed to ”the best” as i dont agree with that and these stems sound like crap when solo’d and listened to in small batches. I am talking billboard top 20 songs and top 3 aswell so dont worry as long as those artifacts doesn’t come out in the final mix. All IMHO of course

Funny you should say that, Christopher. A while back I downloaded some stems from some fairly well known artists that were made available for remixing. I was, shall we say, less than impressed, with the mediocre quality of some of the individual tracks, especially the synths. I found many of the patches to be just plain bad. BUT, when you listen to the full, pro-mix...the one that was on the radio and sold on iTunes etc, it still sounds great. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

[Southsidemusic]

Originally Posted by DonaldM

Funny you should say that, Christopher. A while back I downloaded some stems from some fairly well known artists that were made available for remixing. I was, shall we say, less than impressed, with the mediocre quality of some of the individual tracks, especially the synths. I found many of the patches to be just plain bad. BUT, when you listen to the full, pro-mix...the one that was on the radio and sold on iTunes etc, it still sounds great. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

You got it and some of the biggest Artists vocal takes are sheeeet when solo’d. Dings, dangs and other weird noises and in a famous certain ariana song you can hear the cops drive by twice ... TWICE in the background takes ... uhummm .. yeah ... we would Never allow that to escape outside our studio as the production is what we get the next job on and the Songwriters we are we will keep working until you can listen to solo of EVERY track and not hear any artifacts at all. I know why that poor quality slides by as you said one part is it hides in the mixes and the time the label pays for studio time for the producers to do the job. Thankfully we can take as much time with recording as we want and bill the label for a ”in the middle somewhere” time but mostly we do the music here in our playhouse studio and then when we sell the songs we record the vocals with the artist in the time we need. Not the time the label paid for as we wanna do a great job.. not just enough to get by!

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

You got it and some of the biggest Artists vocal takes are sheeeet when solo’d. Dings, dangs and other weird noises and in a famous certain ariana song you can hear the cops drive by twice ... TWICE in the background takes ... uhummm .. yeah ... we would Never allow that to escape outside our studio as the production is what we get the next job on and the Songwriters we are we will keep working until you can listen to solo of EVERY track and not hear any artifacts at all. I know why that poor quality slides by as you said one part is it hides in the mixes and the time the label pays for studio time for the producers to do the job. Thankfully we can take as much time with recording as we want and bill the label for a ”in the middle somewhere” time but mostly we do the music here in our playhouse studio and then when we sell the songs we record the vocals with the artist in the time we need. Not the time the label paid for as we wanna do a great job.. not just enough to get by!

Sirens in the background for Ariana Grande?!? Where were they recording it...her bedroom? Geez! A few years ago, when I was working pretty hard to improve my mixing skills, I came across some of the websites that make remix stems available for some fairly well known artists, like Ariana Grande, among many others, such as this one. I remember thinking how great it would be to compare track and recording quality, especially for the synth tracks, which is what I was mainly focused on. Then when I was started soloing the stems, I was shocked at some of the really poor quality, even though the overall radio mixes sounded great. Not for everyone, of course. I recall getting some stems for a Celine Dion song. She's the real deal for sure.



I also recall one for a Brittany Spears song. Ummm...how shall I put this...she can NOT sing! I can't believe the stems were made available. It was awful!



Maybe this video isn't so far from truth!

[Southsidemusic]

Yeah I have unfortunately heard a lot of A List artists and how bad their background music is stem by stem aswell as the recorded vocals with clicks and pops and jewelery jingling and some foottapping to the song that picks up in the mic tracks and a dog once in a VERY famous Girl Group and someone cursing in the background on a Justin track. I can go on and on but anything leaving here is top notch and I will send some stems to you private msg when ae are done for this year

Also as you say the finished product is pretty OK but look at Kygo and Major Lazer and DJ snake and see if you find some stems to solo and have a laughing och evening !!! The songs sound great put together but damn ... solo’d vocals Re soo scrath track-y and I cant believe how some get it soo bad with such high paid ”producers” and xpensive studios and gear ... Where are we heading here ... Music is not fun like it used to if you wanna make money on mainstream music as its so quick in and out of the studio and released so no one has any time to do the takes needed BUT we never hear that and the mistakes anyway since they hide it in the mixes really well

[Speed_45]

Awesome dialog everyone! This is exactly what I suspected was going on - Maybe moreso than I would have guessed. This discussion has helped set the mind at ease a bit on the small things. I personally can’t accept the big items like have been mentioned here (Sirens and Dogs lol).. just not in me!

Thanks everyone - hopefully someone else will find some use to the info as well!

Thanks all!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Speed_45

Awesome dialog everyone! This is exactly what I suspected was going on - Maybe moreso than I would have guessed. This discussion has helped set the mind at ease a bit on the small things. I personally can’t accept the big items like have been mentioned here (Sirens and Dogs lol).. just not in me!

Thanks everyone - hopefully someone else will find some use to the info as well!

Thanks all!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just a couple of quick thoughts to add. Someone here once said a mix is never finished...its just abandoned. Funny, but makes a good point. Any design engineer will tell you that in designing any system of multiple component parts, their goal is never maximum optimization of each and every component, but constrained optimization, wherein the entire design collectively gets the job done as maximally as possible. You might say the same concept applies to recording and mixing to some degree. Sure, you can't polish a turd, BUT...you can achieve a good sounding mix, even if not every single track is optimal. Naturally, you want to ensure good quality on all tracks when recording -- meaning NO dogs, sirens, coughs, swearing, or whatever else in the background -- as well as well designed patches from synths, and well miked individual instruments and vocals. Those are the basics...mixing 101. But, to achieve that doesn't require endless fussing and fussing either. That's the point.



And, as our buddy Dave (Albee) says all the time: "if it sounds good, it IS good!" Amen to that!