I´m mixing in Pro Tools and using a Jaycen Joshua-style mixing template with much routing. I find the mix prep to be tedious. Who´s got a great way to prep your sessions? Do you have a video or other resources?
Hi Malene!
I thought I would share my experience with prepping sessions for mix incase helpful!
Like you, I sometimes have fairly complex sessions and as I use Logic I have always had to export the session to audio when sending to mix.
I have been asked for both of the below
1 - Stems with bus treatment and no mix bus treatment
2 - Stems without bus treatment and no mix bus treatment
So then I will make a document and in there I will include screenshots of the mix bus fx which are number ordered as well as any notes that might be helpful.
I usually will print any reverb sends and or parallel sends separately as audio.
If I am printing stems with bus treatment (1) I will bounce the stem. I will solo the stem including the bus treatment and mute the fx sends.
If I am printing the stems without bus treatment (2) I will export the audio which is less time consuming than bouncing and then do screenshots of the bus treatment.
Lastly I will rebuild the session as the mix engineer would and AB the two sessions. This obviously takes a little time but it makes sure the mix engineer gets the session from where I intended to send sound-wise.
I will often write up a document/checklist and make notes of files once they have been printed then I will go through check they are all there. This also gives a good chance to spot any final mistakes like audio file fades etc.
Hope that is helpful!!
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Hi Malene,
One way Jaycen and CLA often talk about is to do an exchange with a friend, you prep their sessions, they prep yours, that way you keep a fresh ear and mind when you start mixing !
There’s probably a member of the community who’d be happy to this with you?
If this is not possible for you, I’d definitely advise to prep on a different day than mixing !
I hope it helps !