Hi Tchad! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and taking your time!
I saw the seminar at NAMM at Sylvia Massey’s Producers corner and forgot to ask you about being creative during mixing. What are your thoughts about being creative and trust your own taste and decisions, maybe kill a couple of tracks that you don’t find necessary, compared to respecting the original tracks and pre-production?
In the big picture, I know what I’m mixing is not mine. That said, when I mix, I suspend that idea. I give myself a very long leash to change what’s there, sometimes drastically, and/or add to it instrumentally if I think it’s needed (I go to great lengths manipulating what’s in the session first before I’ll add anything). I’m not aways successful in this process and will often walk back the moves on my own.
The important thing to me is that I tried. I let go.
I have fun letting go to try all manner of ideas. It’s like singing in the shower when no one else is listening. Once that’s out of the system, take stock. Is this direction good? Does it serve the song? I’ll sometimes send the artist a “direction mix” with big brushstroke moves I’ve done and ask “are you interested?”. Sometimes they aren’t. Then I think ok, no problem, I can do this other ways. And I revise happily (this is just one thing I love about DAW mixing). Sometimes I disagree with how they want me to do the mix or maybe I just can’t hear or feel what they want. That’s a red flag telling me I’m probably not right for the gig. (I lose many gigs a year this way.)
My criteria for taking a gig is; I need to think I can make the music better, by my standard. If the artist and I fundamentally disagree, it then feels as if I’ve lost my horizon and I’m flying blind. Creativity leaves me. I feel like I’m left with an industrial task which is usually not fun for me in this context.
There are many ways to approach this job of mixing music. None are wrong. None are right. My way is only one. It works for me.
What can I say? I’m shallow. I just want it to be fun!
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Thanks for your response and sharing! It’s thoughtful on many levels. Both work wise and on a deeper level a way to relate to music, creativity and work in this weird world that we live in.
Thanks a lot!
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