I receive more and more projects where the artist wants to have their vocals mixed into a 2-track, which is not mixed very well.
Every time I explain to the artist that I can mix things much better by having all audio tracks to the beat, they often say “yes but i like the sound of the demo” which I think is really boring, because it can’t show what I can do.
Do you also experience the same, and if so, How do you feel about it?
Sometimes a 2 track is mixed pretty good already especially if its a good producers and sometimes mixing the stems can ;lead to a significantly different sounding mix that can throw the client off because they get so attached to the original sound of the beat that even if the stem mix is objectively better, for them its worse. Using soothe and pro q 3 side chaining to surgically remove clashing frequencies when they clash is great, also if its an mp3 2 track adding some light saturation can give it back some openess that is lost from the downgrading of original beat quality
The way that I feel is that the artist likes it and it gives ma a challenge to show my talent & deliver to them in a way that they like and what they want. That is what they are paying for.