When to mix?

[ras52]

Hi, I've got a day in the studio coming up to track a couple of demos, with the intention of going back a few days later for an as-yet unbooked mixing session. I have a day job, the first session's on a Sunday, and Plan A was to go back in on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon. As it turns out, my diary has gone crazy the week after the tracking session, and I’m torn between finishing it off ASAP and giving myself a good few days to pick over the monitor mix, which in practice would delay the session by up to two weeks.

Any thoughts, what would you do, etc.? (Both sessions will be in the hands of a trusted engineer, who’ll be doing most of the work ;-) ) As ever, I’m juggling “I want it to be perfect”, “It’s only a demo” and “I want it NOW!”.

[cheddatom]

If it's only a demo it doesn't have to be perfect, you might as well get it done. "Capture the energy" as they say

[51m0n]

Leave it for two weeks.

Dont over listen to the monitor mix, its going to change your perception (probably for the worse, you'll become accepting of the flaws in it) - I avoid monitor mixes when I'm about to mix if I can, other than to try and tell if the tracking is not utter gash.

Take in a great cd you like the production of and get the engineer mixing to get close to that balance and timbre-wise, with a clear head.

You'll get a better result that way.

There is no such thing as 'just a demo', there are recordings, they live with you for a long time, make it good enought to be proud of for all that time and beyond, or you have wasted the money you spent tracking (IMO).

[discreet]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1335430131' post='1630810']
Leave it for two weeks. Don't over-listen to the monitor mix, its going to change your perception (probably for the worse, you'll become accepting of the flaws in it) - I avoid monitor mixes when I'm about to mix if I can, other than to try and tell if the tracking is not utter gash. Take in a great cd you like the production of and get the engineer mixing to get close to that balance and timbre-wise, with a clear head. You'll get a better result that way.

There is no such thing as 'just a demo', there are recordings, they live with you for a long time, make it good enough to be proud of for all that time and beyond, or you have wasted the money you spent tracking (IMO).
[/quote]

All this, plus about a billion - very good advice.

Edited April 26, 2012 by discreet

[Dave Vader]

Yep, as always 51m0n has it right.
ignore it after you've checked the tracks haven't been played utterly wrong, then get back to it later, you need to come at it late, as when you've spent ages getting the takes down, you will be sick of hearing it.
When you have spent another 2 or 3 hours trying to get the mix how you want it, you will also be sick of it.
Trying to rush it will mean you will hate it forever, and you will just want the bloody thing done. This results in a crap mix.
Check my newest work for examples of rushed stuff that I am sick of

[cheddatom]

Normally, I will spend a lot of time on a mix. I'll mix, then export, take it around different systems, play it to different people, go back and tweak, repeat until i'm "happy".

recently I did a song which was written, recorded and mixed within 24 hours. We did have to re-do some guitar tracks after, but i've not touched the mix. I'm much happier with this mix than I am with some i've spent months on. here it is: [url="http://soundcloud.com/matt-colbeck/dirty-shirley"]http://soundcloud.com/matt-colbeck/dirty-shirley[/url]

I had a conversation about it recently. Every time you listen to a peice of music, your mood is affecting your perceptions. One day you might fancy some metal, the next some folk, and I think this clearly demonstrates that sometimes you're going to prefer different sounds depending on your mood or what happened that day. When it comes to mixing, my approach has always been to listen to it and adjust it as many times as possible, the idea being that over time it should tend towards an objectively good mix. If you don't have lots of time to do this, maybe getting it done "in the moment" is the best way

anyway, that's my long-winded explanation of why I dare to disagree with Si

[ras52]

Hm, thanks all... I think the practicalities will dictate that I do in fact wait for a couple of weeks. I expect what will happen is that I'll pay a lot of attention to the monitor mix for a few days - share it with the other musicians etc - then get sick of it, ignore it, then approach it afresh on mix day!

[discreet]

Very good!

[51m0n]

Just dont forget the refernce mix to keep going back to during the process, it will really help keeping your ears fresh and dialed in through the mix process.