Listening to New and Old Compositions & Mixes

I’ve been spending some time recently working on new music, but also remixing some OLD music. Yes, I've dug deep to bring out some new... old? music. Why? Mostly because the ideas were and are still great, but geeze... my mixes back in my 20s and even early 30s were a bit rough.

They weren't rough for lack of trying, but moreso for lack of understanding, lack of confidence, and lack of identity. Let me try to explain more.

Bruh looks tired from trying to mix!

Lack of Understanding

First, I want to start with this. I've always known more about music, composition, and technology, more than what I've known about mixing. I was always told to just listen to recordings and match those, but that isn't always so easy. I don't have the same ears, same tools, or same space/performers (I have sample libraries!) as the recordings.

In other words, I can't replicate someone's famous secret dish if I have zero understanding of what I am even eating. Is that pork, lamb or something else? What is that seasoning? What is that vegetable? I may think it is a parsnip, but it is really rutebagga, or some other kind of rooty vegetable. In my late teens and early 20s, I just didn't even understand what I was listening to, and didn't understand how to replicate it, so I started out with bad mixing practices without context of what makes a GOOD mix.

"High pass everything above 100hz, that keeps the mix tight!"

^ This is something I was told once by a famous mixing engineer. While that advice isn't unfounded and is actually quite sound (pun fully intended), it is missing the context. How is the music being used, what kind of music is it, what is IN that low frequency range? Most of my earliest mixes both simultaneously had too much bass, but the bass lacked energy. It was frumpy, loose, and overwhelming. This was due to lack of proper monitoring in my studio, but also me just saying "I will put a HPF on it, that will take care of it, and if nothing else my multiband compressor will!" Of course that isn't great either if your low-end is slamming a band, being over compressed, and then it sounds pumpy but not punchy.

The solution is not only have more knowledge about mixing, but also to have better knowledge of how your space sounds (hint: you need space treatment, or Slate VSX), your speakers sound, (hint: read the data and research on them!) and how the tools work. < there are zillions of mixing tutorials. Not all are applicable to the style of music that I make, but if you need to learn how to tighten bass up in general, check out the people mixing rock, rap, EDM, ect.

Lastly, know how sound works at different volumes, and make sure you are mixing at a proper volume level for your space, your monitoring situation, and your preferences. There are recommendations for loudness, but everything can change a bit based on your specific setup. There is not a single "one size fits all", but instead general starting places for standards of loudness.

Get yourself an SPL meter, or something like this: https://www.ohrlabs.com

Lack of Confidence

After years of improper (but great) advice and knowledge, I started to lose confidence in my mixing abilities. I wasn't sure what was up, what was down, what was too much or too little, and that is ok. We all have moments where we aren't so sure of what we are doing and what we are capable of, but what is important is to BREAK THE CYCLE. Don't be me. Don't be a fool who continues to push through without a better understanding, but instead take a break, identify the problems, find solutions.

"Don't be afraid to be wrong about your mixes. Be afraid to think your mixes can't improve."

That isn't even quote worthy. I just like it as a reminder to myself. I can, and need to improve. It isn't that I thought my mixes didn't need to improve, I just thought "how much does it actually matter, it is close enough..."

Lol wut?

Over the last 20 years, I feel like my music, orchestration, and production quality as increased steadily. My mixing became stagnant. To be fair, I don't feel that it was ever horrible, but a solid B-tier mix isn't good enough. Not to throw another food analogy at you, but the best dish served in a terrible way (cold, only a dirty plate, with a hair in it) is always going to taste worst than what it would if it were served in a great way. My compositional ideas, even if great, were hampered by mediocre mixing.

One of the best things I did was hire a professional mixing engineer, Joel Doelle. Not only are his mixes really stellar, he worked through my material and told me exactly what was wrong, and what needed to be fixed. It gave me a bit more confidence in breaking away from advice I had been given over the years, and to very carefully listen to what I am doing. Of course, when the event rises where I can hire someone to mix my music, it will definitely be Joel, but for the projects where I am not able to, I have just a bit more confidence in what I am hearing, what I am seeing (look at the analyzation of your sound!), and what I am doing.

Oh yeah, what helped too was Total Balance 3 by Ozone/Native Instruments. I also use A/B Compare, Decibel, and TC Clarity. Use all of the tools you can! They aren't going to fix things for you, and it isn't one size fits all, but if something is WAY OFF, the stats/technical plugins can tell you. "HEY YOU HAVE TOO MUCH BASS! HEY YOUR MIX IS WAY OFF FROM THE REFERENCE!"

Lack of Identity

Lack of identity... What does this even mean? Simple. I am not Hans Zimmer, I am not John Williams, I am not Dennis Sands. I only know what I know, hear what I can hear, and am using tools, instruments (be it live or VSTs), and technology that I have. I can channel all of their expertise and mimic the great work they do, but ultimately I need to find what is the best version of myself and my mixies.

I spent way too many years asking myself "How can I sound exactly like [insert famous composer or whatever]" instead of just mixing and mastering my music so that it does the following things:

1. Demonstrate my music clearly - Remember the food? Bad mixes make good ideas less good.

2. Serve their purpose - Sometimes you need less of something in a mix to accomodate what the music is doing. Sometimes that also means altering orchestration/arrangements.

3. Sounds the best everywhere it can - Ok, I still struggle with this a bit, but something that sounds great on a huge sound system still needs to sound good on a phone. The best way to manage this is simple to start with. Get your pieces balanced well.

4. Don't be married to advice - Sometimes the flutes can go wherever you want. Sometimes your bass can be wide (and not always narrowed), and you know what? You can do whatever you want with mixes, just have your ideas be honest to your ideas.

Most importantly of any of this:

!!Be intentional with your mixing!!

That sounds like basic advice, but if you get caught up in trying to sound exactly like Joe Composer, or Mikey Mixing Engineer, your mixies might end up being completely different than what you thought. There are best practices to mixing (of which I feel like I am still discovering and learning about EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.) but when it comes down to it, your music has to be your music.

Why old ideas? Isn't it time to move on? (Yes... and no...)

Why am I going back to old stuff? Why not just move on to new stuff? Both are great questions, but hear me out. *puts on humilty cap.

1. Mixing has always been my weakest skill, as mentioned by the reasons above.

2. I am so far removed from these pieces, it is like mixing someone else's music!

3. Practice is going to make me better, and these pieces are low risk.

   1. They aren't from a project, they aren't under a tense/high demand timeline. If they are great, awesome. If they aren't, who cares.

4. I need vindication only for my self. To build confidence in my abilities, I need to realize that I was foolish in youth, and made some bad mixing choices out of arrogance or pride. I didn't (and still don't) know as much as what I should.

5. I need to learn more. I need to listen more. I need to practice more.

6. I want to sound the best I can, not to be the best, but to know that I am giving my truest work to my music.

There are some limitations on these older pieces as I go back to re/mixing them. Some have fundamentally bad orchestration and balancing to them. For example, trumpets that are very shrill and on the nose, without the old project files (of which I don't have, nor have stems, just stereo/2-track) I am limited to what I can do, without also overprocessing other parts of the orchestra. Other tracks have WAY too much low-end, but also have important low-end (in that same swampy nastiness of gooey bass), and it can be tough to isolate the problems. The practice of taking old things, and finding ways to make them work is great exercise and great practice.

Ultimately, I am just working to better myself, to expand my skill set, and trying to become the best version of myself. I am human. I do make mistakes. I do need to improve.

Case and Point. This piece is old. It is very old. Maybe getting close to 20 years old. It isn't a terrible mix, however the mid-range was congest and nasal-y (especially with the zourna/reed instrument) and the low end was lacking both weight and punch. Also, the stereo image (while not terrible) could be altered in such a way that the high end feels more open on the sides and less clashing with the mids.

In my next post, I will go over some of the plugins I've found helpful, some of which were recommended by Joel. But here is a list:

1. Soothe - This is partially magic I think.

2. RootOne - Not just your basic subharmonic processor.

3. CenterOne - Nice option for modifying the phantom center channel! (Thanks Joel)

4. PanBox - Excellent for very specific panning/width.

5. FabFilter Q-4, C-3, MB, L-2 (Yes I like these!)

6. Ozone Imager or M-Imager (sometimes I boost the sides .2 dB)

There are more, but it is usually a specific use case. I am also using some outboard gear, which while it is character imparting (adds color, tone, saturation, unique stereo imaging), it doesn't replace good old fashioned balancing. In fact....

NO PLUGINS CAN REPLACE GOOD OLD FASHIONED BALANCING (yet)

Here is just one sample, with more to come in the future.

New Piece/Mix

Old Piece/Mix

Is it night and day? Nah. It is subtle. But sometimes you gotta squeeze hard to get the last 5% out of your craft.

Is it perfect? No way. Just one step in a improved direction. Always striving to improve more and more, day by day.

Happy listening!

King Bee - Verba Ex Nusquam