The Best Mix

Over the past few years I have come to find that the best mixes I have produced all have one thing in common: the don't suck to listen to.

No, seriously... I'm talking about before they are mixed. I believe that mixing is just the final artistic expression of music through a technical medium. Ideally, I'm not adding or taking away or trying to dramatically change what is there, but only presenting the artists work as it is meant to be head. This only works really well with music that has been well written, arranged, and recorded.

I've always heard people say things like, "a well written song plays itself" or, "a well written song arranges itself." Really, what starts well at the beginning, will finish well. A good arrangement is crucial to a good mix and the arrangement is dependant on a well written song. So I would say, "a well written, arranged, performed and recorded song pretty much mixes itself."


If you are in the studio or considering making an album/demo/whatever, here are a couple tips that will help you music translate well when it comes time to mix:


1. Write good songs. It sounds obvious, but the trick is to not settle for a catchy hook or two plus a verse and a chorus. A good song will contain the rhythmic, melodic, harmonic and dynamic "DNA" for how everything will play out in the recording and mixing process. Don't get to attached to your songs. You will likely need to make changes and maybe even just scrap a few. Get outside critiques from people who know what they are talking about. The more you write, the more you mature and the better your music will be, so write often. If you have only ever written seven songs in your life and you want to record a seven song EP, you are probably jumping the gun.


2. Start with simple arrangements. If you are in a band, focus on a really solid rhythm section and how the vocal sits over it. Vary your dynamics by adding and taking away whole parts, as opposed to everyone just playing all the time but at different levels. If you are writing on your own, focus on that one instrument (usually guitar or keys) that carries the song and make sure that it is simple enough to allow for a whole band to play along while still 'leading' the song rhythmically and melodically. If in doubt, simplify! From a mixers perspective, less is often more.

3. When recording, shoot for convincing emotional performances, as opposed to 'perfect' ones. If you haven't got your guitar part to your own song 'right' after 30 takes, your probably trying to hard and not focusing on the emotional content, but mearly on everything sounding surgically clean. Oh, and while your in the studio and recording guitar... turn down your distortion! From a mix perspective. Nothing is harder to make sound "big" then a wall of layered guitar parts, all with power chords playing through chainsaw like distortion. Turn your distortion down and just play a little harder when you need more crunch. The end result in mixing is a much "punchier" mix that ultimately sounds bigger.

Hope that's helpful.

A quick update...

Thought it would be good to give a quick update as to what's going on at CoLabs these days. Well, I just got back from one week in Florida and I'm getting ready to take on a mix project that will be pretty exciting. It's a pop-country thing, kind of like Carrie Underwood. The first single "Fearless" which I engineered and mixed is already getting some decent rotation around western Canada on a number of radio stations. My good friend Craig Learmont of MuzikHaus Records has been producing and doing a really good job with this project. It will be a fun one to mix and I'm really looking forward to it!

The mix studio, which I have been constructing over the past three months, is nearing completion. In the past, I have mixed out of other studios, but this mix room will greatly improve my efficiency and quality since I have it tuned up the way I want it. Also, I've outfitted the studio with a really great Pro Tools HD 2 Accel rig with all Apogee A/D D/A conversion which is a dream to work on. This studio really is a representation of my own high standards when it comes to a mix space and equipment used.

Finally, I'm playing bass for my friend Corey Doak at the GMA Covenant Awards Showcase this week. Should be fun. I used to play bass and tour around with Corey back in college. Check out his website and his music @ www.coreydoak.com

That's it for now.

Peace

Executing Musical Concepts Well

Navigating the complex space of an abstract creative concept can be a bit tricky at times... especially if you are doing it with a group of people.

Over the last couple of days, I have been out of town producing a demo for a very talented artist I am currently working with. We went into the studio with a couple of session players and laid down bed tracks for three songs. I always find it a challenge (although an enjoyable one) to translate the abstract creative concept of a song into concrete arrangements that a session player can 'latch on to', so to speak. In the past, I have usually put together rough "sketches" of where the artist and myself feel the songs should go. I play most of the parts, edit the song and come up with a general arrangement that feels good. When we went into the studio this time, we tried diverging from these "sketches" so we could let the songs speak for themselves and allow the players to approach them with no preconceived notions. Obviously the idea here is to allow an abstract creative concept (a song) develop into a concrete musical arrangement by letting each player interpret the concept in his own unique way. I think this works well with "bands" and groups that regularly rehearse and perform together, but in a studio session with hired players... I'm starting to think, "not so much."

The problem is that all musicians approach all music with some degree of preconception about what they think it should sound like. With some genres, this works in your favor. Country music for example, has a very defined style of arrangement that good session players will automatically turn to when put on the spot to come up with something. So does blues, jazz, funk, polka, Broadway showtunes, and pretty much any other genre that sounds like something that has already been done. But, when you are going for something new, different, and unique, you really have to have a somewhat developed idea going in that supports the creative concept so that other musicians can then adopt that preconception in support of the artist's concept.

We all stand on the shoulders of giants, but sometimes the producers role is to get people onto a different set of shoulders.

You love to mix?!?

So, with all the different avenues one could choose to travel down as a career path in the music industry, why would I put so much attention into just mixing?

I remember the very first real mix I ever did. It was a recording project that I was putting together while in college. I remember taking these different tracks that I had recorded and actually making them sound like a record! It was the coolest thing. I mixed it in a recording studio that was on campus at the time and remember feeling like I totally understood this space - this recording studio thing. Truth be told, the mix was pretty muddy and there was way to much compression on everything, but that didn't really matter at that point. For me it was about discovering an artistic medium that I never even knew existed!

I went on from college to produce a lot of indie albums, engineer in many genres, and collaborate with people in making all kinds of music. All along I kept coming back to the mix as my favorite place to "live" in the studio.

I've come to realize that a great mix is a key element in realizing artistic vision. It's the point when all your hard work up to that stage comes together. A bad mix that doesn't represent the artist's vision or support the songs or focus your attention appropriately can really wreck an otherwise great project! A great mix, on the other hand, makes good music sound amazing and really pulls you into the song. It's the art of this process that I'm so driven to perfect!

What we do...

So what is CoLabs all about?

Well, in a nutshell, I mix albums and draw on a collaborative network of music industry professionals to do everything else.

The whole company is based on the idea that most talented creative-type people in the music industry are really good at one or two main things. However, there is a pretty big trend for studios, independent-producers, small labels, etc. to offer the 'one-stop-shop' model. This is the one where they offer everything from songwriting and producing to graphic design and publishing your music, and everything in between. It's not that they aren't good at what they do. It's just that they aren't the best in all of the areas they claim to offer services in. It may be a really great studio that is a great place to track your drums but that also offers 'CD duplication' on the side. Or a record producer who is truly talented but ends up playing all the parts on his clients albums to save on musician fees.

flexibility is great and having a broad skill set will serve you well in the music industry, but, I believe, to really get ahead you need to know where your true talents lie. For myself, I have worn many hats in the studio. Musician, engineer, producer... but when I really looked hard at what I was doing better then anyone else and what I really had to offer, it was the mix. I LOVE to mix albums! I have been fortunate enough to have gained some recognition for my mixing work and have had a fairly steady stream of projects to work on.

So what happens when an artist asks me to produce a record (ya, I still produce albums, the other thing I do really well)? My personal studio is small and (specifically) only set-up to mix albums. Well, I have made lots of good connections in the local music/recording scene and I know where to go to get the best for each stage of the project. I know songwriters, producers, session players, studio owners, mastering engineers, etc. and they all offer a specific creative service better then anyone else!

It's a pretty cool thing to make an album this way. The best part is that it usually costs about the same or sometimes less then the "one-stop-shop" approach. Also, way more creative people get to work on that one project, and its better for the whole local industry!

So that's it in a nutshell. Cool stuff really does happen when people collaborate.

Here we go!

Collaborate: work jointly on an activity, esp. to produce or create something

Colabs: One part crazy idea, one part music industry experiment, one part lifelong dream; a really great sounding mix, a network of trust and integrity, a really cool job!

Here we go!

Hopefully you have found this blog because, like me, you have a passion to work in the music industry. Maybe you are an artist trying to make a career out of your music. Maybe you are a record producer or a recording engineer wanting to get better at what you love. Maybe you just love music and like the idea of people actually work together for a change!

The music industry is a complicated thing and an odd place to try and build a 'career'. Hard work, genuine talent, a never-ending desire to grow, flexibility, passion; a music industry career requires a lot out of you is you hope to succeed. And even with all that, you still aren't guarantee success in an industry as fast changing, unpredictable and organic as this one!

But, if you are like me, you know that it is all worth it to be in this place. A place where you can get up every morning knowing that you are going to use all of your passion and talent, even if it only connects with one person. We are creative and we must create! I often say that I never chose to work in this crazy industry, it chose me.

From one creative person to another, thanks for following your passion and not taking the easy way out. There are many things about the industry that I would like to be part of changing so that things will be better for all of us. As I share more about Colabs and what it is we are about, maybe we can find ways to work together and make thing better.