One Hour Mix: Reflection

Working under pressure and in stressful environments is crucial for a sound engineer. Delivering products on time is essential but what if "on time" was an hour from now, and you had to mix a song in the next hour ready for public exhibition? In preparation for this situation, my colleague Frasier and I undertook a 1 hour mix in the Audient B studio at SAE.

Let's have a listen to what we came up with, an then talk about the positives, what could have been improved and how. Here it is.

Overall, am I happy with the mix? Not entirely - There are a heap of things that need more work. But for an hours worth of work it could be worse.

Firstly, let's talk about the drums. In my opinion the balance between the elements of the kit is good - the EQ that adjusted on the kick and the snare helped them sit nicely with the rest of the mix and unmasked a few overlapping elements. However the level of the kit in relation to the rest of the elements in the song is too loud and present - the snare in particular. While we were mixing the track in the studio I had the same opinion, however, my partner on the project was adamant that the kit needed some parallel compression - I wanted to opt for more focus on the general balance. I feel like in situations like a one hour mix its more important to do the basics right and end up with a good sounding song rather than skip the basics, use advanced techniques to try and get an amazing sounding song but only end up with mediocre final product.

For me I feel like the bass is a part of the song we handled really well. By using an EQ to remove clashing between the bass and the kick as well as using a mid-frequency filter to replicate what it will sound like on average speakers, we balanced it well in relation to the kick and the other elements of the kit.

Next I'd like to talk about the rhythm and lead elements. Upon reflection, my initial thought is that the acoustic guitar and electric rhythm are too quiet and lost in the mix. The song needed to be big and thick, however our interpretation of it sounds too thin and hollow. This could have been prevented by taking more time to balance the guitars as well as unmasking them from each other and isolating them more definitely in their own panoramic spaces.

Finally, I'd like to talk about the vocals. I feel like the vocal processing that we applied (reverb, EQ, compression) was done well and would have worked nicely in the song if the level wasn't so loud in relation to the rhythm elements of the song. If the rhythm was brought up to sit more comfortably on top of the kick and bass I feel that the vocal would have sounded less present and harsh - delivering that thick wide sound I mentioned earlier.

So how did we perform? To be honest, not as well as I had hoped. There are a lot of issues with basic processes that shouldn't have been an issue. Personally, I find this type of high pressure work easier on my own - there's no time wasted on diplomacy and tiptoeing around what needs to be said (especially if you and your partner have very different personalities and approached) However, that's just all a part of the experience and it is great practice for the future. Regardless of how the final product turned out, I'm glad that i got the opportunity to prepare for this scenario in a controlled environment as opposed to experiencing it for the first time out in the real world.