Cliff Goldmacher is a songwriter, producer, engineer and the owner of recording studios in both Nashville and New York City. Cliff is also a regular contributor to EQ Magazine and Pro Sound News. He can be reached at cliff@cliffgoldmacher.com.
Part 2
Too Late! I’ve Only Got 24 Hours To Fix My Horrible Mix
OK, so you didn’t have a chance to read the first part of this article before you made the mistake of promising your mix to someone in the music industry and, as it stands, the mix just isn’t going to cut it. What do you do? Well, there are a variety of options and, as with almost everything in life, it’s only a matter of money. After explaining a bit about why a mix may be horrible, I’m going to give you three financial scenarios and how you can repair your mix in each of them. By the way, no matter what the scenario, be clear with the engineer up front that you’re under a considerable time crunch and give them an exact deadline. This way, there can be no misunderstanding about when you need your mix.
Why Does My Mix Sound Horrible?!?
For the sake of this article, we’re going to limit ourselves to the mix itself as the culprit. Often, especially early in one’s recording career, the bigger issues of a mix go back to the actual recorded performances. Unless the players/singers involved have a decent amount of studio experience, their performances tend towards the tentative or worse. But as I said, we’re going to assume the performances are solid and it really is a mix issue. Mixes can sound bad for a variety of reasons and this article is not really the venue for a technical explanation so I’ll keep the following descriptions brief. If you’re a beginning sound engineer here are a few things to think about. With the instruments, it generally comes down to a lack of each instrument having its own place in a mix whether for reasons of volume, panning, EQ or compression. With vocals, the issue is usually clarity (level, EQ & compression) and effects (reverb, delay, etc.). When a mix sounds dull and unexciting, it’s generally because things are over-compressed. If you’re not a sound engineer and you’ve gotten your mix back from someone who is (or claimed to be) and you’re not happy, the above descriptions are a good place to start when describing your problems to your new mix engineer.
Scenario #1 – Money Is No Object
For obvious reasons, this is the best position to be in with a bad mix and very little time to fix it. There are some real miracle workers out there who can take a crummy mix and bring the whole thing to life in relatively short order. Also, even though these folks are busy, it’s likely that not every one of the projects they’re working on is urgent. Your best bet would be to come in, explain the urgency of your situation and bring the mix (and mix files) with you so the engineer in question can give it a look/listen on the spot. Without necessarily saying you’ve got all the money in the world to throw at this mix, simply say that you understand this is last minute and you need their best work right away. Ask them what their fee would be (they ought to be able to give you a very close estimate) and accept. This is not the time to haggle as you’re asking for a lot from someone who is probably busy enough to say “thanks but no thanks” if you start to negotiate. By the way, whether you have the money right now or not, it’s in your best interest to familiarize yourself with the best engineers/studios in your area. You might not need them now but some day you might. It’s generally free to go visit a studio and talk to the owner or engineer and get a sense of their capabilities and rates.
Scenario #2 – You’ve Got A Few Hundred Bucks
You’ve got a couple of options here. First, you might want to ask a top engineer if they know of anyone who’d be willing to work for less. Often, top engineers have assistants who do good work and would love a chance to work on something at a more reasonable rate. A second-and perhaps better-option is to consider the world of independent producer/engineers who are in every town especially the music towns of Nashville, New York and LA. These guys might not have the reputations of the big engineers but will still do excellent work at reasonable rates.
Scenario #3 – You’re Out of Money
Not to put too fine a point on it, but you’re kind of screwed. You can pass up whatever opportunity was 24 hours away and hope that when your finances are a bit more flush you can go in and repair what’s wrong. Or you can turn the mix in as is. In this scenario, I’d almost always opt for passing on the opportunity. In the music industry, it’s very easy to poison the well by turning in something that isn’t ready for prime time. It’s better to make up an excuse and pass than to turn in something half-baked.
However, there are a few other options. First, the same top engineer that has assistants might also have interns. These guys might get the use of the studio from 2am to 8am and would be willing to work for nothing to gain experience and your loyalty. It’s certainly worth asking the top engineer if there are any interns who’d like to do the mix. The downside, of course, is that you’ll be working with an intern and there’s no guarantee you’ll get something better than what you’ve already got. Then again, you might. Second, if you’re really creative, talented, and lucky as all hell, there may be another way. Let’s assume you’ve got a terrific song and an almost “sure thing” to get it placed. You can always offer an engineer a significant piece of the pie if/when the song gets placed. Let’s assume the engineer loves the song and understands that there’s real potential. In a best-case scenario, the song does generate income and you end up giving half or more to the engineer. Be aware that this could end up being much more money for the engineer than the original mix would have cost you had you paid directly. You’ll have to chalk it up to experience and look at the placement as more of a resume builder than an income generator. I feel the need to say that this scenario is extremely rare. Most talented mix engineers are making a living by being paid for their work and not by taking chances on songs that are brought to them by unknown clients at the last minute. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I’m a firm believer that if you want to earn income from your music, you have to treat it like a well-run business.
Your Best Bet
No matter which of the above scenarios you find yourself in, you’ll have sacrificed the one thing that music has to offer over most other businesses…fun. By adding a tight deadline, you’ve just introduced stress into the equation that, in most cases, could have been avoided. As I mentioned in the first part of this article, when it comes to mixing, your best bet is to be methodical, patient and sure you’ve got a mix you’re proud of before you start finding uses for it. After all, this is music we’re talking about and enjoying the process of making it is one of the best things a career in music has to offer.
I'm all for DIY, but if you're a talented musician, you really should focus, and be carefull not to let your DIY ambitions interfere with the amount of time you spend making tunes, and hence the quality of the music.
Learning how to mix from scratch takes years, and it is definetely something that, if you can, you should leave to a dedicated, talented and well chosen mixing engineer.
saying that, if the mixer doesn't deliver a satisfying service and manages to send your good tune through the toilet, i don't think you should pay him at all.
Posted by: Patrick | February 13, 2009 at 05:26 AM
Option 4: Simplify your demo to make it easier to get clarity. Take about half of the decorarations off of it, and tell the A& R this is a rough and to use their imagination (it might be remotely possible that they have one) Or if you are showing it to a producer note that they like to hear less rather than more- avoid over-dressed mixes, too many little doodles here and there. That is not what they are really listening for. Be sure you bare the raw soul of the song, capture the flavor of it without smearing stuff all over it. A cake with too much icing makes you wanna hurl.
Posted by: B Bynum | February 13, 2009 at 01:07 AM
I read this looking for a how-to and was dismayed to find something written for a non-existent audience. This is shameless shilling for advertisers and Tunecore's mix engineering *promotions.* Tunecore's excellent user experience and convenience at the right price is why customers find value in paying for something they can do themselves. By preying on those customers' scant resources, TC undermines their credibility with artists. TC should wise up and not shoot themselves in the foot chasing ancillary revenue streams that jeopardize their primary one -- and risk ending up with nothing.
Posted by: Jeremy Sterritt | February 13, 2009 at 12:42 AM
Musicians these days are expected to be their own managers, PR department, web designers, marketing force, video producers (camera operators, actors and gaffers), why the hell can't they learn how to mix as well?!
And while I'm on a rant - since when has a '24 hour opportunity' ever (and I mean EVER) turned into something financially rewarding? It never happens. Jobs on spec never turn into a lead, rush submissions never turn into a job. Fact. Of. Life. Take your time. Learn your trade. Mastering requires outside help - but you should know how to mix your own songs before learning how to edit your PR shots in PhotoShop.
My best bit of free mix advice: Watch your levels. Keep all your channels bubbling around -12db in your DAW and everything becomes easy. Not loud enough? Buy bigger fucking monitors! There is no correlation between red lights and success.
One last blast of steam: This blog post just goes to show that the majority of A&R people (the gate keepers to the money) haven't got a fucking clue and need demos to 'sound like the hits on the radio' ... a talented A&R should be able to spot a great song played on an untuned banjo recorded mono to C90. But most can't.
Posted by: Dan F | February 13, 2009 at 12:33 AM
In short, hire somebody or give up. Nice. Seems like logical advice but there's one big hitch. Trying to land some legitimate record deal you can hang your hat on is like trying out to be an NFL quarterback...it really only happens for people who are outright bad asses. And for them, getting "hooked up" is no problem. But, for the 99% of musicians out there who would trouble themselves to read such an article as this, it's my guess that they don't fall within this illustrious 1%. Thus, non-bad asses. Thus getting "passed on" because of material that wasn't completely tricked out is not even a logical scenario. Nobody who is outright blindingly talented would be passed on because their mix wasn't up to snuff. Here's the real advice for the 99%. Learn to mix yourself. There is an endless list of resources and online forums full of people who are willing to peer review/guide you along the way. Sure you'll suck at first, kind of like you did when you played your first bar chord...but over time...you'll rock it. Just be logical. That's all it is. Logic.
Posted by: Kevin | February 12, 2009 at 07:43 PM