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| From | "Robert Sutliff" <rsutliff@columbus.rr.com> |
| Subject | Re: The Art of Mixing |
| Date | Wed, 13 Apr 2005 15:39:15 -0400 |
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Miguel,
I've had a lot of experience behind the board (and making music too) and I
can honestly say that mixing is the hardest part of the recording process.
But it all starts with getting the track recorded well first. I think that's
one reason why Beatles records sound so great - the engineers really knew
their stuff. If it's well recorded (and played) it's easier to mix. Also,
less is really more. Prior to Revolver, the Fab 4 used a bare minimum of
tracks and it's alway easier to mix less tracks than more. They had great
microphones and pre amps too. I sure would love to have access to a Neumann
U-47 but I seem to lack the $10,000 one would cost me now!
Bobby Sutliff
> Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 13:04:54 -0400
> From: "Miguel Motta" <motta_m@firn.edu>
> To: <audities@smoe.org>
> Subject: The Art of Mixing
> Message-ID: <001c01c5404a$eac4f0e0$6fa5c90a@2901145>
>
> In my personal pursuit to become a better recording engineer especially in
the area of mixing the final tracks I've had some thoughts...
>
> Lately I've been listening to music, actually have been "studying" the
music I listen to attempting to grasp a better understanding of how "the
masters" mix their music (this includes lots of indies' recordings)... In my
case my main musical influence goes back to, you guessed it, The Beatles...
>
> Upon carefully listening to The Fabs' mixes (read as George Martin's) I
find that a lot of them were "in-your-face" bold upfront instruments
especially during the first four or five albums (perhaps they set
instrumentation back around the Rubber Soul period...and even then the
instruments played a major role in the mix)... I hear a lot of groups that
tend to lay back (compress) their instruments allowing more headroom to the
vocals... On the other hand I've listened to mixes in which the vocals are
hardly audible due to the instruments dominating the spectrum...
>
> After this long-winded preface I guess my question to anyone interested is
what type of mix turn you on the most? I know this can vary from song to
song but I'm trying to figure out what was partially responsbible for The
Beatles' success as recording artists (we know that it was due to a big
number of factors) but speaking about the mix does anyone think that it was
due to that "in-your-face" instrumentation approach that I perceive? When
you listen to songs like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You", man
the sound was like a freight train just rolling over you... and I honestly
don't think (correct me if I'm wrong) that there has hardly been another
band since that has tried that approach again (arguable of course becaue
grunge rock could be classified as "in-your-face" upfront music)...
>
> Ok so after all this I still don't know what I mean to say... hopefully
someone out there might... In any case I got this off my chest...lol
>
> Cheers,
>
> Miguel
>
> Meet "The Michaels" @
> www.myspace.com/themichaels
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