Mixing
Since getting my files back from Matthew I find myself back to the solo act of mixing my own music.
This is versus the frustration of trying to communicate to an engineer what I want from a mix, which just proved to be less productive than I thought it was going to be. Everyone has their own version of what they want to achieve musically, and Matthew’s was obviously very different from mine. As I’ve said before, I’m very much a hands-on kind of guy, and now the responsibility comes back on me. This, I have to say, I very much prefer, despite the extra work involved.
The 360 AD experience, despite it’s obvious disappointments (see previous blogs), has taught me a few things: one of which is how to get a better mix, and how to better prepare my music for mastering, which is the part that I was less aware of before beginning this journey 2 years back.
This last weekend I’ve spent some time on getting Wry Smile and Only the Good Ones Go First to a good level where they can be mastered. I’m still thinking about whether to add some backing vocals to the bridge of Wry Smile, and whether to re-do the main vocal on Good Ones, to add the tiny tweaks to the verse that I now sing in the live set. I was so happy with the performance of the Guide vocal on Good Ones that I’m reluctant to bin it just yet. The beauty of digital recording is that it can be cloned, so we may have two versions to contend with eventually.
Anyway, I left this decision until Sunday where I started coming down with cold/flu shivers and a chesty cough (again… thought I’d got rid of that a fortnight ago!), which put paid to the whole session. For the moment, I’ll have to stick with the old vocal.