Following on from our recent podcast Should You Spend you Mastering Budget On A Mix Engineer? and William Wittman’s follow up article where he argues both for and against hiring a Mix Engineer, Mike Exeter contributes further to the conversation and adds his thoughts on how to make a collaboration with a professional mix engineer work for everybody. Over to Mike…
I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation with Julian and William and was pleased to be invited to add anything I felt might be important to William’s “Things we wished we’d thought of when recording the podcast” article.
I was chatting earlier to a very good friend about his recent mix experience with a name mixer and noted a couple of issues that had stung him.
After being presented with the initial approval listening copies, the Artist listed his thoughts/questions on the mix which were met with a “well, you’re the artist so if you REALLY want that then I’ll do it for you” attitude. The Artist didn’t want the mixer to do exactly what he had requested but was asking his opinion. The mixer felt ambivalent about the requests and showed this in a way that had the Artist questioning if the mixer was actually emotionally invested. He came across a little condescending in his responses to the Artist’s thoughts and possibly was having second thoughts about his fee negotiations.
This is a good example of what William mentioned in his article about the mixer’s enthusiasm and choosing the right person. It is vital to establish that the finances are agreed without resentment and that the dialog about the direction of the mix is understood early on.
The Artist felt that he was paying to have someone he trusted to put their heart and soul into the mix the way he had put his into the creation of the record, yet the engineer was ambivalent and possibly going through the motions. This had turned into a transaction with an underlying apathy, and ceased to be a creative endeavour.
The Mixer Is Part Of The Project, Not External To It
My feeling is that involving a professional to mix your record should be the start of a collaboration, much like hiring a producer|:
Use their knowledge and experience to bring the best to your project.
Give them space to do their best work, remembering that when they need guidance they will ask for it.
Don’t be afraid to be honest and articulate with your feedback.
Work through the changes together and reach a conclusion that you are both happy with.
My approach is to present a mix that I am proud of, having made every effort to build emotion and dynamics that take the listener through the story that the Artist is conveying. If they ask for changes - I’ll listen, try them, and then give feedback as to whether I feel it takes away from or adds to the emotion that I’ve set up. At that point we will establish, together, what serves the song.
If I don’t feel it harms the song then I’ll be led by the Artist who is the one who has to believe in and stand by the song when it’s released. If I feel strongly that they are making a mistake then I will do my best to interpret what they feel is wrong and come up with a solution that works for us both.
When producing music it’s important to maintain perspective and teamwork is really useful here. They know everything that went into the record and yet can miss the big picture. I wouldn’t tell a surgeon how to remove a bullet from my arm, but I would definitely tell them if I thought they were operating on the wrong one!!
Mix Revisions
I know many people who state “3 revisions included in the price – after that it’s an hourly rate”. I think that the communication has generally broken down, or has never been there, if this is the way things are going. Part of this is that mix revision emails are totally obstructive to free flowing conversation. If the artist cannot attend, then a live link/stream and/or phone conversation is a far better way of working through a mix.
After the initial few hours getting the mix to a point where I’m happy to let the artist hear where I am at, I send a reference mix. I then encourage a proper dialogue over a call and suggest a live session over Audiomovers where we can do changes in real time. The artist can listen in their own environment and is part of a process where we quickly go through all the permutations of why a vocal isn’t sitting right
An email might say – turn the vocal up. It may be that simple, but it could be a whole bunch of other factors that could involve five email revisions to nail down, when a simple live recall session would sort it in one go. Ultimately, the mix is done when the client is really happy. It’s rare to need more than a couple of sessions, but if it does then you need to do whatever it takes to bring it over the line.
Contracts And Expectations
A simple one page document outlining what you are to provide for the money agreed can save a boat-load of pain during the process.
I was bitten a few times when suddenly the number of songs changed, or I was asked if they could send extra overdubs as they changed their mind, or forgot, about a part, or they suddenly wanted Stems of every song on a 12 song album.
My simple contract states that the tracks for mixing will be provided to me in certain formats (Pro Tools sessions or WAV files consolidated from Bar 1). This is what I will mix – once that mix starts (I let them know when I am beginning to put the mix together) any additional work resulting from extra parts/overdubs not included in the original will have to be charged accordingly. It is up to them to organise their deliverables to me.
I outline (after a conversation with them) what they will receive as final files. WAVs, MP3s, DDPs etc. Stems are a chargeable item. If you, as a client think you need them, then you need to pay a nominal fee as it can take a half to a full day to output stems for an album.
By dealing with all these things up front you can get on with the fun part of mixing and then have the discussion about hiring a mastering engineer…………