Reviewing your mix

Now that I think we’re through the Easter wrap-up, it’s time to return to your regularly scheduled content!

A great way to grow as a mix engineer is to make the habit of recording your mixes for later evaluation.  On the surface this can seem really painful because when you first start doing it, you’ll often not like what you hear.  It is much easier to blame the recording by saying it doesn’t sound like it does in the room rather than accept the fact that what it being heard live is tainted by what you think.  However, there’s lots to learn from hearing what actually left the console.

My board mixes at Kensington are recorded to video for every service we do, through a simple processing chain I’ve written about before.  I also have a CD recorder and laptop set up so the same 2-mix going to video can be recorded for my personal review, portfolio, and growth.  There’s so much insight I learn about myself and what I thought I was hearing when in the room.  Can you expect to hear a commercial-release quality mix?  Of course no way.  But the basics should be there – good balance, a strong foundation, everything fitting into the correct relationships, etc.  If you’re willing to get started with this, I have a couple of suggestions for you.

First, its really important that you listen to the disc without over-thinking everything.  If you’re like me, its easy to focus in on any particular element and become distracted to the point that you miss the objective review element.  Keep the big picture and try to listen with fresh ears for things that stick out, things that could be corrected, and things you didn’t hear in the room.  Often times this is the first place I may find I was hitting a mic pre too hard and causing a bit of distortion, effects were too light or too heavy, or something wasn’t translating as I expected it should.

Secondly, it is an invaluable skill for a mix engineer to be able to evaluate a mix…especially one that isn’t quite working yet and figure out ways to pull things away that are stealing focus rather than boosting things that are missing.

I’m really proud of most of the board mixes I do nowadays, but it certainly wasn’t always that way.  Objectively reviewing your mixes has been very helpful in my advancement as an engineer and I can’t recommend the discipline enough!  If you’re interested in a few of my mixes, check out the media tab to the left.  Everything you’ll find there are live FOH board mixes, run through a mild high-quality limiter and a few pairs of audience mics added in.