Mixing - off the cuff for me, and you?

[leonidspaul]

Hi, was having a conversation yesterday about how i go about mixing my finished song and recording. Since i don't have a PC in my setup i always rehearse the way i want to maybe add fade ins of certain sounds, effects, muting of tracks etc. Now i know i'm limited by the fact i've only got two hands but i'd like to know if there are many others that take this approach? It takes me a long time and various takes before i'm usually happy with the results but i really enjoy doing it this way. So how about you?

[tallowwaters]

I only started using a PC to mix my tracks in the past year, so I use a similar approach. I usually don't try more than 3 takes, as after that I lose interest. I might be playing bass with my left hand, occasionally sweeping a drone, playing a melody with my right hand, flipping patterns with my left foot, and muting samples with my right foot, and singing.

[code green]

yeah, i think this approach makes for greater happiness even if you have all the mixing capability you could ever want. i think a fully performed part almost always distinguishes itself, and it's certainly easier to mix if you don't defer all your decisions to tracking.

[gcoudert]

I must admit that recording/mixing is the part I like the least. I sequence all my MIDI parts using hardware synths and VSTi. I then record every part as audio - usually in mono - without any effects. Then I take the laptop down to the lounge and connect my audio card to my 1983 JVC stereo amp and speakers. Then I do all the panning, level adjustments and FX. When I'm satisfied with the mix, I put it through a multiband compressor (Akai QuadComp) starting with a preset and making adjustments before committing the track to CD. I must admit I'm really cr*p at mixing.

[pflosi]

I only started using a PC to mix my tracks in the past year, so I use a similar approach. I usually don't try more than 3 takes, as after that I lose interest. I might be playing bass with my left hand, occasionally sweeping a drone, playing a melody with my right hand, flipping patterns with my left foot, and muting samples with my right foot, and singing.

i'd love to c a vid of this

[tallowwaters]

I only started using a PC to mix my tracks in the past year, so I use a similar approach. I usually don't try more than 3 takes, as after that I lose interest. I might be playing bass with my left hand, occasionally sweeping a drone, playing a melody with my right hand, flipping patterns with my left foot, and muting samples with my right foot, and singing.

i'd love to c a vid of this

Nothing terribly exciting to watch... Plenty of musicians do this millions of times better than me. I suppose I should note my basslines consist of no more than 4 notes, my melodies no more than 7, and my singing utter c**p.

Truthfully it is just how some people work. If you sat me down at a sequencer (that wasn't an electribe), I would be utterly lost. It is a million times easier for me sing, knob tweak, and play during the recording than it is to go into the track with software and snip here and there and make it sound natural. Born out of necessity, as my view of mixing consists of track level adjustment and not much else.