Quote:
Originally Posted by
Slug1
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Thanks Ruairi. Yeah, my situation is probably different than yours. You’re probably working with major mix engineers and major artists. I’m not. I typically will get tracks from the artist themselves or from a small label. Many times I can’t get to the actual mix and get things remixed immediately. So I at least will give things a try but concurrently will reach out and let them know that this was the issue when I tried to fix it. If it’s possible to have something changed in the actual mix, of course I’ll ask them to do that. But I’ve had some situations maybe unlike you, where there was no way to get back to the original mix to make the change in time so they want me to at least give it a try. I remember once working with a rap artist who had pulled together a compilation of all of what he felt was his best work. There was one track where there were two rappers and one rapper’s vocals was poking way out more than the other. I told him that if they could get back to the original mix and simply either compress that vocal a tiny bit and pull it back a couple of DB into the mix it probably would work great. But they informed me that there was just no way to do that because the song had been mixed 6 to 9 months earlier and there was just no way to get back to that specific person who did the mix. I used TDR Kotelnikov and was able to do an unbelievable job of tucking that vocal back into the mix without really changing the mix at all.
Again, I’m probably in a very different situation than you, who is probably someone who works With The crème de la crème of mix engineers labels, and artists. I’m just a lowly bedroom guy. So you’re in Formula one, I’m in the neighborhood soapbox derby. But it may not be as important to the whole world as Formula One, but it’s important to that neighborhood. OP should definitely listen to your advice and not mines. I’m gonna bow out and let the pros educate him. Salute!!
Ooops. I think every point I was tryna make has been missed! I'm not being clear, let me start over
The Formula one thing was in no way alluding to status within the business - and what level client we get to work with. What I was getting at is that for
all of us in the discipline of Mastering, small moves are more common than big moves. So it's easy to think "well, small moves are the rule then". But really it's just that small moves are what mostly get the job done, until you need big moves ... then you do whatever you gotta do to avoid hitting the wall!
Re small versus big moves, I don't ask for permission or even sweat it, I do whatever I think is needed. They hired me so I do what I do to serve their music.
Re going back to the mixer for changes - I almost never do it. It might seem like the higher you go the more likely it becomes that it's possible, but it's actually the opposite.
And lastly, I do work on big artists and major label stuff from the name brand mixers and producers all the time. But I also work almost every day with first timer artists too, bedroom mixes, self mixes from HS8s etc etc. And I approach them the same way - Master what I'm given.