Fix It In The Mix - The Sad State of Affairs

BLAH BLAH BLAH, HERE COMES ANOTHER ONE OF "THOSE" ARTICLES AGAIN.

Oh wait...

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AN ANECDOTAL STORY THAT MAKES ME SOUND LIKE A JERK

In the mid-2000's I had a band approach me to record their album.  I had heard them live a couple of times and was thrilled to have the opportunity.  The lead singer had told me they had written some new material and were ready to record.  We set the date and venue (a large theatre with really high ceilings and beautiful acoustics), and I was looking forward to it.  Fast forward a couple of weeks and I meet the band at the recording location with a truck full of recording gear.  We get set up and start tracking.  The scratch tracks are solid and on tempo, the drums are sounding killer, and then we start having some trouble.  The bassist doesn't know his parts.  We struggle through a couple of songs, and then the guitarist says, "Well, I don't really know any of it either."  

I wasn't getting paid by the hour.  I was getting paid by the song.  I think to myself, "Well, how bad can it really be?"  

It was bad.  Really bad.

At this point, I stand up and start packing up my gear - yes, right in the middle of the session.  

"Hey man, what are you doing?"

"I'm gone."

"Why?"

"Because you aren't ready to record.  Go home and work on your songs."

I'm thinking to myself, "Oh well, there goes that - they won't call me again."  

Fast forward a month - I get the call!  "Hey man, we're ready now.  You still wanna record us?"

And were they ever ready!  They killed it, and we turned out a great album!

​TECHNOLOGY IS KILLING THE BEAUTY OF MUSIC

When I was coming up in audio engineering (not that long ago), things were radically different than what they are today.  We didn't have the editing capabilities that we have now.  

Sure we could "george" a bad sounding snare. - Why would you ever record a bad sounding snare?

We could re-amp.  - Why not just change out the amp or mic for something that sounds great?

We could even get creative with a rackmount pitch shifter and an out-of-tune vocal.  Why not just have them sing it over?

We were focused on getting the best performance possible during the recording stage; because if you didn't, there wasn't much you could do to salvage it except to re-record it.  Bands were willing to give it everything they had, and pre-production was an actual thing. 

Yes we had our tricks if we accidentally missed something (like at 3:30 in the morning and your brain is shot after tracking for hours on end, and you don't notice a minor issue), but then again, that was the exception.​

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"There's no such thing as fixing it in the mix"

That mantra is dead.  It's a shame.  Now editing is a major component, and the line between editing and mixing is getting more blurred than ever.  Editing has been a major part of mixing for a while now.  It shouldn't be that way - but hey, I myself love me some modern tools.  I have to.  Professionalism means something different now.  

​Now excuse me, I gotta go quantize some sloppy drum tracks and tune some vocals.

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