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Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:57 am
by mooingmoose
Hey, I'm wondering what artists do their own mixing/producing and bonus points if they're active today.
Recording my album and while working with the guy mixing I feel like there's a disconnect between what I'm envisioning and what's being made.
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:26 am
by Disarm D'arcy
That just means you may not be working with the right person. It happens...
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 10:07 am
by jrmy
My bands do. For us it was a matter of practicality, and the fact that my bandmate is a gearhead who gets really into the technical part of mixing. We've even started doing our own mastering - we had used a really good place, but still found that they missed some of what we were looking for. So my bandmate took a stab at it - we did some blind "taste testing" between masters, and picked his every time.
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 10:11 am
by D.o.S.
That crotchthrottle CD you sent me sounds really good.
I do a lot of my own mixing but there's no attempts to make it commercial grade or even passable for anyone else because I'm selfish like that.
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 10:32 am
by jrmy
Thanks man! With Crotchthrottle, I do all of the mixing, and then bring it in to Decibill for judicious EQ triage and mastering.
With Monument Thief, Decibill does all of the engineering, mixing (usually while I sit next to him making absurd requests), and final mastering.
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 2:57 am
by The_Active_Conundrum
I do little or no post EQ. I try to set everything up and then trust mics and preamps to do the rest. Kinda sounds like ass, but you get that old-school "what-the-fuck-were-they-thinking-when-they-mixed-this-shit" vibe. You can't buy that. You got to live it.
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 3:01 am
by resincum
The_Active_Conundrum wrote:I do little or no post EQ. I try to set everything up and then trust mics and preamps to do the rest. Kinda sounds like ass, but you get that old-school "what-the-fuck-were-they-thinking-when-they-mixed-this-shit" vibe. You can't buy that. You got to live it.
as always, thanx for the movitating words tac
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:27 pm
by casecandy
Sufjan Stevens mostly mixes his own albums, entirely in headphones.
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:30 pm
by ProCarsteNation
casecandy wrote:Sufjan Stevens mostly mixes his own albums, entirely in headphones.
Four Tet/Kieran Hebden also I believe?
or was that just the first one in the back of the tourbus?
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 8:55 pm
by tremolo3
I heard Steve Albini is doing it.
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 9:22 pm
by mooingmoose
casecandy wrote:Sufjan Stevens mostly mixes his own albums, entirely in headphones.
That's awesome. For some reason it gives me motivation to do it myself and seems less daunting. Does anybody have any food beginner resources on learning to mix?
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2015 10:51 pm
by The_Active_Conundrum
mooingmoose wrote:casecandy wrote:Sufjan Stevens mostly mixes his own albums, entirely in headphones.
That's awesome. For some reason it gives me motivation to do it myself and seems less daunting. Does anybody have any food beginner resources on learning to mix?
unless you're aiming for like....mainstream or pro levels, the best thing to do is just try stuff. mix a song 12 different ways see what you like. Listen to mixes in headphones, in you car, on your stereo. There's some technincal stuff about the reasons why you want to allow space for different instruments and what "sounds bad" and why phasing issues are a thing and that mess. But none of that matters without the practical application.
Even if you're using fruity loops or something, trying to dive too deep too early is silly. Just get some mixes under your belt and Listen. You can learn the technicals and the "pro talk" and the "why" a little later. Just jumping in is the best step.
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 12:40 am
by The Mad Owl
I do my band's engineering, mixing, and mastering.
I'm terrible at it... but as the years go by I have gotten... less terrible at it.
It CAN be fun... and it can be intensely satisfying, but 9/10 of the time you're banging your head against the wall wondering why it's a wall.
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:45 pm
by casecandy
mooingmoose wrote:casecandy wrote:Sufjan Stevens mostly mixes his own albums, entirely in headphones.
That's awesome. For some reason it gives me motivation to do it myself and seems less daunting. Does anybody have any food beginner resources on learning to mix?
Just to further illustrate how fucking badass Sufjan Stevens is, here's a detailed article about his incredible techniques, and a Gearslutz thread relating to the article. Sadly the article is locked to non-subscribers, but you get the idea. The writer actually calls him "the greatest engineer ever," which is surely hyperbole, but still, not totally crazy. His techniques are insane but it's inspiring as hell.
http://www.tapeop.com/interviews/70/sufjan-stevens/
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much ... -ever.html
Sufjan Stevens is awesome and punk.
You might not know it by listening to his albums — they're feats of orchestration, arrangement and craft that have the power to sweep you right the eff up in a majestic way, but he's a total recording rebel, Tape Op style. Both... Michigan and Illinois, sound incredible — and both were made using ghetto-style techniques that most (if not all) recordists would be crippled by, — doing all your mixing on headphones, tracking an entire record with Shure SM57s and an AKG C 1000, recording your album at 32 kHz, tracking on a cheap digital 8-track and dumping it into Pro Tools two tracks at a time thru the 1/8" jack and lining them up by sight. Yow!
Talking with Sufjan about his recording process really reinforced a few key things in my head — the core reasons why I believe in Tape Op magazine and what it stands for (to me, at least) — that there is no right way to record, that the most important thing are the ideas and songs and performances, that you can work with whatever you have and make something incredible, that gear is truly secondary, maybe tertiary. Is it raw material/technique/ equipment, in that order? So yeah, Sufjan's records sound so good to my ears — and he was mic'ing the kick with a freakin' C 1000 and recording it at 32 kHz. WTF?
Re: Artists who do their own mixing?
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 2:21 pm
by PeteeBee
I don't really dig sufjan for more than like half a song at a time, but that is pretty rad and inspiring.