Mixing Just Isn't That Important (Reaper Mania)

thoughts?

 

clickbait

 

Based

 

YouTube...

The epicentre of misinformation, conspiracy theorists and failed producers who want to teach you to be as shit as they are.

 

this is not even funny. this is concerning

 

mixing is the most important

 

true, it's the 2nd most difficult not important thing if you consider the final 5-10%, clearly the 80% which is the song and production needs more attention. It's like building a car, it's not like the final tuning and handling really that important but it separates the good and bad car built. Driving experience will always be the deciding factor for a car in its pricing range, same goes to listening experience.

 

I agree. Most of the issues that people try to “fix” in the mix are actually performance, sound design or arrangement issues. Treat the cause, not the symptom.

 

我认为前提是好作品能吸引听众，混合是一件开花的事情


Translation EDIT:

"I think the premise is that good work attracts listeners and mixing is a flowering thing"

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 25, 2024 at 12:50 PM

I do mixing since the early 80s. I am not a world champion. But I had always good results - good, not outstanding - with average gear, what an ambitious (half-)amateur would have at hand, whatever that may mean. Since YouTube and such a lot of know-it-all-tutors around and blaring at everybody all the time I was sometimes questioning what I did. I sinned, in the sense, that I used just a compressor, without considering that there are myriads of problems coming with that, myriads of creative choices had to be made, and of course EQs ... my God, I just turned the highs on an eq up til it sounded right. And I didn't gain stage. And I didn't care about the right amount of saturation - or should I use distortion, tape, tube, transistor ... no clue of tape simulation (I was glad to have gotten rid of that bullsh1t), I didn't consider multiband limiting with waveshaping and frequency dependent transient design ... oh, my God, I used to mix weeks long on one track ... until I got it: make a mastering chain that sounds awesome, use exactly that for all tracks you make and f' these YoutTube id10ts. Except Glenn Fricker and ... drumroll ... Kenny Gioia. I do top-down mixing, f' all mastering engineers, the most overrated species of all times (except investment bankers, telephone desinfectors and hairdresser, but theses are all on Golgafrincham now. We only have to deal with mastering engineers.) Next thing: kil all guitar advive YouTube channels. first to go: Rick Beato, Rhett Shull. Keep the dudes that know lots of music theory. Oh, a new one: he has the secrets of the pros regarding mixing and blending instruments ... aim, shoot, kill. Done.

So in this sense and regarding my experiences I tell you what: Kenny's video is one of the best on the internet. Period. Mixing is complex. But these id10ts that tell you every week another story ... do you listen to at least half of the same amount on investment advices? And you still have money left? And are we all waiting for the next buzzword coming round the corner to ignite completely useless discussions about problems that we do not have? Ever thought of YouTubers creating content without having content to make money? WhiteSea ... a Netherland Jumping Jack clicking senseless on plugins and tell you that he has a tape machine and sears on that. WHAT? I don't care about his nails, I do care about his stupidity and his knowledgelessness ... and even he manages it to create good results with his mixing (and mastering). So I conclude and ask the rhetorical question of Jeremy Clarkson: How hard can it be?

That should be main advice and the attitude of everybody. How hard can it be. You can hear what's wrong, then you change that. Done. But if that in mind all the precious schools will go bankrupt. Sad.

 

It's better to have a great track with a bad mix than a bad track with a great mix.
If a song is bad, it's bad and a good mix won't do it any good.

Music can exist without mixing.
Mixing cannot exist without music.

You can take a shower in a bathtub.
You can't take a bath in a shower.

If you have a key that opens all padlocks, that's a great key.
If you have a padlock that gets openned by any key, that's a shitty padlock.

That's why promiscuous girls are called sluts and seductive men are called studs.
Don't hate me, I don't make the rules !

So yeah, mixing is important, it just isn't that important.

 

I respect his opinion but I think a lot of people forget how GOOD the average professional mixing engineer is.

Eventhough the song is pretty good, the mix of Love Never Felt So Good by Michael Jackson is fucking terrible and it kinda ruins it for me. It makes my very good IEMs sound like my old and very harsh Beyerdynamic DT990 with the cord half connected. I enjoy it more on my phone speakers, or listening to the stripped down demo. I'm convinced that it impacts the average listener's appreciation of the song, even if they don't understand that the problem comes from the mix.

And that's still Dave Pensado, a famous mixing engineer. Imagine how it would sound with a random engineer from Fiverr doing a worse job.

 

I have a particular 12 years old track of mine that I love, interesting arrangement and concept, ear candy sound desing, engagement... AND UTTERLY SHITTY MIXING. Being trying to fix it from time to time as a old car in the garage and my mixing skills were improuving (as a hobbie).

Mixing matters a LOT. The top charts are full of shitty songs with outstanding and very expensive mixing. I think is the other way around.

 

Good example, but it's not the mix in first place, it's the micing of the piano which results in this awkward phasey stereo image. So it's pretty much what Kenny says.

 

I had no problem selling my music when I didn't know anything about the technical aspects of mixing.
They liked my music and my music was mixed and mastered by professionals and released.
The important thing is to decide whether your goal is a musician or an engineer.

 

Some people throw the kitchen sink at it, but keep it real & simple

 

Dunno, maybe wrong premise, those people actually like that music, that's the thing, they don't sit around thinking how good mix was disregarding the music, on other hand, bunch of engineers exactly do that.

I have been around people that would completely disregard atrocious production of a song (or some questionable upload on You Tube, lousy VHS rip and etc) and enjoy in it nonetheless, because, yeah, they like that song and that's all there is to it. There's bunch of "shitty" music that have horrible mixes and those same people lose their shit over it, listening on crappy mobile speakers or some really bad car stereo.

 

i'm pretty sure mixing is pretty important if you're a mixing engineer

 

i see mixing/mastering kinda like polishing and cleaning, checking the oil, all that kind of stuff before selling the car.
You could just sell it dirty, it would serve the same purpose. But is better when things are tight and clean