Popular engineers' saying is "Trash In, Trash Out"
Mixing is a process of putting a record together into a listenable state. The balance, equalizer, compression and effects are all great, but the performance and emotion are undoubtedly the most important components of a song. Incredibly performed songs can be destroyed by poor mixing. Bad performances, on the other hand, can only be fixed to a certain extent. Therefore, it is important to perform well first, rather than solely rely on good mixing to fix a sub-par performance.
I started mixing when I was 16 years old, not having any idea of what I was actually doing. Not surprisingly, my mixes also reflected the lack of experience. Now with almost 10 years of experience in mixing, I can make my clients satisfied with their art. Being a self-educated engineer I value my knowledge, expertise, and experience more than anything else. Being an audio engineer is more than just a job for me — it is my passion. I am grateful that I could make it my career.
My personal mixing rig:
My main DAW is Pro Tools 10/11. I don't have to explain what Pro Tools is. I chose it over any other DAW because of incredible workflow and super easy integration with hardware gear. I mix using so called "hybrid" setup which means I use both plugins and hardware gear. High-end monitoring and conversion including SSL Alpha Link AX + Madi Xtreme and Dangerous Music D-Box, also main bus compressor Chameleon Labs 7720 (SSL Bus Comp clone) and Event 2030 speakers. On top of that I have arsenal of various plugins including Waves, UAD, Slate Digital and the list goes on.
That's just a short description of my mixing set up, I won't get any more technical because at the end of the day client (maybe you) doesn't care about what I have but what is the final outcome.
I also enjoy working at other studios on boards like SSL, NEVE, Trident, or even Mackie, I don't really care much as long as it works I will mix on it.
I could probably write for hours about mixing, but there's no point to write any essays. One thing I want to say again, however, is "Trash in, Trash out". That is, poorly recorded, tracked, bounced, consolidated and produced files that sound like garbage, will remain sounding like they belong in the trash bin.
Mixing is a process of putting a record together into a listenable state. The balance, equalizer, compression and effects are all great, but the performance and emotion are undoubtedly the most important components of a song. Incredibly performed songs can be destroyed by poor mixing. Bad performances, on the other hand, can only be fixed to a certain extent. Therefore, it is important to perform well first, rather than solely rely on good mixing to fix a sub-par performance.
I started mixing when I was 16 years old, not having any idea of what I was actually doing. Not surprisingly, my mixes also reflected the lack of experience. Now with almost 10 years of experience in mixing, I can make my clients satisfied with their art. Being a self-educated engineer I value my knowledge, expertise, and experience more than anything else. Being an audio engineer is more than just a job for me — it is my passion. I am grateful that I could make it my career.
My personal mixing rig:
My main DAW is Pro Tools 10/11. I don't have to explain what Pro Tools is. I chose it over any other DAW because of incredible workflow and super easy integration with hardware gear. I mix using so called "hybrid" setup which means I use both plugins and hardware gear. High-end monitoring and conversion including SSL Alpha Link AX + Madi Xtreme and Dangerous Music D-Box, also main bus compressor Chameleon Labs 7720 (SSL Bus Comp clone) and Event 2030 speakers. On top of that I have arsenal of various plugins including Waves, UAD, Slate Digital and the list goes on.
That's just a short description of my mixing set up, I won't get any more technical because at the end of the day client (maybe you) doesn't care about what I have but what is the final outcome.
I also enjoy working at other studios on boards like SSL, NEVE, Trident, or even Mackie, I don't really care much as long as it works I will mix on it.
I could probably write for hours about mixing, but there's no point to write any essays. One thing I want to say again, however, is "Trash in, Trash out". That is, poorly recorded, tracked, bounced, consolidated and produced files that sound like garbage, will remain sounding like they belong in the trash bin.