My mixes are okay. Enough of the time, I'd say my mixes are good, but never great or excellent. I realize that I'm no professional, but I've given so much of my summer to try and get this certain mix up to a great standard and I can just never reach the heights I want so badly. I know what I want; and I've never quite gotten there - just close.
I've tried everything; and every now and then I discover something or research something that leads me to a breakthrough in sound and causes something in my mix to click into place, but for the most part I can never fully get rid of mud, or distortion, or never fix up a kick drum that I'm satisfied enough with to never touch again, or never fully believe that my track sounds the way I want it to, the way I know it COULD sound.
It causes me great frustration and stress. I do suck it up most of the time; and I try not to fall into moping and brief senses of helplessness, but sometimes you feel like you've done your best and still things don't click.
Do you have any foolproof strategies/patterns-of-thought for going about getting what YOU want out of any certain mixing situation?
And what words of counsel could you give a guy who for the last few years has always gotten reports that he has "the best concepts for songs" and "knows what people like", but at the same time needs greater production work.
Do you benefit most from having a second or even third ear decipher and criticize the mix? Or are you the type who tries ANYTHING before realizing they have to cut away a few layers of music? (That's me, I hate deleting work.) What's your biggest obstacle when it comes to mixing? Is it objectivity? Or not fully knowing how to use the full capabilities of your software or equipment? Or what...?
What's YOUR story?
(Thanks for reading in.)
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