Recording IS Mixing

FIX IT IN THE MIX! How many times have we heard that one?

The problem is you can’t sustain it. If you're constantly pushing it off to the mix, you make things incredibly complicated for your mix engineer. The best thing to do is fix it in the recording process.

Recording is Mixing means, the better your recording the better your mix will be.

That’s the big idea here. Take your time in the recording process and your mix will turn out much better.

Here are two things you can do right now to set yourself up for a better recording process and ultimately a better mix.

1. Slow Down.

Believe me, I understand that in the studio time is money. But this is where you can really maximize the recording process. For example, instead of rushing through tracking a lead vocal, take your time. Have them sing it again until you’re happy with what they’re doing. Simply slowing things down and doing things until it’s right will bring big gains throughout the process.

2. Concentrate on Parts and Tones.

This goes along with #1. Take your time to work on parts, melodies, and tones. For example, instead of the mix engineer adding 5 plugins to a guitar in order to fix conflicting frequencies, change out the microphone during the recording process. A simple mic swap can completely change the dynamic of a vocal, guitar, or drums. Instead of the mix engineer trying to fatten the track with compressors add a cool synth part or change out the keyboard patch.

Again, the big idea here is as you take the time in the recording process to work out melodies, get creative with samples, and build counter parts with guitars your mix will be infinitely better and your mix engineer not having to do heavy lifting.