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I DO NOT pretend to be an expert here; I expect and solicit comment from Mac and Harvery in particular, and anyone else who cares to weigh in. This is something I've heard about and tried, and it seems to work pretty well. I think that everyone will benefit from this thread, and by the time it has petered out there should be some incredible tips and techniques here. -R.



You don't have a $1,000,000 automated console, endless silent effects and $2,000 plugins. You don't have moonrock reference monitors or even decent Near-Field(r) intermediates. What you have are the Yamaha or Mackie or Behringer monitors that you could afford on a working man's pay, a mixing board to match, plus your PC or standalone disc recorder. And your ears. How do you get That Sound?

You start by doing the best you can. You refer back to your reference recordings (Thanks, Mac!) and work until you think you're as close as you can get.

Then you make copies of the result and give them to people whom you trust musically--band members, musician friends, the knowledgeable Significant Other; anyone whose musical judgment you trust. You all go away and listen to what you have in different environments and on different sound systems: the car, boom boxes, CD or MP3 headphone players, home theaters; in home studios or living or bedrooms.

Everyone takes notes--where they were listening and what they heard--and comes back with this intelligence. The bottom is muddy. There is no bass. It's noisy. It sounds good on the stereo but not so good in the car. The highs are really shrill. I can't hear the (vocals/guitar/kazoo/cowbell). And so on.

You make adjustments. You will likely find that you are getting many of the same comments from different listeners. Those adjustments are obvious. (Opposites may cancel. If one person says there's no bottom and another says it's bass heavy, someone needs a hearing test.) You keep mixing and sharing copies until, at some point, everybody says it sounds pretty good on whatever they have.

That's when you know you've got the Killer Mix.

*ducks and runs*

R.

"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."