In general I’ve considered myself a disciplined person - throughout a 35 year career in the mental health field, bike shop ownership and years of mountain bike racing. But not so much when it comes to music production. Dunno why. I tend to wing it especially with mixing. Maybe because we work in multiple genres nearly every song seems like a new adventure. But I think it’s from playing in bands for 30 years and always being the sound man also.

This, for better or worse, has lead me to approach mixing with a live band approach. I mix by visualizing a 4-5 piece group on a stage and I’m the sound guy. I try to set pans, effects, gains, etc on that. I guess my rare use of more than 5-6 tracks facilitates such an approach smile If I tried to produce a track dense highly textured project like many forum members I’d be immediately way out of my narrow world. And maybe I rely too much on slightly fx tweaked presets and mastering references.

Interesting topic David. I just never thought about a checklist but I am fond of soliciting mix critiques on many of my projects before mastering smile

And song writing is so tedious for me I couldn’t imagine discussing it in a group. I just wanna get it over with so Janice can have something to sing!

Boatload of salt grains.

Bud


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