Where do you get your music mixed ??

[MixButton]

Hi all !

First thread,

As musicians/artists, I just wanted to get an idea of where you get your music mixed ?

[Jerome]

I do my own - tried a few mix engineers but did not really like what they produced. Having said that I don't think I did a great job of my first project. Judge for yourself.

http://www.auralscapes.com

[MixButton]

Has a look and listen Jerome !

Nice stuff, very specific which is probably why you have had problems with mix engineers in the past...

How many mixers did you use ? hope you didn't waste too much money !

[Jerome]

20K USD (about 5 days worth) before I realized I wasn't getting anywhere. Then I pulled the plug...........will not be using any mix engineers ever again. No matter what.

[MixButton]

Wow ! That is quite a lot to spend...

So what was wrong with the mixes ?

Did they not follow your instructions/ preferences, or you thought you could do a better job ?

[Jerome]

Volume envelopes not put in the right places, instruments panned incorrectly, bringing out one instrument ahead of the one I wanted to be prominent etc.etc. despite giving detailed instructions. And I tried some really big names in the industry but it seems like they just go ahead and do what THEY think is right and then get upset when you don't like it. I don't think I am very good at mixing - I don't have the patience for it but I also can't afford to just throw money away either. It's very frustrating to pay a lot of money for a service and it comes back completely different to what you specified. And to be quite honest remote mixing and mastering does not work. You have no idea if someone spent 5 minutes or 5 hours working on it. Some - not all - engineers simply put the whole mix through some outboard gear or software plug-ins without even examining individual tracks. And when it comes to mastering it's even worse, although I did use Tube Mastering run by Andy Jackson (Pink Floyd's mix engineer for many years) and the results from his studio were very good. But he only does mastering not mixing. Bottom line - do it yourself or be prepared to throw a lot of money away.