If you ever hear yourself uttering these words – Meh, I’ll just fix it in the mix – as you record something, I want you to stop what you’re doing and ask someone to kick you in the butt. I know, I know – everyone does it. And there are some things that simply cannot be made “right” until they are playing with the other tracks. But what you’re really saying is I know I messed up just now. I can fix it later.
This reminds me of a metaphor from when I used to teach and consult in the quality management field. American quality toast was to burn the toast, and then scrape off the black stuff. This was in comparison to Japanese quality toast, which was to fix the toaster to prevent the problem occurring in the first place. In almost every quality-cost situation, it is better (in terms of less time and money spent) to catch a problem and fix it as soon as humanly possible in the feedback look – with the ideal being to prevent errors and waste altogether. Audio recording is no different. Try to get all your tones recorded and sounding as good as possible BEFORE you start to mix your project.
Here is a little post calling this “the secret weapon of mixing,” written by Joe Gilder. Heed this advice and you shall be happier in your home recording studio.
Read Joe’s post here: http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/in_the_studio_a_secret_weapon_for_full_mixes/
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