Simplify Your Mixes

Ya know, Im watching a show on TLC called "Hoarders"... and these people have literally buried themselves under a large chaotic collection of random odd's & ends - which they feel VERY strongly about, and don't know if they can "let go" of the need they feel for keeping these generic piles of "stuff..."

They are LITERALLY losing control emotionally and are becoming especially anxious even talking about getting rid of the useless stuff and organizing their homes. I notice the paradox here; See, these individuals are asking for help to swim out from under all this excess stuff, but are'nt willing to do whats neccessary in order to simply navigate through their homes....

Which is of course organize and eliminate excess junk that they for some reason aren't able to part with or maintain in an orderly fashion. While watching this MESS, my brain naturally contrasted the relative message of this scenario to an aspect of music production... One that i've been guilty of... More than once... (Usually my mind likes to harmonize messages to different aspects of my main passions, songwriting and music production)

Cluttering my mixes with excess parts and ideas! I've learned over time that less is usually more... Ok... Now although the extremity varies quite a bit from not being able to see the floor in their own homes for example... The correlation im drawing here is in terms of mentality, which seems pretty closely related.

See, if we try to save every take; every new chord progression idea, every lick, every blah blah blah; because we think it will be better to have more options for each track in the mix, and save all those decisions until mix-down.... Then, well, first, we'd be mistaken. And second... We'd just overload our mix with to much stuff... It's taken me a good long while to realize this.. But again, in mixing, less is usually more.

If you've never overcomplicated your mix or song production, then i applaud as well as congratulate you. If you are struggling with what im calling "idea overload", and is resulted in 12 part counterpoint, overwhelm, and headache in finishing up your mixes... Try this little exercise:

On your next song mix/composition/music production/practice project, limit yourself to 8 tracks, not including multiple tracks for each drum part, & 16 if you are layering multiple parts.

This is an exercise in quality vs. quantity!

Configure your parts for the production/composition, and label each track. (of course)

For example:

-Drums Kick Snare HH Toms Cymbol

-Bass

-Rythym Guitar

-Lead Guitar

-Lead Vox

You get the idea...

Focus on the "TONAL" and "TIMBRAL" characteristics of each "part" and their relationship together to create a cohesive sound sculpture and mix.

In other words... Play around with the tracking techniques of each recording track, and audition different virtual instruments, patches, and plugins to fill your mix with well polished sounds.

Make a decision for each part, and stick to that. Do NOT rely on the faulty paradigm of "well, i'll fix it in the mix..." You should be mixing as you record and compose as much as you can.

After all... Applied knowledge, trained ears, commited decisions, and effective workflow are all key components in finding clarity and balance in your music productions.

Lastly, share your results! I LOVE to hear your productions, comments, pitfalls, and other's could learn a lot from your experiences as well!