Sometimes I can see on video that what a guitarist play in a studio recording booth differs in the sound from the final mix. Why does it happen? (Part III. Mixing Engineer.)
Part III. Mixing Engineer.
As I wrote earlier, I never understood why is it often one or several people record something to be mixed by someone else later. After all, the product is all the same.
If something was recorded unrealistically, which means incorrectly since it does not correspond to the musical idea and the emotion of the performer or orchestra, then it is nothing to mix here. However, it happens exactly like this in the most cases.
When people are going to the studio, and they haven’t got any artistic image but only the desire to record something, everything goes wrong. Of course, they have a reason for making the recording. It can be just something on an amateur level, a recording for an upcoming album or for some music award nomination, but does it so become an artistic image? Surely not! And if not, you can record however you want.
And the biggest advantage for musicians with such an approach is not to sing or play out-of-tune. For those who record (sound engineer) it is to record “correctly” and not realistically. And maybe even in a more intriguing way, using a microphone which distorts the sound or a preamplifier which colors the sound. And then you can read or listen to another interview about a great job everyone has done. And what a big experience everybody has acquired…
But the main “magic” is still ahead. After that “work”, all the tracks go to the principal “artist”. Oftentimes, he listens to it for the first time. But that doesn’t bother him at all. For example. Once I’ve listened to the conversation between three mixing engineers. One of them was clearly superior to the others in their criteria. So without even the slightest hesitation he told that his attitude and accordingly the final mix quality will depend for him on what exactly he is going to mix. If it for someone he doesn’t know, the mix will be one. If he mixes the album of a famous artist, the mix will be different. And if it for a music award nomination, that will be the pinnacle of his mastery.
I could not believe my ears. Since I watched the recording, I rewound several times and listened to this section. Is it possible to call such an approach professional? Further, the same engineer named some artists he mixed. And called all of them geniuses. I cannot miss the fact that everybody listed could be called geniuses only in their completely out-of-tune playing and singing. And here the question comes out.
If that ingenious mixing engineer, while mixing the out-of-tune tracks did not hear that and called them genius, then how he mixes at all? After all, those geniuses he mixed sometimes deviated from the necessary pitch by more than a quarter of a tone. And he could not hear that! Then how he makes a decision on where to correct something with an equalizer? He is not capable of hearing the main pitch, but makes corrections to the timbre. Moreover, he does it almost on every channel. Usually, the people of such a caliber and perception cannot help but leave their unique (in their opinion) signature.
And then even better! The correction of dynamics starts! More exactly, its elimination (if it existed at all). The compression is added everywhere. In order to add “color” or “bring forward” the specific instrument. And all the same for each instrument. All of them then become “colored” and strongly “emphasized” in the mix. And what happens? If you are unlucky, and you’ve been recorded by some “genius” who have never seen or heard you in his life, and it does not matter for him at all what sounds in your head, and then the similar “genius” have demonstrated how he can add an equalizer and a compressor on each channel, nothing of your music will remain on the record.
The sound engineers do not realize that they are the personnel who serve the process. Their function is to achieve a sound which 100% corresponds to your artistic image (concepts, emotions)… Their work is done perfectly if you cannot hear them on the record.
The most of the sound and mixing engineers do not understand that they cannot make your sound better. If they are skillful enough, they can just record it perfectly. It will correspond 100% to the original. This way, the listener will be able to hear your conception and feel all your emotions.
If they are not so skillful, then they will only make it worse. They will remain “geniuses” for those who come to record with the idea that there is some kind of magic going on in the studio.
You can write for a long time about all this, but the meaning will stay the same.
To be continued…
