Sharp Practise
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6/25/2009 5:58:43 PM
Time to phone a friend
OK, I’ve made those adjustments. It’s time, as in all the best game shows, to phone a friend. Or in this case, e-mail one.
Fortunately my friend is Fran Ashcroft, an experienced record producer with a great ear. And I’m very lucky that he is prepared to review my mixes before they go through the mastering process.
So, what’s the prognosis? Well, mostly not bad but could be better. Despite all my efforts I seem at times to have a dominant snare drum on some songs, so I need to back the stereo mix of the kit off to bring that into line.
Other than that, there’s the odd place where an instrument or a vocal is too loud or soft, or where there’s a touch too much reverb. Fran is very good too at giving precise adjustments e.g. b vox down 2db, 30% less reverb on the guitar and so on. So, with automix and the recall features on the AW2400 it’s fairly easy for the most part to make those changes.
And when you do, boy does everything noticeably sit better in the mixes. So, thanks Fran!
I know we don’t all have the luxury of having an experienced producer to call upon but my tip here is to get someone else to cast a dispassionate ear over your mixes before you finalise them. You may get imprecise advice e.g. turn the voice down, the guitars are too far away etc, but any advice from someone whose ears you trust has got to be good.
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