Just thinking out loud...

paulo6891

I find that the part that really lets me down, like so many other people, is my mixing.

I will have some great melodies, some solid sound design etc but the finished product is never greater than the sum of it's parts.

I had been working on a new song there for a good month and I really liked it. I thought it was sounding good too, better than anything I had previously done.

Once finished I sent it off etc and moved on to other projects. I was only listening to it in the car the other day and was thinking 'this bit isn't great, that bit should be better' which leads me to my point... when spending a decent amount of time on a song, are you better off taking a step back, starting something else, and then going back to the mixing process when you have a clearer head and are not as emotionally attached to the song? Perhaps it enables one to be more critical when they haven't been listening to the songs for a few hours every day for the last few weeks.

I know that whenever I listen back to a mix a few weeks after completion I criticise it, so maybe this will help the process but it would be interesting to see if anyone else shares this opinion...

Neurojazz

paulo6891 wrote: »

I find that the part that really lets me down, like so many other people, is my mixing.

I will have some great melodies, some solid sound design etc but the finished product is never greater than the sum of it's parts.

I had been working on a new song there for a good month and I really liked it. I thought it was sounding good too, better than anything I had previously done.

Once finished I sent it off etc and moved on to other projects. I was only listening to it in the car the other day and was thinking 'this bit isn't great, that bit should be better' which leads me to my point... when spending a decent amount of time on a song, are you better off taking a step back, starting something else, and then going back to the mixing process when you have a clearer head and are not as emotionally attached to the song? Perhaps it enables one to be more critical when they haven't been listening to the songs for a few hours every day for the last few weeks.

I know that whenever I listen back to a mix a few weeks after completion I criticise it, so maybe this will help the process but it would be interesting to see if anyone else shares this opinion...

Some of the problems are down to finding the science & methods used in music mixdowns - the more you learn, the more your productions shine and then look like sh*t a few weeks later when compared to current expressions of knowledge.

Radiosurfer

Have you tried offering it to anyone else to mix for you? It doesn't always have to cost money. I mix things for mates from time to time when I've got a gap in my schedule. Keeps my mixing muscles exercised.
As a general rule I would always give a finished track a few days without a listen (once there's no deadline involved so obviously not something I'm getting paid for!!) and then go back to it. So, yeah, distance is good for objectivity.