A Very Cool Thing!

We logged some more serious studio time the last two weeks working on our recording project.  Our last session of "mixing" was revelatory.  We took a song that we were just not that happy with; thought it was on "death's door," seemed a little flat, lifeless, just didn't have any pizzazz, and then took it apart piece by piece.


The engineer stripped it down and rebuilt it from scratch.  I mean, all the elements were there: a strong vocal from our lead singer, a great soulful bass line, enthusiastic acoustic guitar from me, some virtuoso drumming, and powerful sax work throughout the piece.  But our mix just didn't pull it together.


It seemed just a little too static or staid, some element of excitement got lost in our initial mix.  This wasn't apparent at first, it dawned on us over time after some intense listening.  This track wasn't holding it's own on the "album."


So we rolled up our sleeves and "remade" it.  I do think "mixing" is a misnomer.  We came up with a new arrangement of the elements.  We "sculpted the sound," in a totally new way.  We stripped away some instrumentation in some sections, and brought up other elements.  We added a new dimension and dynamic to the whole song just by some subtle re-framing of things.


After we finished, the track had come alive.  Suddenly all the elements seemed to jell, our original live performance was now totally up front.  It all sounds edgier and livelier now. It now demands attention.


This was certainly the most instructive mixing session I have participated in.  It demonstrated that process is subtle, intuitive, creative and technical.  It is an art in the best sense of the word.  I'm not sure if it's under-appreciated or over-appreciated how important the Producer is to any musical project.  I mean it's probably not a mistake that certain names are associated with certain recordings:  George Martin, Jimmy Miller, Nigel Goodrich, Rick Rubin, Mark Ronson.  


What role they played on any recording is not something that can be easily explained.  Just like any good performance, there is an indefinable something they bring to the table.  When all the elements come together, there is an opportunity for magic to happen.  That is a very cool thing!