A Great Song creates a Great Production. A Great Production creates a Great Mix.
A Great Song creates a Great Production. A Great Production creates a Great Mix.
This might sound obvious but it really is amazing how these things fall into place. I’ve worked on many great songs (ok a few) and I’ve worked on many good songs and quite a few terrible ones (ok many 🙂 ).
When you have a Great Song to work with. I mean a song that just jumps out at you and hits you over the head. The Production ideas just flow like a fire hose. For real. You can’t record them quick enough. Every idea is a great idea and they all work. Nothing sounds bad when it’s being held up by a Great Song. You’d have to be an idiot to miss the musical ideas and creativity that are flying through the air right in front of you.
Sadly. The opposite is true. When you’re working with a mediocre song, no production idea seems to work and you find yourself adding part after part, layer after layer trying to find “something” to make this piece of art say “Hey look at me. I’m great”.
The same holds true for a Mix. When the Song is great and the Production is stellar and on point, you can’t create a bad Mix.
It’s already there. You can just put up the faders and the Song and the Production does all the work for you. You can EQ, compression and reverb but it doesn’t even NEED it. Your goal is to not muck it up. You’re trying to get out of the way so people can hear the song and the production. You don’t even want people to notice there’s a Mix.
And again. Sadly, the opposite is also true. If you don’t have a Great song with a Great Production, you will be toiling and sweating over that Mix for days. It will NEVER be enough. You will be trying your best to make something stand out and say “Look how good I sound” but nobody cares how good you look if you’re not doing anything worth looking at.
So keep theses things in mind. Can I write a better song? Can I make a better production? Am I beating myself up over this mix?
I hope this message serves you. Well… Kenny
