Mixing Lessons

I spent last night mixing Stray Cat Strut, fixing errant notes, a little cut & paste here and there, deciding on reverbs, and trying to figure out what compression to use on various tracks. That's the hard part. Compression is an art. Too much and it sounds like a shitty radio station. Not enough it it's hard to listen to on all but really good stereos. I also learned that I should probably copy the projects up to the office when all tracks have been recorded and do the final mix there. The large Infinity's and the basement environment just don't make for good playback. What I thought sounded good had way too much bass guitar and kick when I listened to it on the Mac in the den, which is the system I'm most used to listening to music on these days. It used to be my car stereo, back when we did that one Missing Link/Crossfire recording at the skating rink and Hotel Hell. I'd do a mixdown, then take it out to my car to see what was right and what was wrong. Too bad we didn't have the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside.

Tonight we plan on doing The Letter and Come Together. CT should be a lot of fun, as it was such a "studio" type song. I doubt I'll get the same magic they got at Abbey Road Studios. Maybe if we all speak British. Plus we'll get to try the cool Rhodes plugin I have. Listen to the sample they have. Note the tiny bit of overdrive it can do when hammered. So sweet.