Well it’s been awhile since my late-night heartfelt musings about finishing recording…almost three months later I’m ready to report on the rest. To be very honest, the past several months have been unexpectedly stressful, but I will cautiously divulge that I’m beginning to feel some satisfaction as a result of our hard work and financial investment and am hopeful for some successes as a result of our efforts. In a cosmic sense, of course, the greatest reward comes from our devoted fans, who have somehow incorporated our music into the soundtrack of their lives. So many stories have come our way of how the music has been influential to people, and it has been wonderful to provide amusement, therapy, diversion, or background music to the day-to-day existence of friends and strangers alike. But…we’d also like to make our money back one day, play more above-decent paying gigs, and have opportunities come from this that will allow us to continue to write songs, develop our sound, improve and grow both as a recording and performing ensemble. So there is a lot on the line.
The Final Mix
After we finished the recording, our engineer Russell Anders and producer Jon Stickley began to mix the songs one by one. They spent a few weeks mixing levels, adding and cutting fills, choosing the breaks to be inserted, and other technical details that I don’t even understand. That was a good use of time, since each band member has a slightly different idea of how each song should sound. Jon and Russell were able to get everything very close to being finished, and we got a 3-week break from the music. We distributed their mix among the band members and then sent our comments around by email (i.e. there’s a weird buzz at 0:23 of Climbing Devils Pass, etc.). When there were differences of opinion (mostly regarding backup), majority ruled, although I can’t live with something trumped the majority. This was surprisingly efficient at achieving a group consensus without much consternation.
For me, the mixing stage was difficult for two reasons. First, the mix sounded different on every sound system, and listening that closely to the music, I practically went crazy trying to discern whether or not certain details needed attention. What sounded great on playback in the studio sounded completely different in my car or on my home stereo or computer speakers. Secondly, the mix sounded very different than a mastered CD that you might otherwise pop into your stereo, and not knowing ahead of time exactly how the mastering process would change the mix, it was really difficult to figure out which details should change within the mix and which things mastering would address. And with no time or money available for going BACK to the mix after visiting the mastering studio, it just felt incredibly overwhelming to finalize the mix.
