recalling analouge mix

[Bump Music]

I asked a similar question:

Recalling a mix

[lowswing]

thanks!
I'm doing this for years and always write all details by hand, it take a hour
in my last project i needed to recall one song, the mix was great, the voice sound was amazing but the a&r suggested the guitar hook should be 1db louder.
so i put all fader in place as i wrote it and the mix was there in 30min that was good enough for the a&r but for me , i missed the great voc sound, till now i don't know what was the difference, 0.001db on the fader? the tube compressor sound different when it 4hours on rather than 10? 1 degree on the treshhold knob?
that's why i like to do mixes one and for all

[Reptil]

there is no other way than to keep a detailed log
a digital camera might help, fadersettings, eq etc. etc.

[Lord Fear]

a digital camera works well, as well as recall sheets, you can download a bunch at bary rudolph's website, but honestly if you have to fully recall a mix, its because something is wrong and just re-approach it. but in the case of having to reprint with something 1 db louder, maybe consider printing steams of anything you think might need to raise, i've seen people do stems for kick, snare, drums minus kick and snare, bass, rhythm guitars, lead guitars, all guitars, lead vocals, backup vocals, and percussion stems, so if you worry that you have the best mix ever but might need to change something minorally, just print a stem of that one thing, otherwise print multiple mix's, bass up drums down, vocal up, i generally like to print a vocal up 1-2.5db a bass up 1db, and if i can i'll generally do one more alternate mix with either guitars up or down or drums....but thats if you wana be anal

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by lowswing

thanks!
I'm doing this for years and always write all details by hand, it take a hour
in my last project i needed to recall one song, the mix was great, the voice sound was amazing but the a&r suggested the guitar hook should be 1db louder.
so i put all fader in place as i wrote it and the mix was there in 30min that was good enough for the a&r but for me , i missed the great voc sound, till now i don't know what was the difference, 0.001db on the fader? the tube compressor sound different when it 4hours on rather than 10? 1 degree on the treshhold knob?
that's why i like to do mixes one and for all

Total recall sorted.
Regards.•:*¨¨*:•. ¸¸.•´¯`•.Mark Fairfax-Harwood, Engineer Springvale Studios

[Capstan Cappy]

Originally Posted by lowswing

thanks!
I'm doing this for years and always write all details by hand, it take a hour
in my last project i needed to recall one song, the mix was great, the voice sound was amazing but the a&r suggested the guitar hook should be 1db louder.
so i put all fader in place as i wrote it and the mix was there in 30min that was good enough for the a&r but for me , i missed the great voc sound, till now i don't know what was the difference, 0.001db on the fader? the tube compressor sound different when it 4hours on rather than 10? 1 degree on the treshhold knob?
that's why i like to do mixes one and for all

why didn;t you present the same mix and "said" : your right i've put it 1db louder and it sounds much better this way, they all fall for it..

[Tom VDH]

I use a digital camera, take notes and everything, but a recall always sounds a bit different...first reason being my perspective has changed by the time I recall the mix, and it's nearly impossible to perfectly match every settings.
I also do stems, it's time consumming but that's a good safety.

[dokushoka]

The problem with stems is that they don't work right if you're mixing into a compressor.

[jlotto]

i work on alot of different projects and DAWs have been a godsend with total recall in 5-10 seconds.

this is definately the downside of using outboard & non-recallable analog consoles w/ DAWs.

had a project mixed at a studio in LA last year and he used outboard w/ his daw as well as EQ from small console. 2 weeks later we needed to bring that mix up and change one move and it did not sound anywhere near the same mix we had originally.

[yeloocproducer]

Originally Posted by dokushoka

The problem with stems is that they don't work right if you're mixing into a compressor.

That's why you have to take the compressor off when printing the stems...

[dokushoka]

Originally Posted by yeloocproducer

That's why you have to take the compressor off when printing the stems...

If you're mixing on an analog console, that would mean that you have to pull your stereo stems back out of PT (or whatever) and bring them up on stereo pairs on the desk to get them back into the comp. I don't like the extra stage of conversion. I just print multiple versions of the mix, do a full documentation with digital photos as backup, snap shot the faders, then, try to make sure the client is there to approve the thing!

[Pasta4lnch]

I know a guy working w/ a analog desk and daw and he just opens up a track and grabs a mic and reads it out. takes pretty much the same time to recall while listening back. pretty clever actually. maybe that w/ some dig camera pics and you're good to go. . .