A friend of mine emailed me the other day, and asked how long it should take to mix a song. I thought it was a great question. So here is an extended version of the response I sent to him.

It depends on many things. Mixing can take forever, or a couple of hours. On the Pop record I did last year, we averaged forty-fifty tracks per song. We knew going in we wanted a big sound. Here's the track count:

Drums (10)
Bass (2)
Acoustic Guitars (4-6)
Electric guitars (6-8)
Back-up vocals 16 (four tracks of each harmony)
Lead vocals 3 (triple tracked each lead vocal)

So mixing was intense. On average, to get a good mix, it takes about an hour of mixing per minute of music. If you do pre-flight really well, and you know what your plan is, that's the rule. If you're flying by the seat of your pants, it can take days.

One way to approach it is by groups. Sometimes I'll get the drums all grooving, sometimes including percussion, and sometimes not. Then I'll mix those down with all of the effects to a stereo file, or "2Mix" I'll typically leave the bass alone, and not bounce it.
Then I'll think about the rhythm tracks: guitars, keyboards, strings, whatever is going to support the lead vocal and I'll group them by type. So I'll make a 2Mix of the strings, another 2Mix of acoustic guitars, a 2Mix for electric guitars and one for all of the keyboard parts. Keep in mind this includes all panning, EQ, effects, etc.
Then I'll work on the background vocals making a good 2Mix of those, but I usually leave the lead vocals alone. So now let's look at the track count:

A stereo 2Mix of the Drums (2)
A stereo 2Mix of the Strings (2)
A stereo 2Mix of the Acoustic Guitars (2)
A stereo 2Mix of the Electric Guitars (2)
A stereo 2Mix of the Backup Vocals (2)
A Bass Guitar Track (1 or 2)
Lead Vocal tracks (3)

These fifteen tracks represent the whole song. I can control these much easier than the original fifty.

I will now open a new song in the same folder as the existing song, but with "2MixC1" at the end of the title. For instance, if my song was called "Phil's Blues", the compilation or "Comp" song where I'm making a compilation of the 2Mixes I would call "Phil's Blues 2MixC1" "C1" means "Comp number 1". And every time I make a bunch of changes to the mix, I'll save it with the next higher number, like "Phil's Blues 2MixC2", "Phil's Blues 2MixC3", etc. This way, if I start going down a path I don't like, I can go back to the last version of the song that I felt good about.

Another reason the 2mix way works is because if you think of 50 tracks going on in one song on your computer, with effects on every track of just EQ, perhaps a little compression, reverb, and/or delay, that's an awful lot of DSP for your computer to handle. Most would have trouble with this much information. Unless you have a dedicated music computer that's really fast, a ton of ram, and really fast hard drives.

Now I have just a few tracks to work with, and lead vocals I can play with in real time. I can lay on as many effects as I wish with the lead vocals, and my computer will handle it easy, as the rest of the tracks don't need any effects now.

I can still apply automation to all the tracks as I see necessary. If I want the back-up vocals to go down in volume some during the verse, or during the first half of a chorus I still can maker it happen.

The beauty of this whole method is that if I'm mixing, and I think to myself that the acoustic guitars don't sound right, I'm not trapped. I can go back to the original version of "Phil's Blues" and make a new 2mix of the acoustic guitars, then import them into the latest version of the comp tracks.

Using this technique you have a lot of control, AND a lot of freedom at the same time. Try it and see how it works for you. On the opposite side of town, if the song only has 10-15 tracks total, that mix could probably be done in a few hours.

My friend then asked me how it is that a mix can sound so different the next day after mixing.

To this I wrote:

"The reason that the mix sounds so different the next day can be because of lots of things, but a couple that come to mind are ear fatigue, volume, and focus."

Listening for hours and hours to a mix can seriously fatigue your ears. Basically, you've had them working out in the gym, and they're tired. So they perform at a much lower level than when they were fresh. I usually take a 10 minute break every 45 minutes to an hour while mixing. I'll pop in a CD of some music that is the polar opposite of what I'm mixing. If I'm mixing Blues, I'll listen to techno, or heavy metal. It totally resets my ears. Then when I go back in, my fresh ears are available again.

The next thing is volume. Mix low. Reference loud every now and then. Normal voice volume is a good mix level for me. Trust me, if it doesn't sound good low, it ain't gonna get any better with volume. Not to say that you can't turn it up some to get the vibe going in the studio, but loud volumes get all those cilia hairs in your ears vibrating so hard that tinnitus can set in, and you can't hear subtle things anymore.

The next, is focus. If you're working your tail off on guitar parts for hours while you're mixing down the whole song, it won't be till the next day that you hear the snare drum beating a hole in your forehead on the mix. Remember to focus on the whole mix, as well as the details. That's where the art is, to be able to hear the ENTIRE mix, as well as the little details. Keep the perspective of everything in the mix. It's hard. Because a mix can get away from you in a heart beat. Keeping loose reins on the killer energy of great performances, and making them all fly is where we're all headed. Every time we go into the studio.

Have Fun,
Phil Gates

makintrax@philgates.com
http://www.philgates.com