This block of lessons on creative mixing techniques has taught me a lot and informed my recent work. The first blog focusing on reference tracks has become a vital part of my workflow, especially when applying finishing touches and mastering. If mastering is considered any finishing touches to prepare a song for distribution (to streaming or any other market), then it is vital to compare your work to other similar songs already out. Ive been adding to my reference list over the course of this term, finding songs that do one thing incredibly well and using that as a reference for how to achieve that in my own work.
The second blog about visualising a mix was a very interesting concept. The idea that no two things can exist in the same place was incredibly helpful, as something could either be pushed into the background (volume and reverb) or moved aside (panning, EQ). This is a concept I want to start using in my mixes as I feel it could be a brilliant way of making them less muddy.
Later, the discussions around surround sound and immersive audio started to push me out of my depth. While I understand its application in cinemas and perhaps audio/visual arts instillations, I think it’s a bit over the top. Outside of a cinema, I don’t think I have never once listened to a piece of music or even audio in surround sound or immersive audio. The equipment needed to listen to songs mixed for immersive audio is so unaccessible and expensive that many people just can’t. Similarly, coming from a rock/guitar music based background, it’s just not something that I see as necessary within my music. While I know it’s a closed view that I should probably work on, I feel as if stereo is good enough for what I need to convey. Nonetheless, it was still interesting to hear about the history of surround sound, learning about its early uses at live gigs and it has been fun to experiment with for this specific project.
Ultimately these 9 blog posts have allowed me to research further topics that I find interesting, for example finally taking the research deep dive into the loudness wars in the 2000s I wanted to take for a while. All the techniques i’ve learnt have been interesting and I hope to find ways to incorporate them into my future mixes.