Question Regarding Composing to Mixing

[guscave]

While I’m working on a song, I’ll add instrumentation and arrange it with final mixing in mind. I try to imagine how the song will sound mixed because once I’ve finished it, I’m not going to go back to change anything (unless asked by the publisher).

Before I begin mixing I’ll render everything to 24 bit wav. I’ve had two occasions where I’ve had to go back to an old song and a plugin no longer worked with my updated system.

This is a flow that works best for me. Your mileage may vary…

[MattCurious]

Personally, I have two separate sessions. I write and temp mix in one. Then export to WAV for the final mix. I almost always end up wanting to move things around; I try to do this by editing the audio rather than re-exporting. If I absolutely have to change something I can't edit in the audio session (such as a melody) I'll go back and do that, and then bounce the individual part so I can slot it into my audio session.