What are your coffee beans?

[DesireeBowen]

After I've been mixing and mastering for awhile I start to lose my sense of hearing... I can't tell what sounds good and what sounds bad anymore! This reminds me of perfume shopping. After I've done it for awhile, everything smells the same and I have no idea *what* I am smelling. Luckily, they usually have a bag of coffee beans at the perfume counter to sniff and clear your nose so you can keep going. What are your coffee beans for mixing?

[Cruciform]

2-3 days of not listening to the track in question. Ideally a week or more. But that's just me.

[Kolstad]

Arabica is my... no, I don't have a magic wand for this. I suffer from the same issues all the time. What's been working for me, has been to listen through the mix through two other speaker systems and two different earbuds. My goal is to have the mix sound good on all of those systems, and when they don't I make a note, and come back to the mix. That have also helped me to work in smaller time chuncks on each mix. Sometimes I have three lists, with two or three fixes, and it takes me an hour to finish three mixes. The point where I decide if the mix is done, is on the other speaker systems. If it still sounds good across platforms, I'm done.

[benjet]

Hi Desiree,
This happens to me quite a bit. Like Magne, I try to listen on diffent amp/speaker combinations, and like Rob, when possible I try to set the song aside for a few days. However, on some projects I have to meet a deadline. In those cases, what has worked the best for me is to bounce the mix down, transfer it to my iPhone, and hop in the camaro for a ride. After I run an errand or grab a snack I will listen to it again through my car speakers on my way home - that way any adjustments that jump out are fresh in my mind.

The other thing I do (often) - I try to have a "reference" track that I compare my mix too. Some song in the same genre that I think is mixed well, and when possible with similar instruments. I turn the volume down extremely low and listen to my mix, then the reference mix. This is how I try to set the overall level between drums, bass, guitar, keys, etc.

When it still doesn't sound good, I reach out for other ears to help me out, maybe on this forum, maybe a custom critique, maybe an e-mail to a trusted friend, maybe invite a fellow musician over for a beer ....

If it still isn't right after all of that, I set it on the shelf and wait for the next opportunity that the song fits with.

Tony

BTW - I like your music! Do I hear a bit of a Regina Spektor influence (especially on "Catching KIsses")?

[DesireeBowen]

Good ideas. I was messing around so much yesterday with different projects that I felt like my head was going to explode! I'll have to try out those ideas.

Tony- I definitely love Regina Spektor. Thanks for the compliments, but I am kinda embarassed you heard my stuff!! How did you find it? All of those pieces have been reworked, I just haven't had new versions uploaded anywhere. I kinda went into all of this headfirst about a year or so ago, and now that I have gotten better I don't like listening to any of my old things! Kinda wishing I didn't put it all out there to start with.

[t4mh]

I try to do my mixing when my ears are fresh. If I spend a day tracking, the mix gets done, sort of while I'm tracking... But I won't do the final mix then or at least I try not to, at the end of the day. Next day, 1st thing is the mix! Then on to the next track.

Good Luck!

[elser]

Something Rob Chiarelli said in last weeks Taxi TV I found helpful. Don't get too focused on just one part for any length of time so that you lose perspective of the whole mix. Jump from part to part and make sure your hearing the whole mix in context. That and what others have said, listen on different systems and give your ears a break.

[mazz]

Take breaks.

[Hookjaw Brown]

Take breaks and listen softly. With speakers turned down low your mind pays more attention to detail. It is like a whisper is easier to pick up in a quiet room than speaking softly. Mind tricks.

[Len911]

I don't know because I can't take breaks when I'm obsessively trying to tweak my vocals to perfection. I'm not a perfectionist or vain at all otherwise,lol! I am learning that I usually after many hours come full circle, and the final mix doesn't sound that much different than the first. I listen on my headphones and ns-10 monitors, and hope to hell i never have to hear myself on someone else's speakers, because it would be the most embarrassing thing I believe could ever happen,lol!!
If it smells like perfume,why do you need coffee beans?? I would think the coffee beans might help if you smell you know what...a skunk,lol!
If you start out floral,then go woodsy, then to spicy, you usually always return to floral or something close, like woodsy, or spicy, as long as it's perfume, hopefully people will recognize it as such,and not be allergic!