We’ve all been there countless times… Yesterday’s rough mix sounds better than the one you just spent 4 hours on. The vocals/instrument you spent half a day recording are flawed in some way and need to be tracked again. You took hours re-programming a part only to realise not as good as the one you started with.
Now, obviously, no creative process should be linear. Exploring, tweaking things and changing direction occasionally are what makes creativity fulfilling.
But we still want to get stuff finished to a high standard and move on to the next project.
Let me ask you this – can you actually hear properly in your studio?
Is the low end reasonably flat where you sit? Can you place things easily in the stereo image? Is the mid-range cutting through? Is your sweet spot large enough so you can actually move in your seat without the whole sound changing? Have you actually tested your monitors to see how they perform objectively?
Having helped literally thousands of musicians, producers and engineers to hear their work clearly and objectively I can tell you that the number one improvement they experience is efficiency. They stop wasting so much time second guessing things! They know they can trust their monitoring leaving them to focus on the important part – actually making good music.
