When to call it "done"

Production Corner
#1

Posted in Production Corner as I figure that this applies to production in my case, but I guess this could work anywhere…

When working on a track - I’ve always been a firm believer of the fact that the job is never finished. There are always more eq tweaks, an extra drum fill/pull, a bigger riser, another top layer of percussion - and so on.

Recently I’ve really been struggling to “let go” and call a track “finished” when I get to the mixdown stage, and my incessant tweaking and editing is pushing me to end up undoing a lot of the stuff I previously thought was great and that I was happy with, which results in me having to go back, start again, and then inevitably hating what I’ve been working on, and just starting a new track.

Any advice for breaking through this? I’ve been mixing a track down lately and I really want to call it finished - but I’m genuinely so very tempted to tinker some more. There are things I figure I could do a little better, maybe I need to revisit the breakdown? Is the intro lacking? …and so on.

I’m trying to reach ten tracks of “release worthy” quality to work hand-in-hand with my learning/planning with DKMBA and the sad truth is I could be on four by now if it weren’t for this cropping up every time I near the end of the mixdown… it needs to change!

#2

Hey!

This can be so hard as you need to be happy with the finished result! I think it’s important to decide between what is functional to the track, ie the songwriting and the instrumentation around it and how that impacts the actual song and then tweaking on a snare that may not be as integral to the actual song.

Maybe give yourself some deadlines, like Friday 20th August X track is completed and try to stick to it. Even if you don’t release that song, it’s a good way to start holding yourself accountable to deadlines for the future :slight_smile:

Also if you want to put this in the community on fb too then go for it - I know there will deffo be more responses on there :slight_smile:

Damian

#3

Hey,

Thanks for replying… work has been mental lately so I’ve not been on the forums/DKMBA. I’ve been incessantly tweaking when I have a spare hour though

Okay - call this my accountability post, Thursday 2nd I will be finished with this mixdown!

1 Like
#4

You got this! Loving the accountability post.

1 Like
#5

Okay, I’m done!

Feedback always welcome…

#6

Nice one! I’m not an expert at mixing, but it sounds good to me bro :slight_smile:

1 Like
#7

Thank you! Making the “accountability” post definitely gave me a kick in the ass…

#8

Hey @insomniscene !

I know this comes a couple of weeks late, but I might have a couple of tips for you that might help you out.

The first one is set a deadline, just like Damian said. If you set a release date, you know when it needs to be submitted to DistroKid (or whoever your distributor is), so it HAS to be mixed and mastered by then. Deadlines can be your friends.

Try separating the music production from the mixing stage. The production stage is all the recording and creating all your synths, risers, samples etc. At this point I don’t worry too much about the mix. Of course there’s a bit of mixing going on, but not much. When that’s all done, it’s exclusively mixing. At this point, I allow myself to remove and completely cut something if a part isn’t working, but I’m NOT allowed to add anything new.

Something that helped me TONS was to use To Do lists when mixing. When I start the mixing, I’ll listen to the whole thing, and not let myself touch anything. I’m just listening for things to fix. When I hear something, I write it down on the list. I might listen a few times like this. Then I go fix those problems. Once I’ve done that, I repeat the process. There will definitely be things to fix the second, third or fourth time through, but that list usually gets shorter each time.

When I’ve cleared that To Do list, and I’ve listened through and can’t find any other problems to fix, then the mix is done. If I can’t hear a problem, there IS no problem. I usually listen to the mix again the next day just to listen with fresh ears, making a To Do list if needed, but it’s usually tiny tweaks at that point.

Of course, our ears get better at hearing issues over time, and I can hear issues in my earliest releases that I would never leave unfixed now. But at the time it was the best I could do, and I couldn’t hear the problem. So the question is: can I hear any other problems right now? If the answer is no, then it’s done and gets released. Progress is better than perfection. Pursuing excellence and getting better with each mix/song/release allows us space to be imperfect. The need for it to be perfect will cripple us and prevent us from sharing our current best every time.

Anyways, sorry this is long. Moving to doing things this way was really liberating for me, so I wanted to share. Hopefully this can help you, too.

Ben

#9

Hey Ben,

Thank you for taking the time!

The deadline thing definitely helped, I genuinely felt a different sense of approaching the mix, as I convinced myself that that day was the LAST day I had to tinker. Whilst I have been re-listening and picking things apart (as is my nature), I’ve also noticed that I probably did more on that day than I’ve done in ages where this track is concerned,

The “To do” lists is certainly interesting, I can see a lot of value in that. I’m definitely gonna give that a go on the next track, combining the two approaches… I’ll do a list a day for 5 days or something, then draw a line under it each day, and then again at the end of the 5 days.

“Progress is better than perfection” I can certainly understand, I think I just struggle with the perfectionism where the music is concerned. Its something I’ve definitely learned I need to work on with my signing up here at DKMBA… my initial plan at the moment is to get to 10 tracks and then begin releasing stuff, which gives me an opportunity to revisit the early tracks a little further down the line, it isn’t ideal I know, but it is progress and a step forward for me…

Thank you for taking the time, it really does mean a lot.

If you were interested, here is the track in question that I have recently had a go at mastering. Any and all feedback welcome!

#10

No problem at all dude. Honestly, I’m a nerd for this sort of thing, so I enjoy geeking out about it whenever the opportunity comes along :wink:

The deadline thing was transformative for me, too. I definitely saw myself be more productive and more intentional after fixing a date and sticking to it. It’s good you pick things apart - it’s the critical ear we all need when making music and can help us get good mixes. I can never turn it off (when I’m having coffee with my wife, she’ll see my eyes look off into the distance over her shoulder and know that I’m pulling apart the background music in my head lol). It’s just learning when it’s stops being helpful. It takes time like anything else. It sounds like you’ve got the makings of a good system there, though :+1:

Your track’s title is pretty appropriate, it was definitely a little unsettling at times so nice job :slightly_smiling_face: . The mix to me sounds fairly decent. I did think that the lead parts were a little more prominent in the mix. I found myself turning my speakers down when they were in, and turning it back up when they were out to hear the kick and bass better. If it were me, I’d turn the leads down a bit and bring up the kick and bass so there’s a more consistent balance. Or I’d throw on a multiband compressor to try and tame those peaks in the leads and smooth it out. Small adjustments on the faders would be better, though. No plugins required for that :wink:

But it’s genuinely not a bad, terrible mix at all. I think you’re definitely well on your way, mate, and you’ll get better with every track. Progress isn’t a line that’s constantly rising, either, sometimes we take a dip. I released a song earlier this year that I was SUPER proud of as a producer, and felt as though I had FINALLY managed to achieve the sound I had tried to achieve on my album last year (which had lots of room for improvement). But then on the next release I didn’t like how the drums weren’t as clear as I wanted them to be. I released it anyway, and a lot of people told me they thought it was my best song yet :man_shrugging:t3:

You never know what’s gonna connect with people, despite the imperfections of the track.

#11

Hey Ben,

Thanks again for taking the time - I’d completely neglected the fact that I had created this thread, I’ve been just knuckling down and stuff of late. Sorry for my delay in checking out the reply.

Yeah, deadlines are helping, definitely. Productivity has risen, and I’m pretty much done with four out of the ten tracks that I set as a goal, deadline calls for five/five and a half by the end of January so I feel like this is achievable.

Re: the title - yeah, I was essentially just messing around with modal harmony and working out the “characteristics” of each, locrian is pretty unsettling so I decided to turn the loop into a track and try some polyrhythm in there for some extra anxiety. Thank you for the comment!

After some additional listening (aided by a good break from the track) I came to the same conclusion as yourself and twigged the levels weren’t balanced quite how they should be, especially for the genre - so I dropped all the faders to 0 and started again, but managed to get a much better mix in just a short space of time, and have mastered today - I think its a huge improvement…

If you were curious, here is the new version.

Thanks again for your kind words - it means a lot. I would like to check out your stuff - unfortunately I cannot visit your facebook page that you have linked in your profile as I do not have a facebook account (I know, I know…) so please feel free to message me some links!