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PRE-CLASS ACTIVITIES
15 Dave Pensado mix tips every producer should start using now.
Use multiple monitors: Having multiple monitors gives you more to reference with. Each set of monitors gives you a new perspective.
Treat the room: This is very important, probably more important than monitors. If you don't treat the room properly, not matter what monitors you have in your room it's always not going to sound as good as it should.
Use reference tracks: Use referencing tracks, not to copy, but to learn reference different genres.
Your selling your taste, not your skills: Focus on the energy, your vibe, your taste. That's what people want.
Be patient with your progress: Have fun and be patient. You will be learning more as you go without realizing it, especially if your doing it everyday. Always be curious.
Mixing is what you do to finish the production, not what you add to it: Before adding make sure you finish the production. Pretty self-explanatory.
Work with people in your neighborhood: Most people are more productive when creating and working with another in your area. When one of the people starts to get traction/starts getting more recognized in the industry, guess who they are going to take along for the ride.
Study your heroes influences: Instead of studying your heroes, you should be studying their influences. If you study your heroes you probably won't get as much traction as there is already someone doing that, but you can study your heroes influences and get better than them with a new way of thinking.
Stop taking advice so literally: Convert advice from someone to an opinion. Understand the concept of what they are trying to teach you.
The teachers are the best resource: Teachers are passionate about what they do and are great resources for help. They can help you find work, they are there for any question and can help you sort out what is going through your head.
Mix track's of other people: You'll improve at mixing at a much faster rate if you are mixing other peoples tracks vs just your own. This is because you are dealing with deadlines and pressure.
Deadlines are vital: In any creative industry deadlines are important. You need to commit!
Know why the rough mix is better: Ask yourself why the rough mix is better, when you answer that question you'll become a better mix engineer. Engineers tend to focus on the technical side and not so much on the creative side sometimes.
Practice on mixed and mastered songs: This may help, but you may learn more regarding mixing by making already mixed and mastered songs better when mixing them (probably mostly compressing and EQing). This is great for beginners, it teaches how to make the mix blend together and stick together.
Aim to capture the feelings when mixing: Listen to songs that made you feel some kind of way and see if you can find anything new in it such as, the EQ, the effects. Try get the feelings to come out of the mi first before engineering the song.
Rules are made to be ignored: Rules can restrict the freedom you have to create.
IN-CLASS SUMMARY
Computer lab 1
Unfortunately, I ran about 20 minutes late for the session today so I missed out on the beginning of the session. When I arrived it seemed Wayne was already explaining what was required for the final reflection that was due in class next week, which was our final week of this module. This reflection was also to be presented in front of the class during the last class as well as the final productions for Project 3.
Wayne explained this was going towards our holistic grade and that this and our learning journals was going to be the make or break between who was going to get a good grade. There were examples which were displayed in front of everyone, which provided some clarity. The final reflection must be detailed and would have to,
Link all three of the previous projects with a mini description
Reflect on each of the transferrable skills and how they applied to our practice.
Answer the questions that were provided for the final reflections.
What you have learned/what you had hoped to improve on.
What grade you think you are deserving of
Provide a conclusion.
We were given this session to start working on them/complete our third and final upcoming project which was due this Friday. My group had a studio session booked straight after this session to record the vocals for our podcast, so I chose to work on my project as I knew I could mange the final reflection over the weekend. When Wayne came around to us we informed him of our change in plan and Wayne was pleasantly surprised. Wayne mentioned we should elaborate on the fact we changed our idea so many times in our project.
Computer lab 2
Similar to the last session Wayne advised us he was giving us this session to work on any work we needed to catch up on. This could be the final project, any outstanding reflections or the final reflection presentation due on Monday. My group had just finished our vocal recording session and we decided to make a rough template like we did for the previous project.
This template was to be the foundation on which each of us were going to do our individual mixes. This did not take long as it was being constructed on Bryce's log in, so we were able to smash it out in thirty or so minutes. After, I decided to start on my mix while I was at school as well as start writing up the recording process of the studio session we just concluded for the vocals of the podcast. This was to save any stress and unnecessary workload towards the end of the week when the project was due.
POST-CLASS REFLECTION
These last two sessions were invaluable. The examples Wayne gave us as to what he was expecting definitely helped me figure out how I was going to tackle this final reflection. It did, on the other hand, worry me as my group haven't even started our mix yet let alone finish recording. There is only two weeks left of this trimester and now there are four assignments due before the end. It's very daunting, but if this trimester has taught me anything it's that I know I can do this; I just can't drop the ball now.
We also have to catch up on any reflections we may have missed; I am very thankful that I've done all but two of them which makes the workload for the coming week easier. My plan of attack is to have the vocal recording done by the end of today at the latest, to start my mix today or tomorrow at least and, to have the write up mostly completed by the end of Thursday giving Friday the opportunity to finish the mix and write my project reflection. This is achievable even with factoring work.
That leaves the entirety of the weekend to finish my learning journal, complete my final reflection and prepare for my presentation next Monday. The final reflection is very important, but my self reflection is very up to standard, so I should have no trouble completing it. There is so much to reflect on as I have grown exponentially during these last 13 weeks; I've learnt so much about my practice.
My worry is the presentation, I'm not too sure how I am going to represent this to the class as I haven't had to present in front of a classroom in forever. Wayne did mention we can use this as an opportunity put our creative thinking to the test when it comes to presenting. A podcast and video were mentioned, so that could be pretty interesting to try and implement. There is a lot to consider, but I am leaning to maybe having a mixture of everything in my final reflection page. My creative thinking is definitely one of my strengths and I am a very visual person, so I have no doubt I will be able to make a great looking final reflection page for everyone to look at.
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