There's a lot of myths that pervade the audio recording and mixing world, one I hear repeated often is 'a mix is never finished, it's just abandoned!' To be honest, I think I might have even repeated it in the past, as with many pithy phrases we often pass them on before considering if they are true or not.
Now I know the quickest route to having no friends is taking a joke literally, by the way, that's me using the word 'literally' correctly, rather than the current trend of inserting it like a breath in every sentence. If you feel the need to use the word 'literally' in ways such as 'I was literally drinking coffee with them.' I can only assume you think most people think you talk abstractly for the rest of the time. While I'm at it, also stop starting sentences with the word 'so' an equally vacuous use of the English language. If you were a stand-up comedian and about to tell me about some people going into a bar then I might excuse you.
Anyway, now I've got that off my chest, back to having no friends.
The thing is some people repeat the mantra that a mix is never finished and believe it.
In my experience, for example, the last two weeks of my life is that all mixes have to be finished to an exceptionally high standard and often quicker than you would like. All I can assume is that people who believe this mantra either don't have clients, deadlines or don't make a living out of this profession.
Deadlines make a project an all-consuming, ravenous, perfectionist beast that has no respect for hunger, thirst, tiredness, toilet breaks, socialising, family, rest, exercise, days-off, weekends, early nights, lie-ins, that is if you get to sleep at all. And what can make matters worse is that if you are a perfectionist (most creative types are) then your standards are even higher than those paying the bills.
I recall a project where a client who spends a lot of money with me called me on a Monday to tell me they had forgotten about a project that needed to be delivered a few days later. They said it was their fault and they didn't mind if it wasn't to the usual standard as the other work we did. To my mind, there was only one standard, and that was the highest possible one, our work is only as good as our last project. The circumstances that may surround the delivery of work that is not to our usual standard are irrelevant. If someone who does not know the story behind some substandard work gets to know it was our work then it can affect our reputation. Reputation is tomorrow's profit.
Deadlines mean that a mix is ALWAYS finished and not in some 'that will have to do!' way but to as near as dammit perfection.
Gary Lux, a mixer with a list of artists that feature everyone from Sinatra to Sting says this;
"When I go to talk to young people one of the first questions I ask them is 'how many of you guys are mixing something right now, and you would do anything to make this mix fantastic', and all the hands go up in the room. The thing I say to them is finish the mix! That's how we learn; we keep working on something until we get it right then we use that on the next mix and improve it".
It seems we've touched a nerve "People don't finish, people can get something 95%, but you've got to finish. I tell people, if I didn't finish a mix then I wouldn't have a career."
There are thousands of people out there who want to be the next Bob Clearmountain, Tom Elmhirst or Mick Guzaski, if you are one of them then take Gary's advice and finish the mix.
Of course, you go back to a work you've completed and think to yourself, I could have made the bass louder, or the dialogue in that section could have done with a little less top end. I can't think of a single project that I poured blood, sweat, and tears into that I don't think that about, but again that's the nature of perfectionism. Doing this job for clients means balancing the tension of perfectionism and deadlines and coming up with the best possible outcome, but the edit or mix has to be finished.
You may think that deadlines are the enemy of creativity, I beg to differ.
Deadlines are the thing that sharpens us, they improve our ability to deliver under pressure, to stay focussed and to go beyond what we thought was possible with the time and budget provided, in fact with tighter deadlines and dwindling budgets they help us to perform miracles. In fact, I always know when friends are in the middle of a project with a deadline as their social media feeds go silent and they don't reply to emails or texts... the sign of a true professional. I've found that reducing all that noise of social media and other endless digital notifications in my life has greatly improved my work as a professional. For the record for phone is always on silent without vibrate and all notifications on my devices are muted. It's the only way for me to maintain focus and hit deadlines.
In some ways, mixing to deadlines and not is the difference between cycling for pleasure, like all the MAMILs I see at weekends pretending to be Chris Froome. A MAMIL can simply saunter along with their fellow MAMILs every weekend as they pretend to be in the Tour de France whereas Chris Froome has to work bloody hard to ensure he's the very best if he doesn't then he'll be doomed as a professional.
Let's stop repeating a mantra that isn't true for those who make a living from this work, a mix is always finished, it's what clients want, and if you don't finish them, they'll find someone else who will.