How To Get A Perfect Mix Every Time
Grammy-winning mixer, and founder of The Mix Consultancy, Dom Morley, explains how striving for perfectionism can actually put the brakes on the process of achieving your best mix…
I’m about to save you a lot of time and stress: There’s no such thing as a perfect mix.
Mixing is a part technical, part creative endeavour. Ask anyone with an obviously technical job (computer programmer, marine engineer, biochemist, whatever) how often they achieve perfection in their work, and you’ll probably be laughed at. Ask anyone with an obviously creative job (sculptor, choreographer, novelist, etc) how often their work is perfect, and they’ll probably look at you like you’re mad. And yet, so many of us strive for perfection in mixing when really, it’s something that doesn’t exist, and in fact perfectionism is making your mixes worse.
I probably need to explain myself here. Perfectionism is often described by psychologists as the arch-enemy of autonomy, and autonomy is something that is essential to creativity. Autonomy can be loosely described as the ability to work without outside pressures and in your own time and space, but importantly, it’s also about being free to make mistakes and learn from them. Perfectionism is all about avoiding mistakes, and autonomy is about allowing them to happen. And if you can’t make mistakes then you can’t be creative.
The mind-set of perfectionism will always be looking for the ‘right’ way to mix something, instead of looking for a great way to mix it - however that goes and whatever that means on the day. I will often try something out when I’m knee-deep in a mix, follow that idea for a while, then realise it doesn’t work. Bad idea. Mistake. But no problem - I learnt more about what doesn’t work which gets me closer to what does. The need to find the ‘right’ solution can mean a weird idea is cut off too soon before it’s really been explored, or before it’s had a chance to inspire something else that does work.
No Such Thing As Perfect
That’s not to say that high standards aren’t important. They definitely are if you want to be doing your best work, but balance is needed, and the goal should be something called ‘excellencism’. This is a new term used by psychologists (and one of the ugliest words I’ve seen in a long time), and it separates the positive aspects of perfectionism from the negative. Because there is no ‘perfect’ mix, work towards something you consider to be excellent, be fully autonomous in how you define excellent, and realise that your idea of ‘perfect’ is more about how you think others might have mixed the track rather than how you did it.
As I see it, perfectionism is excellencism + comparison. By that I mean that once you’ve done a mix that you love (excellent), self-doubt creeps in and you wonder if it’s good enough, or if there is a better version of this mix (perfect)? Trust that there isn’t. Just a different version. Excellencism means that you can actually finish a mix and move on to the next one!
I was recently asked by an artist if I think I should mix a song he’s already had mixed by someone else. My response was that you shouldn’t ask a mix engineer if a song needs mixing again - because the answer will always be ‘yes’. This isn’t out of greed (or a freelancer’s fear of turning down work!), but because when we hear a mix, we hear things that we would do differently. I could mix that track, and it would come out different to the mix he already had, for sure, but ‘better’ is very subjective. And that’s because there is no perfect - there is excellent, of course, and then just various flavours of excellent depending on the style and taste of the person doing the work.
The best way to get good at mixing (at anything, in fact) is purposeful practice - where you’re not just doing the same thing over and over again but doing it again with a specific goal in mind. Mix as many tunes as you can to the absolute best of your abilities, get some good feedback along the way so you can learn the areas where you need to improve, and then mix a load more. Striving for ‘perfection’ will put the brakes on this process as you obsess over each mix until all the life has gone out of it - where perspective left the building long ago. But more than that, letting go of perfectionism means you’ll enjoy yourself more, and having fun while you are working will make you more creative, so your mixes will be better.
More Recording Resources From Dom Morley
Dom is the founder of the Mix Consultancy, a zero risk (money back guarantee) way to get notes on your tracks to help improve the sound. Whether you're an artist who likes to mix all their own work, a composer putting together a pitch on a limited budget, or an engineer who wants a discreet second opinion before sending a mix off to a client - we're here to help.
“I just completed a mix with the help of Dom Morley & The Mix Consultancy. The mix we turned over was qualitatively better than the one I would have gone with on my own.
It's been said that "a mix is never done, it's just abandoned", but the truth is, you *really* do feel a sense of completion and closure having worked with Dom because you know in your heart that you did everything you possibly could to get the best result possible for the client.
The beauty behind the process is that not only do you get a better mix for your client, but Dom's advice contains all kinds of gold that you can borrow and deploy in future mixes.”
Geoff Manchester
From engineering tips to production advice, EQ and compression basics to mix specifics, we’ll give you the information and guidance that you need to take your mixes to the next level. Find out more here
In addition to the one-to-one advice Dom has produced some excellent online courses;
Everything You Need To Know About Recording Vocals
Preproduction, DAW set-up, preparing the studio, psychology, equipment. Literally everything you need to know.This is a short, free, mini-course on the four things that you really need to know in order to get great mixes, and the four things that you really don't!