[Frank Stearns]

(Scott Dorsey) writes:

Frank Stearns wrote:

Well, there are "tracks" and there are "music elements". Some music elements take
one track (a lead voice, say), or lots of tracks, such as a drum kit, backing singer
overdubs (multiple passes), or various percussion knick knacks.

For live recordings, often the PA guy will have a massive number of tracks
up there, but you only care about a few of them. I'll see guys with 96
channels at FOB, but it will be split up among three different bands so
that the opening acts can be set up and the channel strips left alone
and no console reset needs to be done between acts. As a recording engineer,
I might only care about 16 of those 96 channels at any given time, but
making sure I get the right 16 and in the right order can be an adventure.

Sounds like fun. Fortunately, my live stuff is mostly single-show acoustic or
classical, 8-16 tracks, rarely more, though I do have one this Friday running 22
tracks.


Ironically in the digital world, the PA consoles all have scene recall and so
you don't see that any longer... people just store the state for the opening
acts and switch scenes in and out. On the other hand, it means that the
channel names all change when the acts change.

Some recalls might also change the soft patches. Then you're really in for a "good
time".

When you think in terms of "musical elements" the process is far less daunting --
and you can more quickly ascertain whether you have a good arrangement lurking under
all those tracks. If so, then it's YOUR job as the mix engineer to bring out the
music.

In the digital studio world, there's no reason to throw out a scratch track
or a scratch stem mix. Maybe the producer thought bongos would sound good,
and they laid down a bongo track but then decided to never use it. In the
analogue world where tracks are limited we'd wipe it, in the Pro Tools world
it just sticks around forever. So there might be a vast number of tracks
going into the mixing session that are never used.

The first time I tackled a 110 track mix, I was overwhelmed. But the experience did
nudge me square into thinking in terms of music elements. Mix quality went up for a
given amount of time put in.

And I bet the more time you put in, the more stuff you cut out of the mix too.

That's what I'd expected, but it didn't happen as much as anticipated -- but then, I
haven't yet done a large number of these 100+ track mixes to get a good sense of
what typically happens, though I would expect underdubbing to be a mixer's best
friend.

Ironically, on a 98 track mix, after I'd spent of lot time making it "all work", the
producer dropped a single track, an electric piano, which cleaned up a lot of
things.

The larger irony is that I'd suggested dropping that piano track the first time I
heard it, but they said "no, see if you can make it work." Well, I did, but in the
end they did change their minds. I didn't change the bill for that mix, however.


I'm now far less likely to condemn a high-track count session out of hand. I've
learned to use such things to my advantage.

I'm still apt to condemn it, on the grounds that it's a sign that people are
not making decisions in the tracking session and passing those decisions on
to the mixing stage. I want to see decisions made as quickly as possible so
as little time as possible is wasted. This can be hard to do when the producer
has no vision about what it should sound like, or if his vision conflicts with
the band's vision. But that's another issue.

In the projects I've done, it's more of the latter and for that reason I'm probably
quicker to condemn "collaboration". J.S. Bach had a clear vision of what he was
doing and didn't tend to invite others to help; and I have the sense that Trevor
Rabin has a razor-sharp view of what he wants as well.

Now, if you want to bring in a hot-shot drummer to do what he does best, that's fine
-- the experienced producer knows what they might get. And I'm okay with 12-15
tracks to capture that drum session.

What could get ugly is the producer saying, "okay, let's do another pass, but lay it
back a bit more .... okay, now one more but lean into it a little more". Now I've
got 45 tracks of drums to deal with. (Still not completely the end of the world;
it's easy to group those three passes and jump around among them.)

But yes, I agree, a little more clarity going in makes for better music. But hey, if
they give me carte blanche to fix a mess (and the budget to match), I don't mind
jumping in with both feet.

Frank
Mobile Audio

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