Mixing With Purpose [Get Out of a Rut]

When you are mixing, do you ever feel like you throw plugin after plugin on just because you saw a video of someone else doing the same thing? Rather than mixing with purpose and using your ears to dictate each move? Well, I know I catch myself in this spot sometimes. So I created this video to show you 3 easy steps I came up with to get back to being objective and mixing well. Hope you enjoy!

okay so you’re on youtube over herelearning to mix from this videoand then you hop over here to a forumcheck out this pluginboost this put that on your kick overhere ds herecompress here for your vocal and thenyou do it all you’re just stockpilingall this stuffall this information all these differentplaces and you do it all and then theidea strikes hmmi wonder if i hit bypass what thingswill sound like so you try it outand lo and behold how frustratingit actually sounds better without thisstuff nowif that sounds familiar stick aroundbecause today i want to talk to youaboutmixing with intention all right here we[Music]go[Music]all right welcome back everybody i’m adam clairmont and thisis the adam clairmont show where we talkabout building and growing your careerinaudio with actionable tips from myselfand othersnow before we begin i want to talk toyou about building your client list because that’s the goal here we want tohave a lucrative career a fun successfulcareerand it kind of starts with havingclients having work soif you’ve seen other projects you’relike man i would love to get a projectlike that i’ve seen other people workingmenhow do they do it well adamclairmont.com/clientlist it’s a free guide it takes 30seconds it will go directly to yourinbox and soeasy step-by-step process and how youcan begin those first stepsand how to get the projects you’ve beenlooking for and the clients that you’vebeen looking forto elevate your game and just get to thenext step so adamclarirmont.com/client list i hope you’ll go and grabthat and get started todaynow what i really want to talk to youabout today ismixing with intention now adam what areyou talking about what is mixing withintention i’ve never heard that onebeforeokay well let me just paint a picturefor you like i mentioned earlieri was someone who and still am i love todevouruh video tips like the ones that i giveandplenty of other i love panzado’s placeand mixing with the mastersand produced like a pro and the urmacademy just shout out you know davidglenn academyum i mean there’s countless countlessothers you know umthe noise floor there’s there’s you knowgive a bunch of shout outs hereso much useful information in the forumstoo rightuh the problem is or at least my problemand this video is kind of a reminder formyselfi’m guessing that there’s some peopleout there who can relateso i’m hoping this is helpful and thisisn’t just serving for me so the problemthat i’ve found with myselfthat i gotta get out of the rut ofsometimes is you know you stockpile allthese tipsyou know and next thing you know you’vegot this template build up where yourgo-to’sare the things that you just read aboutokay you gotta add a de-esser with thiskind of threshold or this specificplug-inevery time you know and the kick drumyou got to cut here and you boost hereand you start to do that and you knowthe problem that ii get into and let me know if you relatein the commentsis what happens is instead ofobjectively mixingwhen i’m getting into a project myrolodex begins and just starts spinningstep one step two step threeand it’s not necessarily me saying okaywhat do i hear what do i need it’swhat did i just read what was a tip thatsounded super cool let me do thatand you know you hear the comments fromthe videosand you hear the comments in the forumsoh i love this that works greatso i feel like i get my my objectivitygets taintedright it’s it’s now it’s biased by whati just readright and the excitement i have withthis thing umand we get into a rut it’s really easyin what we do because you know how manytimes are we eq’ing a vocalor a dialogue track or a music bed or akick drum or you know what have youit’s the same thing over and over againright um and it’s easy toget biased and think okay well i alwaysgotta add 60hz this kick drum righti’ve always got to add a de-esser overhere on this vocal or whateveri’ve always gotta add a compressor andthen this and it’s always this oneand sometimes that can work really wellbut my point isthink about this next time you’re theretryhitting that bypass button to see if itactually gets betterplenty of times it will but sometimes itwon’tand it won’t because it’s we’re notobjectively mixing at that point we’renotmixing with intention right what we’redoing is we’re reacting to what we justreadand just throwing it on there right andi’m not saying this is for everybodyagain this is kind of me talking aboutwhat i got to get out of the habit ofbecause for me one of the things thati’ll say often is i want to make thebest product every single timeby doing as little as possible as fastas possiblebut i’m willing to do as much as i needto foras long as i need to do it you know sothe idea is i want to work fast so i canget through a lot of workyou know if you’re interested inproductivity hacks and working fasterfor your careercheck out this video up here it’s aninterview with billy decker who’s thekingbut we talked about this right soi want to work fast right the way towork fast is to cut out the fateliminate steps we don’t need and thissort of plays along with that you knowunderstanding why you’re adding thething that you’re addingand is it making a difference and i’mnot talking aboutnot spending any time on creativitybecause you know this is kind of a funnyconversation becauseclearly we need to take our time andsort of go placesto try things out and be creative andthere’s a place for that certainlybut what i’m talking about is you knowthis preliminary stuff you know thestuff that just adds up we do because weread instead of doing because we need itso the first thing that i’d like you todo the next time you sit down and mixis listen through the whole song or ifyou’re working for like a radio spot oryou know uh maybe like a tv show or afilmwatch the scene all right we’re probablyworking on a scene at a time right orrun down the song it only takes threefour minutesrun it down and take notes of what youwant to doyou know what needs your attention justone time throughyou know if you’re struggling with thatdo twice but i wouldn’t i wouldn’t runit down any more than twicebut take notes now you’ve got ablueprint of the things that you want toattackright so we don’t get sidetracked allright so now you’ve got a sort ofblueprint of where you want to goall right you know and it might besomething like uh you know vocals soundreally harshuh there’s no there’s no attack in thekick drumum you know the chorus needs a lot ofdelayetc you get the picture but just putdown your your notes of where you’regonna go your blueprint you know yourmap for the dayokay the next step is to take out yourphone and make a timer for just30 seconds so only spend 30 seconds onone item so maybe that’s going to be aneqon your dialogue track or maybe it’sgoing to be you know your reverbor whatever but don’t spend any moretime than 30 seconds on it because ithink once we start to go past that thenwe’re notthinking intentionally we’re guessingrightand we’re gonna save all that creativityin that guesswork for after everythingelse isin its place and tucked in okay soafter 30 seconds step away get your mindoff itall right and go to the next thing onyour list focus rightwhen you get through that list with thatwhole with a with a timeryou can go back you know reset the timeri’m not saying don’t ever go backbut what i think will end up happeningis you’re going to start to realize thatall those things that you started tojust doyou might reveal some things that maybei didn’t actually need all of thosethings you know i got through this witha lot less time than i expectedand it actually sounds pretty good ididn’t do abci did a b i think i’m still goodmaybe the next thing needs abc but whenyou’re thinking aboutinstead of you know going through themotions and thinking about thatand thinking about that video you justwatched over herewe get back into that objective mindsetwhich is you know which is importantokay and then the last stepis take a post-it or a notebook paperand write the word in big letterswhy with a question mark every time youput up that pluginevery time you open up that compressorevery time you ride that faderask yourself why if you can’t explainwhat you’re doingdon’t do it right and this isthe intention behind your moves rightthis is what’s going to move youforward to the goal faster byunderstanding clearly and it reinforcesthe whole way againyou took notes at the beginning you knowthat’s that’s the stuff thatin your gut you immediately knew thatyou needed to doright and that stuff is the mostpowerful stuff you can probably that’sthe information that’s really going toget youtoo far toward your goal you know thatinitial reaction is always the mostrevealing to meright so if you can’t explain whylike with your notes then you shouldstoptake a moment think about it rightor just try it out give yourself those30 seconds try itthen hit the bypass button is it betteryes cool stop move on reset your time orgo to the next thingif it’s not any better move along takeit offgo to the next thing of your notes butpoint is moving thinking objectivitybe intentional with what you’re doingyou know don’t takeevery piece of you know form fodder thatyou readis gospel you know try all that stuffit’s really cool it’s a lot of funthat’s how we learnbut don’t get in the rot like i dosometimes where oh manthis is how i get to the next stepbecause ithose people said they have greatsuccess with it how many times have youtried stuff that other that works forother people and just doesn’t workit’s the most frustrating thing what wedo i know it’s common thoughso yeah just don’t get stuck in that rutso i don’t i hope this makes a littlebit of sense for you i think it’s reallyeasy to try this outand i wouldn’t necessarily recommenddoing this with every single mix goingforwardbut i think what it does as an exerciseis it takes that flashlight and itreally shines it on what you’re doingactually with the plugins in yourworkflow and also it shines a light onyourthought process which is important whenwe’re moving forward rightto to have the intention to understandthe goalbecause if we don’t that’s when we’rejust aimless you know there’s a lotthere’s a huge difference betweenaimless mixing and workingtowards something creatively tryingthings out you know what i meanso try that out let me know what youthink in the comments below okaythat’s all i’ve got for you in thisvideo if you like what you saw pleasehit the subscribe buttonhit the notification bell so you don’tmiss any videos just like this i’ve gotplenty comingevery week a lot of great interviews andinsights and also don’t forget your freegift at adamclairmont.com/clientlist an easy guideto help you get startedbuilding your business all right sountil the next video thanks for watching