PB005 - Mixing it Up

TL;DR:

I’ve just posted a 45-minute mix on SoundCloud. It includes a bunch of my tracks (mostly demos) alongside other songs I’ve been listening to and using as references while making them. I'm not a DJ, but hopefully it’s passable.

It’s long, so pick your moment — but I hope it will a) be enjoyable, and b) help put Personal Best in some kind of musical context.

Below is a bit of background to why I picked each song, but first a bit of background as to why I’ve picked any songs.

These aren’t just songs that I like, or have taken musical inspiration from – although that’s true – they are the songs I’ve used as reference tracks for mixing and mastering.

Lost in Music

For someone who knows quite a lot about music production, but still nowhere near everything, mixing is an easy way to get lost in music – and not in a good way.

When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing or what was possible. I’d just record each part and adjust the volumes until I could hear everything and nothing sounded distorted. Listening back now, I hear all kinds of flaws — though I guess most people just hear a general sense of it sounding amateur. This process was definitely simpler though.

Since then I have ascended high enough up the path of production skill to glimpse the dizzying landscape of techniques, equipment, and plugins available. The view is enlightening but also overwhelming.  The struggle for me has been to take on board some of what I can see without getting disorientated by the infinite sea of options.

Other potential pitfalls include being tricked into thinking that this one compression plugin is all that stands between me and achieving my musical aspirations – rather than practicing guitar are just writing more music.

Speaker Differences

As I got better at understanding what I can do to control sound and tuning in to those differences, I became acutely aware of things that were seemingly out of my control.

It might seem obvious that different speakers and headphones have different levels of quality, but I’m still surprised by how dramatically these differences can affect the music. I’ll often finish a mix that sounds perfectly balanced at home, export it, and then find it completely unlistenable on a pair of headphones. A bassline that was present but controlled at home might suddenly vanish or become overwhelming.

iPhone speakers – to take an extreme example – simply cannot produce sound below a certain frequency. This could mean that whole parts of a bassline, or even just one crucial note, might disappear entirely. If the bassline is just following the chords of a song this might be sonically disappointing but musically unimpactful. But if that low note was adding harmonic colour to a chord, its absence can change the emotional feel of the entire moment

Even high-quality speakers colour the sound in subtle ways. By design, many will boost the bass while others will ‘brighten’ the higher, treble notes. But aside from the stylistic choices of manufacturers there will be unintentional, very narrow peaks and troughs that impact only a few notes. This can mean that on certain headphones or speakers one note ruins the mix every time its played.

Sometimes I even find that moving to a different set of speakers makes an element sound suddenly out of time.

These differences between speakers are confounded by the acoustics of a particular room. The shape of the room, the materials of the walls and floors, the angle of the speakers — all of these things shape how sound waves interact. Certain frequencies might build up unnaturally, while others cancel each other out. It took me a long time to realise that I was consistently over-boosting one particular mid-low frequency because my room was absorbing it too much — tricking me into thinking it was too quiet.

Reference Tracks

Anyway, one method to counteract these variations and unknowns is to mix against a reference track: I don’t know what this particular listening set-up is doing to my song, but I do know that it is doing the same thing to this other song that I know has been professionally mixed and mastered. If I try to make it sound like that song does on these speakers, I should be alright.

Obviously, it doesn’t help to compare to very different songs, so you need to pick something that is similar in feeling and instrumentation. It also needs to be a song that I think sounds great and sounds great on lots of different set-ups.

The Songs

So to finally arrive at my point; these are the songs I’ve been using as reference tracks.

Chelsea Carmichael – Bone and Soil

I truly adore this song. Musically, I have definitely tried to emulate its calmness and steadiness – driving without being overly loud. Sonically, I find the sparseness of the drums fascinating – just toms, clicks, and cymbals. All that’s needed to carry the riff..

Delicate Steve  - Sugar Splash

This is an old song and well outside the jazz sphere that is consistent everywhere else. Similarly to Chelsea Carmichael, I used this song as a reference because of the sparse drum kit, but it also has rich, layered guitars and a triumphant sound that was more relevant to one of my songs.

Alabaster De Plume – Whiskey Story Time

This is a beautiful song that definitely steered me musically when I first heard it. More recently, I’ve used it as a reference because of its well-balanced use of jangly acoustic guitar alongside layered saxophone.

Shabaka – Body to Inhabit (feat. E L U C I D)

This whole album is incredible, but I have listened to Body to Inhabit more than any other song in the last year. Again, I love that its rhythm is strong and clear enough to compel you to nod along, without needing to be loud or forceful. It is lush and rich whilst having relatively sparse instrumentation.

Nicolas Jaar, Will Epstein, Dave Harrington, Ian Sims – Ishmael

I discovered this song a few years ago. I started as a Nicolas Jaar fanboy, Darkside (Jaar & Harrington) were the original reference for Personal Best, but I am now far more interested in Dave Harrington’s solo guitar stuff. Musically, I love how this song meanders – going on a real journey without ever having a hook outside of the bassline. Sonically, it is just a perfect example of how to blend the aesthetics of electronic music and jazz without losing that which makes each of them good to begin with.

Please have a listen to the mix when you have an hour. Share it around. Tell someone about it.

Coming Up…

More moaning

Everyday, I see a band pulling their catalogue from Spotify. I’ve also had lots of conversations with people since my post about playlists. So next time I’m going to return to this topic.

AI

I’ve been thinking a bit about how to interpret the rise of AI generated music – economically and culturally. At some point soon I am going to write up my Marxian analysis. Which should be thrilling.

Thanks 🙏🙏

Thanks to everyone for listening to A River. I appreciate it.

Speak Soon. Free Palestine
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