Imagine this:
you go to a really famous restaurant. And in the kitchen there is a really good chef. He is cooking your favorite meal. He seasons the meat and the cook vegetables (sorry vegetarians) and actually was already prepping the food early in the morning. He might have started this at 6a.m. to go to a local market. So when carefully making your food, he needs to put it on the plate. But instead of putting it on a plate, he simply tosses is in the blender and poor the grew, brown goo on your plate. Still the same food, still the same ingredients, but would it taste the same? (considering a lot of your taste comes through your eyes too)
We, without mixing or mastering, you do the same thing. You have carefully saved money for your instruments and went out to play multiple ones before you decided to by it. Next spend hours building nice verses, chorus, working on that one note in the bridge. Just think of the hours spend on finalizing the details of your song or track. So why would you then put it through a blender to give it to your audience.
Let’s compare mixing to the art of cooking again. With the mix you set how much potatoes, where to put it on the plate. You select the spices to be added and maybe a little salt. Mixing is very similar to this. You carefully set the panning, loudness, EQ’ing and much more things to each of the ingredients. (Spicy musicians does sounds like a nice dish though). Next you put it all in a box with the rough outline of where it should come. Then you position it on the place.
But have you ever noticed that there is another step in a kitchen going on. Before it comes to you, the final person will add that splash of vinaigrette or maybe some salt or even balsamic oil. That is what the mastering does. And mastering also makes sure that the sizes of the starter matches the main and the dessert.
So, don’t, let me put that in caps, DON’T let people listen to your first rough recording. This might sounds cocky but there is a reason behind it. In the past 15 years I met several bands trying to hand out demoes. They did there best on the recording side and are massively enthusiastic on what they created. But it actually sounds like it was recording in a bathroom. The reverbs are wrong, the singer is way to loud and that crispiness actually sounds like needles to most people’s ears. So they don’t get the gig. Because, you as the drummer are listening to the drums and the bass player is listening to the bass sound and the guitar player wants his solo to be louder. And before you know it the spectrum is filled with ego instead of music. But the promoter of the venue doesn’t care about that. He wants it to sound good. And keep in mind, the others competing with you for gigs might have a mixed and mastered version of their demo. So you chances suddenly dropped below zero of getting the gig.
In need of some mixing of mastering? Feel free to contact me!
WORD OF WARNING: I am not a trained engineer. I am working with over 20 years of experience in making music and also making mistakes. Yes, some of the sounds I produced 10 years ago were not good. But the real question is, can I make it sound better? That is something I can guarantee to you.