I made this track, for a small label, I mixed & mastered it together with a veteran professional producer, in his professional build studio, on his professional monitor system. Fun!
Now, the track is part of a compilation vinyl, and the label wanted to mix & master each track again.
Immediately, the label guy told me that the mixing guy said this and that and this were technically unacceptably wrong in my mix and serious altering is necessary. But I disagree. Because I trust myself & my pro-studio buddy and what I hear in the pro-studio. But what can I do? I let them give it a go.
After a few days I got the first mix back. I canāt say I āhateā it, to me it sounds āmehā, but most of all: it doesnāt sound like my track anymore.
Part of me wants to be rude and give an ultimatum:
Itās gonna be my version - or I refuse to release.
Another part of me says: Dude chill, itās not important & nobody cares.
But I care! Thereās almost no money to be made, so if Iām not in control of my artistic choices, my sound, why even bother releasing my music?
What are your thoughts on this? Anyone experience anything similar?
PS: This is still ongoing. I asked for a second mix. Weāll seeā¦
I will answer both as a artist and a mixing / mastering tech.
As an artist I hate when people want to change things too much but as a tech I feel that the āreleaseā, the overall flow of all the tracks together, is more important than each individual tracks, as if you listen to the whole thing you should not be riding your volume and eq all the time.
Compilation are the worst to work on as a tech as you need to make sure at least the levels are ok between each tracks. On my side I try to mess as little as possible with the frequencies unless something is really āwrongā and would damage the whole release tho.
But clearly if you donāt like it at all you should say it and try to find a middle ground.
You could always ask them to append the name of the tune with the remix details, so if the songās called āHappy daysā, get them to call it āHappy days (label mix)ā or something appropriate that distinguishes it from any other versions that you might release later using your original mix.
Congrats on your vinyl release! They should be able to master your mixdown instead of wanting to mix it again. I wonder what their reasons are. It is true that it is difficult with compilationsā¦ how common are vinyl compilations? How many tracks per side?
I had a bad experience like this once when contributing to a collaborative project and the end result was that I gave an ultimatum, and it ultimately contributed to the strain and degradation of some partnerships.
Was it the right thing to do? To stand behind artistic integrity? I donāt know.
I know that I wasnāt wrong about my creative opinions or feelings, but I also know that I could have handled it better and probably kept the door open for working together in the future.
Sticking to your guns is sometimes the only thing you have as an artist which separates you from a hired performer, but there is truth in the adage that a situation is actually weighted at 10% representing the situation itself and the other 90% in the way that we react to it.
When dealing with other people be mindful of the 90% impact our actions have on the situation but donāt lose sight of the 10% which personally matters to you, just try to present it in a way makes it relevant to everyone and not just yourself.
Results in business partnerships often come down to communication and positioning, not that I know anything about success in business, but I do know a lot about failure and believe it or not, they are closely related.
it seems a bit weird they feel the need to mix it again.
Mastering wise: mastering for vinyl does come with some pretty serious limitations and they would have to do a separate master for this, which might sound kinda impaired. Like, stereo bass is just not going to work as an example. In fact just any massively wide stuff.
And for a compilation theyāre probably always going to want to do a remaster to make it all hang together at roughly the same loudness etc.
Thank you for all your insights. Very valid, all of them. They make me feel calmer.
UPDATE : I just got the new mix! ā¦ and I admit, it sounds better. Itās not my mix, but it doesnāt sound weird or āoffā now. And Iām going to just say to them āWow! Now it sounds AmAzInG!ā ā¦ and brace myself for how the mastered version will sound
Still I see no point in re-mixing a track. If you want consistency as a label, do it in the mastering phase.
Trust yourself. I got gaslighted into distrusting my ears and sanity recently by a small stupid label. It was a relief when I understood it was them who was crazy and was on some weird kind of powertrip. People likes to feel like they are in control and knows better than you. I see a pattern because the new small label im dealing with is on high horses too but atleast they know what they are doing.
The first mix has a lot of air in it, it sounds like a car mix. The wash of the reverb is a bit more present as an open element of the sound.
The second mix has more of a spank your bottom feeling, itās tucked into the trousers and feels a bit more focused like more of a club mix.
Iām listening on sub-optimal speakers so I canāt comment on the low end of either mix. They both sound ok, if Iām being honest I like the second mix better (sorry if itās not yours).
The AAAA (second) track does seem more consistent with your other mixes that Iāve heard, but I may not be hearing it objectively because I donāt have headphones with me, so if thatās their track then itās probably cool to go with it if you donāt mind it. If itās your mix then I probably think your mix is more appropriate to the genre but again, if your mix is the bright and airy one thatās fine too because I assume it was your vision for the sound of the track.
Not sure if that really helps you at all though!
Let other people comment before you give up the info though, Iām curious too!
Take this with a grain of salt as I donāt tend to listen to the ādance musicā end of the electronic music spectrum and donāt necessarily know the genre. Iām gonna agree with @shigginpit. The AAAA sounds more cohesive and is a more pleasant listening experience. Everything fits together pretty well. I get more of the interesting stereo stuff happening with the chords in this one, too. For what itās worth, I really enjoyed this song, and this isnāt a genre I gravitate to.
In the 1111 mix the kick is too loud for my taste. I appreciate the emphasized highs and the reverby sounds, but it makes the middle and middle-high frequencies sound a bit too emphasized (itās particularly notable with the resonant sound in the bridge-ish section near the end). The chords throughout kind of lose the interesting stereo qualities in this one.
I listened to this on my normal music-listening headphones, which have a slightly emphasized bass response but nothing overwhelming, if that provides any additional useful info.
Listening on my surprisingly decent but cheap Bluetooth headphones.
I prefer 1111, I think the more melodic elements hit harder and overall the mix is more balanced, although there are a couple of points where the kick/bass get a bit lost, but I can live with it.
AAAA I think is fine, but the bass is a bit too heavy in the mix and blunts the emotional impact of some of the other elements.
Having said all of this, Iām no italo disco expert, so unsure which sort of mix profile goes down best in the genre.
