Know when to take a break By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

Whether you are new to mixing, an amateur, semi-pro or fully professional mixing engineer it is always important to take time away from a mix because it’s very easy to get in too deep with adding plugins, tweaking EQs and cycling reverb presets etc and before you know it, your productivity slows right down and your decisiveness suffers. As harsh a reality as that is, there is a way to fix it.

During a mix, take 5-10 minutes away from the session every hour. It’s really important to give your ears a rest as they can fatigue very easily and in the mixing world, there’s nothing more important than your ears. After mixing for a long period of time you will inevitably become biassed towards your own mix because you have simply gotten used to what you’re hearing and it can become very difficult to make objective decisions in terms of EQ and compression.  It’s good to give your mind a rest, it’s a time to regroup, gain some perspective and refresh before going back to work. Try to implement this as a standard whether you feel like you can keep going or you’ve hit a ‘wall’ and value the time away from the session as much as the work itself.

As well as breaking away during the mix, it’s also very helpful to take a day or two when you’ve completed a mix. This is particularly useful to do before you sign off the work as you will be completely fresh to the session and be able to make a clear cut decision on whether to approve the mix or not. I’m not suggesting that when you revisit your work after a break that you’ll find problems, in actual fact the time away may just give you the answer that you’re looking for and you can give your seal of approval there and then. For me, when I come back to mixes It’s often that I’m not 100% happy with the level of a vocal and I might add some automation, then I’m happy. Sometimes it’s simply the level of a wet reverb signal and I may have been overly generous or not made the effect prominent enough.

Never get yourself to a point within a mix where it becomes a stressful task, as soon as you start to feel this happening – walk away immediately, it’s time to take a break. Coming back to a mix with fresh ears is the best thing you can do as you’ll be able to EQ and hear compression more accurately and most importantly make decisions quicker. Remember to value the time away from a mix as much as the time spent on one because more often than not, it’ll be exactly what you need to move forward and finish the mix.