Over the last 15 years that I’ve been advertising “my wares” on the Internet, i.e., my Pro Audio Services, I’ve always kind of stuck to recording, mixing, and eventually mastering but now I believe we need to offer: Recording, Fixing, Mixing, Mastering.

Even before the Digital Audio Workstations there were engineers that considered themselves “mixers” not recording engineers. I’ll never forget the first time I heard this while working with a disgruntled engineer from NY on a Nashville session who kept referring to himself as a “mixer” not a recording engineer. But this post isn’t about terminology as much as it’s about the actual step in the process.

Since we can fix it now, why not? A little late here, a little early there, that notes a little flat and this one doesn’t last long enough or maybe too long. Let’s get rid of that little breath or turn it up. With mixing, it did at one time just mean balancing, blending and getting your mix to sound “like a record.” And that is still the process but now we have thrown in some “fixing” into the process.

One problem with the two steps getting mixed all together is the concentration. These are two very different forms of concentration. I’m no psychologist, but I do know that listening as a mixer and listening as a fixer and even listening as a Mastering Engineer are three different things and you listen differently. And even listening as a tracking and overdub engineer has it’s own specialized listening set of ears.

I’m sure the big boys have this all figured out and there are engineers that come in in the nasty hours and fix and move everything so that the highly paid “mixers” can only concentrate on the task at hand and try to polish the turd so that it can get millions of illegal downloads eventually. Ah, but I jest, of course. Piracy has pretty much destroyed the music “business” but that’s another post as well. And of course not all popular music is “turdish.”

But us guys on the fringe, making a living selling a mix here and there or a mastering job here or there do not have that luxury. We must Mix and Fix and toss it around in a great big bowl and throw in a little elastic audio every now and then, tweak, then re-tweak and go back to the original and then tweak some more! Yes, Mix it, Fix it and make it work, then tear it apart and do it again. It’s a really big mess… But in the end you can sometimes get something that sounds like music, but it may take a few months of not hearing it to hear it this way.

So just to be clear and to summarize: I can now Record your Music and even “Produce” it. I can fix what you or anyone else did that was not so great. I can then mix it all and provide you with mastered product. All for $19.99. BUT WAIT! Order now and get an additional mix for Free! Just pay shipping and handling.

I was, of course, kidding about the $19.99 part… At least for now.