Don't Overthink It...

As most of you probably know, I'm currently in the process of producing an EP with a single due to release on August 2nd 2017. Now I've been working on this single for a good long while and I've been picking it up, putting it down, changing this and changing that and it's all made me realize one very important thing:

Perfection doesn't exist.

Now this is a hard statement to come to terms with for a perfectionist like myself because we will literally obsess over something being perfect and trying to fix this and fix that. At the end of the day, all this is going to do is make your mixes worse.

Over-editing is a massive issue that I always seem to be facing because it'll get to a point where I'm about to do an export of a song and then I think to myself "Actually that could sound a little bit better". So I tweak this... And then I tweak that... Then this and that and this and that until all of a sudden - whoops, I've ruined the whole mix. It gets to a point where all of the efforts you put into something end up being to much.

A habit to get into is getting to a point where you've finished a mix that you're at a point of relative happiness with - don't spend multiple hours obsessing over the tone of the guitars or how the vocals sit or "that snare that doesn't have enough hit" type of thing - just a well balanced, relatively nice sounding mix that's done. It should only take you 30-40 minutes to complete each section of mixing (for me in metal it's drums, bass, guitars, vocals, MIDI Instruments so in my case it would be 150-200 minutes or 2-3 Hours average) so if you're spending any more time on your mixes than that - you're probably over thinking it. So get that 2-3 hour mix done and exported and sleep on it. Wait for the morning and give it another listen. Take the time to write out the obvious issues you have, nothing to extreme - the list should be short, maybe 3-5 items and they should be relatively specific (Like "Increase Aggression Of Toms" or something) - carry out your list (this should take even less time than the initial mix) and then export it and sleep on it again.

You get the idea of the type of approach I'm using here. By taking small steps and breaking on it you won't only improve the quality of your mixes but you'll actually increase the speed at which you're completing mixes. You'll get better quality mixes in less time because you won't be wasting time trying to fix issues that you've created though over-editing.

The fact of the matter is that you aren't ever going to please everyone. But you will always please someone. The world is so large and there are so many audiences that someone somewhere will notice your work and appreciate it so just get it out there. You'll increase your chances of getting noticed by bands and artists and you might even be picked up and taken on by a studio - the determination and consistency shows knowledge and reliability and at the end of the day that is what's going to get you the work and the success.

So the main thing to take away from this post is:

Don't overthink what you're doing - take enough time to get it finished to a decent level and then put it out there because it's the best way to improve your work.

Thanks for reading, I'll see you again tomorrow.