Proper Recording Vs. Mixing And Fixing

Author: Skyline Entertainment & Publishing | | Categories: Audio Mastering , Audio Mixing , Audio Post-Production , Audio Pre-Production , Audio Production , Editing , Immersive Audio , Mastering , Mixing , Music Production , Recording Studio , Sound Design , Voice Over

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With the introduction of audio editing technology, the effects on final musical products have improved significantly. The new editing effects help induce a modern vibe to old hits and create unique works of expression from scratch. Moreover, mixing and editing allows artists to add elements to their audio that help express their music better.

However, there’s nothing like the charm of a pure, natural voice. Also, after fans fall in love with an artist’s music, they want to see them perform it live, and if there’s too much editing on the track, the live performances will show a vast difference, which isn’t always flattering.

As you can see, there are different sides to mixing and proper natural recordings, and this makes it challenging to choose between them. To help you make a decision between the two when producing your music, Skyline Entertainment & Publishing has compared both options. Below we have explained the benefits and drawbacks of each option and provided our opinion on how you should make your choice.

1. Proper recording

Proper recording of the source saves on editing and mixing time. It even gives the artist a truer representation of what their end product will sound like. At the same time, as there are little to no faults, it’s easier to speed up the delivery of the final product to the market, as the editing and mixing time is reduced significantly. It’s also easier to produce a more original, natural-sounding final product this way, which is a true representation of what the artist sounds like when performing live.

On the other hand, the recording process takes much longer and can be more wearing on the artist as they need to spend long days in the studio. In some cases, long days can sometimes result in performances that represent how tired the artist is from several hours in the sterile environment of the recording studio. For a producer or engineer who doesn’t have a lot of inputs available to capture multiple musicians (especially drums) at once, they might need to sacrifice the quality of microphones or preamps used for these various sources.

2. Mixing and fixing

Editing and mixing with massive amounts of plugins and virtual instrument replacements makes a complete remix of a record (song) possible. These developments in editing, comprise some of music’s biggest achievements as they allow an artist to release multiple versions (genres) of a song, recorded only once, maybe with the re-tracking of the lead voice. This allows the artist the ability to generate more revenue streams from plays online of the same song but in different genres.

On the flip side, mixing and fixing also have their cons. For starters, the final product won’t necessarily sound like the original artist(s)’ performance. The excessive editing requirements put a lot of work and strain on the editing and mixing engineers. Also, they can significantly slow down the production time as many days and hours will be spent in editing and mixing with less spontaneous recording “magic” captures.

Bottom line

At Skyline Entertainment & Publishing, our professional opinion is that all artists can benefit from taking the time to accurately capture the source during recording, like making a live mixing decision versus waiting to use processing like EQ (equalization) and compression after recording.

But, before choosing an option, all artists need to check the time and budget at their disposal. Access to enough gear is just as important, to capture the recording in the way the artist wants to hear it on the final record (single) or album. If the artist wants to go by what people really enjoy, proper recording and proceeding are the way to go. That way, the audio sounds like a live capture, which really brings the authentic feel and sound of the artist to the fans and listeners.

For more tips and insights about audio recording, reach out to Skyline Entertainment & Publishing. We offer full audio pre-production and post-production services across Morgan Hill, Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, Fremont, San Jose, Saratoga, Los Gatos, and Santa Cruz, California. Our services are available for any project from musical groups to orchestral projects, including surround sound for game and film audio. As experienced professionals, we love the work we do and are happy to assist our clients in any way that we can.

To learn all about our skills and services, please click here or get in touch with us by clicking here

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