Seven tracks almost done now. This time things are running pretty smooth. Guess we’ve grown some knowledge… I have an ambivalent relation to the mixing process. To let the babies go after, sometimes, years in the making can be a hassle. At first it always seems like it don’t turn out/sound as good as the original ruff mix. The same feeling as I got when building the song can be hard to capture.
I’m reminiscing about the spring/summer of 2002 when we did the “The Struggle Continues” mix. That was a total nightmare. My ambitions were raised to the limit and we had to build everything up from scratch based on the arrangements done in the MPC, SP and Motif. Then down to 2-inch reel-to-reel tape and mix from there on a Trident TSM (for you tech-freaks) desk in a completely overheated studio. And I’m not a schlook that’s known for using few and clean sounds when building my compositions, so we had a couple of frustrating months working it to some kind of perfection. The day when I’m pleased is the day I stop making music.
On Fort Europa I let two engineers mix the whole album while I approved mixes via mail. Neither a flawless way to work. “Can you raise Promoe’s “yeah” and fade it to the left at bar 17, beat 2 2 Db, please”.
Team-work on location seems to be the best way and now we’re working a future classic: Ginger and Lemon. My favorite track today! Peace
/The Comfortable Analogue Lover
