Why “Clarity & Separation” are Overrated

*****
CONNECT WITH ME:

#Mixing #HomeStudioCorner

[gloom]

Nice to see an appearence from Jordan. I'd watch the hell out of a collab between you two!

[marcotrosi]

I can not express how much I needed to hear this. All these years I thought my "ear"/"mixing taste" was wrong/bad.

[BurntMcgurnt]

Good call throwing Jordan in there ! Perfect! Also another classic Jordan quote Mix with your ears not your fears!

[CoryWaldroup]

Couldn’t have said it better myself! Thank you for saying it.

[jeffpollitt]

Jordan, good guy, no bullshit and tells you how the journey has been for him. Joe your the same, great shout out !!

[LennonStephens]

Great video and great topic! I hear so many wanting clarity and separation in their mixes only to champion that 2 bus "glue" compressor or complain that the vocal doesn't sit in the mix.

[stevecolley]

The brain can't cope with listening to excessive things at once in detail. The magic comes with how everything comes together and how it makes you feel.

[peterelfman]

"Wrong and strong" had me laughing for a while. You rock, Joe, keep doing what you do.

[cliveburgess]

I use something I got from you along time back, get the mix ok, then drop everyone out except the rhythm section, get the bass, drums and guitars tight and sitting well, then start adding to it, not overriding what you already have, good thing I don't have youtube channel, I explain really badly! But it works well, thanks!

[DerekPower]

This reminds me of Ratatouille when Remy was first told about the magic behind cooking. It's about combining two different flavours to create a new sensation and experience as if it were a "new flavour". My 128-character definition of mixing is "bringing together different elements to form a cohesive whole". Time was that mixing engineers were referred to as "balancing engineers" as their goal to ensure that instruments were in balance with each other and that it sounds like a performance that you would hear as if you were in the concert hall.

[stevekirkby]

Frequency interferance is where it's at!

[experimetalfan]

I always balance everything as much as possible and then I dig in to finetune the channels
(must admit, many times too much)
but you are absolutely right, THE MIX/end product is the goal -not the clear seperate instruments

[davejohnsonmusic]

Yes, you and Jordan have similar takes and messages.

[chestnut.mountainstudio]

Great Vid JOE you always make my day😆

[damianoakes]

There's a great video on here YouTube called "Breaking down David Bowie's 'Heroes' – Tony Visconti & Erin Tonkon" where the producer goes through the 24-track multitrack of the song, and there's a lot of stuff you don't really hear in the final mix, but "Heroes" is one of the best songs ever, due in no small part to how well Visconti mixed it with how he blended those elements together. And that song was recorded and mixed at Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin on a Helios console with a famously non-surgical 3-band EQ, which gets to what I think is the best antidote for someone to get out to the "clarity & separation" mindset: put away the 17-band parametric EQ & sidechain stuff, and just try putting a vintage channel strip on every channel of your mix–Helios, Neve, API, whatever–and mix like you would on a console; a lot of your favorite songs were mixed that way, so you'll probably get closer to their sound, and once you get really good at that you'll also be better with the surgical stuff because you'll realize how little of it–if any at all–is actually needed.

[unclemick-synths]

Good video 👍. Yep, folks can get carried away with separation and end up with sterile mixes. Yes, there are some people into mixes like that but clinical mixes don't impress me beyond mild intellectual interest.

[nickclube]

Interesting point of view from Joe, but following that line of argument, I really wonder if he would for example call Bob Clearmountain's mixes "timid" and "wimpy"? It would be unthinkable, yet his mixes allow good clarity of each instrument whilst at the same time being both coherent with all instruments creating a wonderful whole that is emotionally involving and satisfying. Therefore, I don't see the desire for learning that skill being a bad thing at all - it's possible!
In general, I agree the whole mix, the blend of parts etc and its emotional impact is the main thing. I am just saying, if you can additionally create clarity of each instrument then that is one massive bonus to the listener as they can delight in each musician's performance.

[tommorgan]

"something has gone horribly wrong". I am getting better, but that unfortunately is too often my reaction to my mixes. LOL.

[DreamsongsProductions]

What you're saying is right, too much separation is wrong and it sounds thin. But, many times I run professional masters through my studio monitors and of course you can hear every single instrument being played. Everything is detectable. So the question for mixers is how to achieve a mix where every instrument being played can be picked out even though it's only one instrument out of a full mix. That is the challenge and where my focus always is....

[TheTonyTitan]

Egg to cake is Glue compression to a mix. It's an emulsifier.