8 MISTAKES Audio Engineers Make Every Day

Stop making these mistakes BEFORE they become a habit!

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[johnbird]

I've watched every single video from HCMS that I've come across. I know there hasn't been one single misleading tip or piece of advice yet. I'm the king of bad timing. I have a year until I have to go back to a day job. But we live right now on 1 income. Once I start working again, I will without a single doubt, be enrolling in the full course. If you can, do it now! I've already looked around. This genuinely seems the most legit source of information that I've seen in YouTube land.

[angermanagementstudios]

Mistake number 1:

Working with terrible musicians who have terrible songs, arranged terribly and performed half arsed.
Turd polishing will always be turd polishing.

Great vid as always mate. Love this channel.

[ampersand]

SUMMARY (for those who want it):
0:11 First Mistake: not spending enough time tracking.
It's more effective to get great performances and dial in good tones when tracking than trying to fix in mixdown.

1:09 Second Mistake: not setting up instruments before the session starts.
Spending time to prepare a session allows you to tune instruments, place mics without pressure, and make a more relaxed vibe for players.

2:01 Third Mistake: compromising on performances
Listen closely to the performance, and be picky. Persuade artists to record more takes, even if they are satisfied.

2:54 Fourth Mistake: failing to commit to sounds
It's more effective to decide which tone you're going for during recording. It makes mixing easier, gives artists a clearer picture on the vision of the music.

3:50 Fifth Mistake: mixing during tracking
The mixing mindset distracts from the performance. Separation allows you to concentrate on each thing.

4:36 Sixth Mistake: overprocessing
Instead of using plugins or techniques you've learned without good reason, it's important to identify problems and react accordingly.

6:03 Seventh Mistake: underprocessing
It's equally important to chase the sound you're going for, no matter what kind of processing it takes. Never fear big moves, but always have a justification for them.

6:33 underproceessing audio example

7:33 Eighth Mistake: mixing with your eyes.
Use your ears to identify places the sound could be improved, THEN react accordingly. It's almost never beneficial to use a visualizer to decide which processing you need to add.
A/B test settings. Seek out tools which give less visual feedback if you like.

[particlejones]

I think being a recording engineer is very important in forming an engineer/ producers perspective. Need to be fast, efficient. Know the tools in the room. When it sounds good coming in, it will sound great coming out. People always ask me for mix advice " how do i fix this?"" I often say "re-record" and people are usually so lazy and scared to rerecord. But its literally as easy recording a better take. A punch in thats it! Dont be scared to print! Print print print! AND listen!!! Know the context, what you want, make logical, conscious decisions. Dont do things just because a youtube video says to doit this way, creates a box of fake rules that u will be trapped in. Dont need to slap this compressor/ with this ratio, and cut this fq every time. Everything is subjective, be conscious in your decisions, and knowledgeable of your tools.

[JosephDanielMusic]

lighting and setting game upgraded big time. great video as always, Jordan!

[ghastlyshimmer]

The quality in this one is nice. The lighting is crisp

[RocketToSleep]

Dude, you are an unending wealth of knowledge and inspiration. Thank you so much for your time, energy, and sharing of knowledge in these videos.

[Ungroovy]

This video is just what I needed to hear. It's the stuff I think about all the time but can never get myself to do. Gonna start dividing mixing and writing stage from now on. Thank you!

[cjwallgor]

Absolutely agree on all points Jordan! PRO acts like a PRO. Period.

[LightsandMotion]

guilty of doing everything at the same time. however, I write as I record more or less, so I need the mix to sound good so that I know what needs to be done arrangement wise. works for me, but that's just the way that I like to work. I've never done a pre-production in my life :)

[drrodopszin]

I think underprocessing is surprisingly common with audio engineers who quickly get an analog console, the "knobheads". Folks learn to gain stage properly, substract and not boost with EQ, to "shave off a couple of dB" with the right compressor settings and then the recording sounds lifeless, because they didn't slam the room mics (if they ever record it, or only in mono), didn't brutalize the snare, didn't clip the kick etc.
One of these days I realized I got a better sound for an extra guitar track when I turned off the cabinet simulation and added some "lo-fi saturation" that rolled off the tops a bit. It sounded really harsh in solo, and sounds really cool in the mix.

[odmusicman]

Excellent advice and for those of us with some experience it is critical to be REMINDED about these important axioms. BTW you are an excellent presenter.

[GuyXVIII]

I'm watching this video and nodding my head, as just an hour prior I was telling my friend how changing the strings on my bass saved my tone on a recording session. It's not just "more top end", it's dynamics, note clarity and separation, and also tuning which gets worse along the neck as the string age.
And they were "only" FOUR MONTHS old! Night and day difference.
Change your strings before recording, guys.

[scorpioschild]

I’d have to agree with all of these salient points. I worked on a “demo” instead of an album by the time we were done. All of the mistakes were made and when we were finished tracking (which was done hastily at best) the mixing process was more about mitigating the shortcomings which amounted to “polishing Turds!!”
Thanks for your advice. Spot on!

[Merceauroix]

Your advice is always spot on. I'm proud to say I've improved my mixing skills a lot just by watching your videos. Of course I still have a long long way to go but man I can tell I have indeed become much better than I was a year ago.

[GloveBunniesVideos]

Great video, 100% on all these. One way to keep track of one's progress is to keep notes, either within the DAW itself or on an Excel sheet. How many times have I left a project because of time restraints and, when I get back to it, I've forgotten where I left off? Since I've been keeping notes, it's helped tremendously to keep me productive AND saved a ton of time.

[timlovegrove]

Completely agree on the tracking and performance quality impacting mixing. Having great players who know their tones, are well set up and can perform well makes it so much easier when it comes to miking and tracking, and all of that makes mixing easier. I did a lot of cheap & quick work in a small project studio where I didn't have the luxury of having more tracking time, and it really showed when a well-honed band came in. Going back to the session tracks 15 years later, I actually made some technically decent recordings but the performance is invariably what lets down the final product.

[zeclomal]

I had a revelation when I realized how good where the tracks of the pros. I wondered for a long time why the same moves that pros like JV did on a track didn’t sound the same on my tracks. It’s seems to be something so obvious but if your track sounds great in the beginning, little mixing is needed to make it sound awesome. And the other way around, if your tracks suck, there’s no amount of mixing tricks in this world to get a pro result. At least I wasn’t able to achieve it until I learnt to do tracking right.

[zeclomal]

Since 2016 watching every JV’s video. At least 80% of what I know about mixing is thank to this guy! One day I’ll buy his course.

[simonhartley]

This channel has gone next level since easing up on the sales vibe. Just quality content every time ❤‍🔥