How Much Support As A Musician Do You Get From Your Environment? |
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How Much Support As A Musician Do You Get From Your Environment? |
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Jun 1 2012, 02:55 PM |
... My worry is that being too kind / people possibly taking offense to proper criticism here leads to making members' music or recordings better than they are, and in the long term, they will suffer for it. ... Giving criticism is not an easy thing to do but if people really want to learn and improve it's necessary. I have to do it all the time as people routinely want/need feedback on their recording/mix. As a mastering engineer I tell the truth but tempered a bit to take account of their abilities, experience and what they're trying to achieve. Generally though I only comment when specifically asked. I'll usually be much more critical of a professional mix that comes here for mastering for commercial release then of a home recording. I find there's little point in pointing out page after page of mix issues to a beginner as it's just too much to take in and so ultimately not helpful. Nonetheless, the one thing I won't do is tell someone that their mix is of commercial standard when it's not. People often don't like that though particularly as others will be telling them the opposite. A pro engineer should be able to understand and cope with a detailed critique of the balance of their mix. So in those cases I can go in to much more detail - and here a critique can be lengthy, often broken down in to comments like: insufficient intro and fade in; 0.28 unwanted noise on tail of snare; snare lacks impact on the 2nd chorus; tom rolls need more stereo spread; tonality of the bass tom needs more low end definition; pitch issue with toms generally; 1:28-1:32 backing vox is poorly defined; 1:28-1:38 and 2:28-2:38 backing vox need de-essing; kick drum is recessed behind bass in intro and verse 1 and 2; backing vox need bringing up 3dB throughout; acoustic piano is down 3dB throughout; levels between verse1, chorus 1 and 2 and verse 2 not consistent; timing issue 4:21.5 - end; excessive string/handling noise 3:15-3:32.5; unwanted background noise/talking 3:43-3:47; unwanted amp noise on outro 4:58-end; fade out not smooth. And so on and so on. Nonetheless I still will treat the person as a professional and show them professional courtesy and respect. Personally, I try not to dissrespect other engineers or get in to arguments with them, no matter what I think of them and their work. One of the more difficult issues is having to explain that a track needs re-recording/mixing from the ground up as it also inevitably begs the question as to whether or not the recording/mix engineer is up to the job. At that point not only am I critiquing the person's work but also potentially suggesting that they're not up to the job. Not an easy thing to do. -------------------- Get your music professionally mastered by anl AES registered Mastering Engineer. Contact me for Audio Mastering Services and Advice and visit our website www.miromastering.com
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