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Only after I went through this entire process,
did I start mixing the album: the final step.
Not just "the best of the 50 tunes",
though.
I decided to do the "concert
approach". I have experience in preparing for
concerts, both as member of a band and as a solo
artist doing DUB.
So I selected one tune, which I thought was
good as an opening track. I mixed it, just like I
would have done it on a concert. In principal,
that is. For all my tracks are mixed in such a way
that I really need 20 hands to do it all in one
take.
The track obviously produced a certain atmosphere. It's the track and the mix doing it.
And from this atmosphere, I went to the next
track. I asked myself: "what would I play as
the next tune, and how would I build that
tune". The answer was -obviously- the next
mix.
I went through this process during the entire
mixing of the album, from the top to the very last
drop. First select, then mix. Not the other way
around!
One reason for that was, that since I would mix
and select in this last phase, the tracks would
follow each other more or less in a flowing way.
And this is where my experience in performing
came in very handy. For an album is more or less a
concert, too. Another reason to mix and select in
that final phase. A third reason would be the
length of the tracks, for long and short tracks
would have to follow each other too, in order keep
up a vibe of variety.
The opening track started with a DUB part, only
to go over into vocal in the second half. But the
track which followed, has a different arrangement.
And so, there are continually vocal parts and dub
parts following each other. Those who prefer DUB,
don't have to wait to long, and those who prefer
the Vocal parts would have the same experience.
Finally, the mastering process. Mastering is
where you spice up your track after you mixed it,
by using a combination of compression and limiting
and normalizing techniques in order to have all
the tunes have more or less the same volume, while
too extreme peaking is corrected and so on.
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