Clients with limited budget are often times not taking the efforts to get an experienced producer and a solid tracking situation. So the sh$x rolls down hill as they say - and it falls onto the mixer (or sometimes even the mastering engineer, yikes) to make up for the issues. Which sometimes is possible, and sometimes isn't.

Thanks DM!

AND YET, half the business is about getting, working, and maintaining the business...

That's what I said. I said that.

That's what I'm here for. Thank you Carli!

It's very rare that the successful clients are problematic. Sometimes a little diva-ish, but you know, they earned it. It's the inexperienced ones that tend to have the baggage and doubts and insecurities, which can turn into other negative behaviors. Eventually you will have the experience of working with bad clients, but hopefully you'll be prepared for it.

Thank you Danny!

Yessir. It's always good to see things from the clients' shoes as well. A lot of people are self funding and working very hard to pay for their music, which is inherently very personal to them. Makes it easier to figure out if the client is just insecure but otherwise good people, or if they're just not-so-good people.

It always does. The problem with a novella of notes is that it forces the mixer to read the paper and make the moves, instead of listening to the record and making the moves. If someone says "I need to feel those drums more", then I LISTEN to the record and I focus on the drums and I figure out what's going to make those drums feel more impactful. Usually just a db or two of level, but sometimes something else. If someone says "I need +3db of 120Hz on the kick, +1.5db of 1kHz on the snare," then I'm not listening to the record. I'm just making those changes as that is specifically what the client asked for. And GENERALLY the client is still not happy because they never even addressed their own needs.

@@WeissAdvice Exactly. Sometimes I find myself explaining these things to my clients, to be honest, some would understand, but others just keep insisting to follow what they wrote. And the funny thing is that almost every time they contact me a week later and said, after listening to different systems and asked our friend's opinion, we have decided to go with your first mix :))

If someone's ears were good enough to be able to make those kinds of discerning notes, why wouldn't they just mix their own record?

@@WeissAdvice in my own experience it’s twofold 1) separating “artist mode” from “technical mode”. I had done 3 albums prior in my school and later unis recording studios. While it was great to have nice recording gear for free, I was at times thinking from an engineer standpoint when I should’ve thought from an artist standpoint. For my last album I could do my thing, let the engineer do his thing, but it was good that we could still talk the same language considering my background and education. 2) just because I know what I’m talking about doesn’t mean I’m the best for the job. I’m very at peace with the fact that I’m not, nor ever will be the best audio engineer in the world. I’m also at peace with the fact that in my city there are engineers better than me who will serve the record better than I can. In the same way that me having perfect pitch and can hear what key/chords a song uses, that doesn’t make me a better musician, the fact I can hear frequency content in a record and it’s parts doesn’t necessarily mean I’m the best fit to sculpt those frequencies and parts in a smooth way that serves the song

Thanks Sonny!

Of course - because they are aware of the flaws but not aware of their contribution to those flaws. If they could hear the gaps in their own skill they would practice and improve. But they can't. And since they can't, that means the flaws must be due to someone else.

Yea, after a while you begin to say "I've been here before" LOL

Thanks Joey!

Thanks Bryan!