Mixing - to combine (substances, elements, things, etc.) into one mass, collection, or assemblage, generally with a thorough blending
Final mix session... we've been at it for 4 hours now. When I say "we", I mean 3/4ths of Screaming Mimes. Randy and Austin have been mixing and mixing and mixing like mad over the past several weeks trying to get everything sewn up, balanced, tweaked, equalized, compressed, maximized, edited, shredded, repaired. Jim just threw up his hands in disgust and left. Actually, he had to get a present for a certain lady friend and couldn't stay. The club downstairs is pumping out the best of the 90's dance hits, but we're upstairs trying to salvage art.
Preston is obviously thrilled by something Austin just played.
Mixing is always a tough contact sport. Lots of subjective opinions... egos at risk, feelings at stake... make my guitar louder, dammit! But it's great to hear the almost finished product come together. Austin and Randy have worked really hard and put in a ton of time to get us to the point where Jim, Preston and I can tear it all down... and they're being very good sports.
We started with "You're The Kind Of Girl", a song we started playing at the CD release for the last album back in 2008. This one was well rehearsed when we tracked it last December and for this recording we really picked up the tempo. Sounding great, just as planned.
"Open", the last song written for the album and rehearsed and recorded in just a few weeks, was next... lots of textures on this one, very different for us. Austin made some interesting decisions throughout the song.
Memories starting to blur from earlier... but we did "Got To Tell The World" and "Ohio" - no major changes there... sounding excellent.
"A Little More In Love" surprised everyone, considering it was almost tossed off the album a few months ago. The pieces really came together to give the album another texture.
Lots of discussions where had about percussion and double tracked vocals- are there too many of this type or that type between everything? This led us to taking down some vocal effects on some songs and making a few things simpler.
"World Turns Around" and "Motion" where next. We were split about "Motion" - some of us love it, some of it don't think it turned out like it could've. We'll have to let you decide I guess.
"Take Yourself For Granted" surprised me again in it's excellent, to be frank. Everytime I hear this song I fall in love with it again.
I wonder how we're going to translate a few of these songs live? This album is going to be a 15 track monster.
12:01 AM, just finished "Everybody Knows". Starting an acoustic number called "A Love Song". I wrote this on February 3rd 2007 to mark a very important personal anniversary with my lovely wife. Nice to hear this one finally come to fruition... in some ways it didn't turn out at all like I thought it would. Mandolin and an odd keyboard patch add some great texture to it. Now the great debate continues... double track vocals or not?
Working on "Somebody New" now - a throwback Mimes track in the great late 90's ska tradition - or at least as close as we'll get. This song is actually related to "TV" in a lot of musical ways (ebow and key of B notwithstanding). This should be a quick mix! I hope! PRINT!
"Saddest Girl In The World" is next. We've been playing this one for a couple years, this performance is pretty solid. Vocals are too low, dagnabbit... gotta fix that. I should stop typing and pay attention now. Tamborine down, acoustic guitar up. Got rid of the Howard Dean scream, too bad so sad. PRINT!
Oh lord, final song... "It's Not Over"... 10 minutes of long, long jamming.
Randy & Austin bounced out all the files and placed them on the ftp for Yes Master in Nashville to download and begin mixing. We'll pick up the story in Nashville on Friday.
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