Mixing and Mastering in an ideal situation

[diegohrc]

I want to know if in an ideal situation the control over a production falls more on mixing or mastering.

An ideal situation is one in which things have been done well. Suppose excellent mix and excellent master.

I mean by control the fact that each sound stays well audible, in place, compact, polished, as a production ready to be a successful record.

Thanks for your help.

[thecontrolcentre]

No point mastering a bad mix imho.

[RichieWitch]

Just my opinion, but you could look at your question from the perspective of building a piece of furniture. Mixing is how you take all the pieces of wood you've measured and cut, and assemble them into a table. Mastering is putting the finish on the wood so that it shows off all the beautiful grain and has a nice shine.

You have more control over the production in mixing, because that's when you're taking all the parts of the song and determining the focus and flow of the track. But mastering is just as important because it puts a the final polish and balance on the track, and potentially balances it with any other tracks on the album/EP.

So yeah, you have more control when you build that table, but that table not going to be as useful (or sell) in the without the finish.

[annode]

No point mastering a bad mix imho.

That's a good answer to a naive question.
It's not that black and white.

[annode]

No point mastering a bad mix imho.

That's a good answer to a naive question.
It's not that black and white.

My comments above were short sighted and I apologize for that.
Your question came back to haunt me and I've taken time to rethink it.
I think 'thecontrolcentre' was actually saying the mastering process doesn't have the control to correct a very bad mix job. And I like the furniture analogy too.

In the past each process was more or less of equal importance. When multiple tracking/overdubbing became common place, the more tracks you used, the more control you had to give to the mastering process(compression/limiting, EQ, leveling in an acoustically treated room with high end monitors, not to mention industry finagling).
Although you had the allowance to control your track dynamics and EQ from the mixing console,this was used less for effect then for balancing and compromise. Mostly a corrective process then an artistic one.
It wasn't cost effective to have as many as 16 - 32 expensive rack processors per track back then. So all that final sound tailoring was left to mastering.
Later on when plugins became more and more trusted by producers, more emphasis could be placed on the mix for making final decisions usually left to a mastering facility. (professionally, recording companies require a two process method.)

Just because a final mix can be completed without a mastering process these days, doesn't mean the ppl behind the mixing are qualified and capable of doing so. So in many cases, there still remains a balance of control importance between the mixing and mastering processes of a professional recording.

[thecontrolcentre]

Mixing is like building a custom motorcycle. Mastering is giving it a cool paint job.

I'm wondering why the OP is asking the question tbh.

[annode]

Mixing is like building a custom motorcycle. Mastering is giving it a cool paint job.

That's what I shoud'a said!

I'm wondering why the OP is asking the question tbh.

Sounds to me like he is in a dispute with someone about it. But we may never know...he appears to be one of those posters who as questions then disappear.

[JerGoertz]

The furniture analogy is pretty good, RW!

[diegohrc]

Thanks for your answers to my question in this post.

I am wandering these days where I have to go and from where I'm coming. I vaguely know where I have to go... tryng to match reference tracks (sounds, I prefere to say), wondering where in the process I would get what I need to do to sound the best I can: mixing?, mastering? mixing and paying for the master (LANDR, Izotope Ozone), and so on.


I write the songs, arrange them in EDM genre mainly, and wanted to do just until there, and make more productions. So I sent to online services to mix and master, but lastly I have been unsatisfied, and imho I think that in EDM in particular the mix process is too linked to the production, more than I thought, really.

So I'm trying to do mixing by my self, figuring out what I would to do next.

What I did was to study the mixing process once again and last week also bought Izotope Ozone Elements and to know better how the mix unloads his in the master, and the master takes what there is in the mix, my mixes. Would I get a good sound? That's why I opened this post.

To be honest I suspect the mixing process brings in its roots the best for a good master.