Gain Staging: God I feel Dumb

Well, some mixes are very compressed mixes. Is more headroom is better than near the ceiling? Depends what the client ask for? Right?

Some mixes are brighter, some are darker. Which one is the good one?

that's not what you said, tho:

"If I fell it sound bad, I'll say you're a good engineer too"

if your feel it sounds bad, then, for you it sounds bad... and hard to imagine that you'd still think the engineer is good.

What bad means to me is not necessarily what bad means to you. Sound appreciation is subjective. The same for painting, cooking etc.

absolutely. but read your sentence again. if YOU think it's bad, why would you then think the engineer is GOOD?

"that's a horrible painting; what a great artist"

"the meal was awful, what a great chef"

am not getting your point... but respect your right to it.

No problems fisherking! I appreciate all your comments and all the help you give here. I'm learning a lot from you and other great people here, every day. Anyway: One can't always trust the opinion of the critics like they say.

Ok back to the thread. Pre fader metering is not necessarily useful when doing gain staging. The idea of gain staging is to avoid clipping from the beginning to the end of the recording processus, no matter what technique you use to achieve this. Am I ok to see it like that?

I think that I understand your point. I think that you mean that a successful mix is one that achieves one's expectation. Right?

Well then the factor of commerce enters in. You can think it’s a great mix when you listen to it, but if people don’t like to listen to it, then maybe you need to re-evaluate, unless you are your only constituent.

I think that I understand your point. I think that you mean that a successful mix is one that achieves one's expectation. Right?

where did it say that?

"If I fell it sound bad, I'll say you're a good engineer too. Because, sound is so subjective."

just seems like this gives everyone a pass, and consequently, there are no bad recordings (or books, or movies, etc). altho that does sound like a world worth living in (and far from the real one we do live in)...

I think that I understand your point. I think that you mean that a successful mix is one that achieves one's expectation. Right?

 

where did it say that?

I think that I understand your point. I think that you mean that a successful mix is one that achieves one's expectation. Right?

 

Well then the factor of commerce enters in. You can think it’s a great mix when you listen to it, but if people don’t like to listen to it, then maybe you need to re-evaluate, unless you are your only constituent.

 

where did it say that?

I was replying to stratquebec...

i know; just trying to figure out how you got your interpretation of what statquebec said. seemed pretty arbitrary. but what do i know? (that's rhetorical, doesn't need an answer)

I was replying to stratquebec...

 

i know; just trying to figure out how you got your interpretation of what statquebec said. seemed pretty arbitrary. but what do i know? (that's rhetorical, doesn't need an answer)

 

i know; just trying to figure out how you got your interpretation of what statquebec said. seemed pretty arbitrary. but what do i know? (that's rhetorical, doesn't need an answer)

rhetorically speaking by reading between the lines...

not to be rude (really), but seems more like you're writing between the lines; i don't see how your 'interpretation' has anything to do with what was said. but, like music, i guess that opinions are subjective, too... and you're certainly entitled to yours.

will let it go now

rhetorically speaking by reading between the lines...

 

not to be rude (really), but seems more like you're writing between the lines; i don't see how your 'interpretation' has anything to do with what was said. but, like music, i guess that opinions are subjective, too... and you're certainly entitled to yours.

 

will let it go now

I think that I understand your point. I think that you mean that a successful mix is one that achieves one's expectation. Right?

In short, yes. Say you have two mixes of the same song you just composed: one from fisherking and one from David N. As a reference, you told them that you would like it to sound kind of like Everything I do by Bryan Adams. After listening many times to each one, you find that the one by fisherking is more opened, less compressed in the low frequencies. The David's one otoh is darker and sounds less defined in the highs but the piano sounds more natural as in the Adams song. The two mixes sound good, but different. Then you ask your wife, Hey Honney, which one do you prefer and she said, the first one. You ask why? She says: I don't know but the second one sound bad to me. Is she wrong? I think she's not. If it sounds bad to her, then it's a bad mix. It's her opinion. And in the end we know that's two great mixes by two great engineers but the first one is the winner.