Is there any professional network that would critic your mix for a fee?

I feel at this point I know a good bit about Sonar.. however, I find not so much time to practice mixing other than mixing my own song every 4/5 months. 3 mixing practices a year is not good. But, it would be nice if I could have access to tracks and mix and get critic from professionals. Are there companies like that?
 
Thanks in advance.

Shahed

Sure I'll do it!  :-)
 
Just kidding, my mixes prolly suck.

Almost every music forum has a place you can post songs. I think there's even one on the Telecaster Forum. 
Everybody has an opinion so it's a matter of who's opinion you are seeking. 
Of course a professional engineer will offer theirs but will charge for their time. I would't bother unless your dead serious about becoming a professional yourself.  If you have the time, seeking opinions for free from your peer groups on forms is very worth while. 
My only complaint is some of the responses are not so helpful so you have to learn to read between the lines. Like all things free it come with a cost. 

Zargg71
And if you need more music to mix, http://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms-mtk.htm has lots of free songs for mixing practice. Not sure about the criticizing, though. 

FWIW, the book that this website was developed to support (Mike Senior's "Mixing Secrets") is very good. He's recently released a new, companion book ("Recording Secrets") that I want to check out.

Beepster
Our beloved forum guru Danny Danzi provides proffessional mix analysis for a reasonable fee. He sent me a sample analysis once and it is very throrough (graphs and point by point suggestions... very nicely done). The dude cuts some of the cleanest mixes I've ever heard. I've just been waiting until I have something worthwhile to send him (and I've got a few bucks kicking around) before getting one from him.

Thanks beeps, much appreciated. :) (LOL@ guru...you're too good to me man!)
 
Shahed, I have a few options that may help you out if you're interested. Send me a pm and we can talk more.
 
-Danny

dcumpian

Danny Danzi

Beepster
Our beloved forum guru Danny Danzi provides proffessional mix analysis for a reasonable fee. He sent me a sample analysis once and it is very throrough (graphs and point by point suggestions... very nicely done). The dude cuts some of the cleanest mixes I've ever heard. I've just been waiting until I have something worthwhile to send him (and I've got a few bucks kicking around) before getting one from him.

Thanks beeps, much appreciated. :) (LOL@ guru...you're too good to me man!)
 
Shahed, I have a few options that may help you out if you're interested. Send me a pm and we can talk more.
 
-Danny

Hey Danny, do you also give advice (for a fee, of course) on how to do a particular technique?
 
Regards,
Dan

Hi Dan,
 
If I know the technique, I'll definitely advise. :) LOL! Stuff like that usually gets done by way of video so you can see and hear how it gets done. I don't want to walk over any Cakewalk forum rules, but in a nutshell, I can do the stuff beeps mentioned where I write something up and totally teach or rip something apart...or I can do it by way of video so you can see and hear what's going on. The vids are created especially for each person, so I'm not drawing from a batch of old stuff and just sending it through.
 
What's good about this stuff in my opinion is, you learn on your material using plugs that you have. (as long as I have them...when I don't, we try to agree on something comparable)
 
I think we learn more using the material created by the person wanting to learn over hearing how someone else deals with the stuff THEY created. That said, if the technique you wanted to learn involved me supplying the subject material, stuff like that is pretty wide open and isn't as "crucial" as say, learning what went wrong with your mix. Though a technique will have different impact depending on the sound, the procedure remains the same pretty much and it's not as much of a right or wrong like fixing a mix, know what I mean?
 
The down side of that is....if the instrument I supplied was better than the instrument you are creating on your end, that can sort of go against things. The reason I say that....
 
When someone presents a sound that is really great....not much needs to be done to it and when you do apply a technique, 8 times out of 10 it shines. When you have a sound that isn't as up to par, sometimes you have to literally work the sound really hard before the technique has the impact you need. The other side of THAT coin...sometimes the crappy sound is the one that works best. LOL! It's a very subjective field, but when teaching, it is always best to use sounds that are in the neighborhood of what the student is creating.
 
When I took classes on recording, though it was super cool, I worked with top notch gear, great mics, pre's, SSL, etc and came home to a Tascam 388 with 2-DBX 163's, a Digitech Time machine delay, a Digitech reverb unit, a Alesis Micro Verb, a Sun head and cab that sounded horrible and Simmons drums being fed into a drum machine via pad to midi interface. LOL! I had one SM 57 and a Radio shack mic.
 
In all actuality, the stuff I learned in school didn't come into play until I got some gear that could at least give me the ability to come a few notches closer. It sure didn't help me with the gear I had. Sure, some elements worked and made sense...but in the real scheme of things, I just needed more good stuff to compete at the level I was hoping to achieve. Limited lower level gear in, limited lower level gear out.
 
Processing a sound that is already incredible that barely needs anything is where we all need to be. When we have to work on something super hard to sound good, chances are it's not the right sound. Granted, sometimes we make something great out of it and you can learn a boat load while experimenting. But you can also waste a load of time only to start all over again....which is what usually happens to people.
 
At any rate, sorry to ramble....I love talking about this stuff. Send me a pm if you need anything.
 
-Danny

+1000 for Danny. Really really nice guy, always willing to help and give you honest advice. You couldn't choose anyone better to tell you what you are doing right/wrong. A great way of side stepping well meant but sometimes not so good advice.