Is there a professional mixing producer out there that listens to the musician??

The last 20% is always the last 200%
It's not unusual for producers to pass projects along to other producers at this point, at least it was when there was a real music industry..

You are right no producer can read your mind, it's a question of how grand your expectations are, how well you comminicate and how much time you and he have got. Most people don't get 100% what they want and have to compromise, simply because one cannot achieve perfection, everybodies idea of perfection is different, and perfection takes too long to do!!

I would say if you are mixing with somebody best be in the same room when it happens...

Thanks

As a producer and studio owner...

Not much of a studio if they can't/won't interface your computer... I can understand if they don't know your software, but that's another issue...

In my experiences, a producer usually needs to listen to the musicians though the decisions might not seem to reflect such.

As a few of the responses here mention. There are a number of very good producers you can contact here in the forum and either via Dropbox or mail, they can work with your project. Of course, if you use non-bundled extras with Sonar, some things can be a bit of an issue, they can usually be easily resolved.

You might contact some of us and see if we might be able to help you...

Thanks for the mention Beepster...

If it's much, I'm always open to new projects! ;-)

...and I'll bet that with all the hard work and learning you've been putting in, you'd probably get some good mixes yourself, eh?

Skarda? If you're interested in talking, PM me here and we can chat...

I totally agree with the advice given so far. If you go with someone "here", you would probably learn a lot in the process.
Best of luck.
 
@ Beepster PS: I'd be absolutely NOWHERE without the help I get around here... or at least way further behind. At minimum just hanging around here has sped up my learning curve at a 2:1 ratio. Likely way more. 
 
Could not agree more

Keni
Not much of a studio if they can't/won't interface your computer... I can understand if they don't know your software, but that's another issue...

 
Bingo. When it comes to the mixing stage, it's 90% about levels and processing. A fader adjusts level whether the DAW is SONAR or Pro Tools. 3.24 kHz on an EQ is 3.24 kHz on Pro Tools or SONAR or Logic. Or an SSL board.
 
Experienced producers would often work in studios with entirely different consoles and backlines. The one concession they made to familiarity is sometimes they would bring monitor speakers that they knew really well.
 
If you gave me tracks, I would produce pretty much the same end result with any DAW. It's not like I'm special or great or anything, it's ultimately all about audio and the emotional impact of the music, not which plug-in you use. If someone is capable of working only with a specific DAW, I question how much they know about audio and production.

In my experiences, a producer usually needs to listen to the musicians though the decisions might not seem to reflect such.

Bingo redux.

Instead of exporting the individual tracks, try saving in the OMF format.

I do think it's cool to meet in person and mix.
- It's fun.
- It's interesting.
- People work off each other. 
 
What it isn't:
- Fast
 
I do sometimes wish I had more engineer friends. Performing brings musicians together with other musicians. I have tons of musician friends. Engineers often work alone and then mix alone, master alone.

I myself find a lot of today's mixes are overcrowded and not what there cracked up to be.Especially Top 40 music of today.Even Tv and films the music Is too loud and you cannot hear the actors speak. FACT!!!
Also on Tv the volumes are all over the place .You would think there would be a standard.
I am not a mixer of any sort ,but I can tell whether something Is muffled or too toppy /bassy etc.
Now going back to the 70s, Robin Trowers Bridge of Sighs album is streets ahead and even on the first Emerson,Lake and Palmer album which was Greg Lakes Spontanious Combustion the mixing was Impeccable.
I would say mix yourself and try It out on car stereo's ,Hi-Fi or In a local club ,till you get a good template.
I am just getting my head around Spectrum analyzers and eq.
 
I suppose you could also get a song In the style you love and put It on a spectrum analyizer and try to match It with trial and error. That Is what I having a go at at this moment. It is flaming hard though!!!!
I reckon keep bashing away and It all will somehow get lodged brain cells!!
It is all In the frequencies
Also I reckon you can over hear and lose where your going.
Most of the human race would not tell the difference between a mp3 and Wave nowadays,Especially Motorhead!!! There all ruddy deaf!!!
 
 
 
All the best
John

I still have a guitarist who wants to rerecord and remix a song everybody else is happy with.I tell him I'm happy to do so provided...
 
a) He brings the money.
b) He convinces the band to play it again who are already bored of the song.
 
Even if that happens the chances of getting a better performance is almost zero, yet it's still far from perfect. Sometimes you have to just call it 'art' and walk away...

igiwigi
Also on Tv the volumes are all over the place .You would think there would be a standard.
 

There has been a massive push (with some success) in certain countries to legislate the maximum volume increase of commercials in comparison to programming (so you are watching some calm, quiet show or movie then get blasted with "SUNDAY!!! SUNDAY!!! SUUUUNDAYYY!!! MONSTER TRUCK MAYHEEEEM!!!!" and the like.
 
I haven't owned a TV in ages so I don't know whether this has been dealt with in Canada to a tolerable level.
 
Now the sound levels WITHIN programming where it goes from a quiet whisper dialog that can barely be heard at full volume to an all out, speaker busting artillery barrage is another thing. That is completely fookin' ridiculous.
 
I've actually been wanting to figure out a way to route the audio from streaming vids/shows/movies through one of my VST limiters to keep that crap under control.
 
If someone were smart they'd produce a standalone limiter program/browser addon to do exactly that.

Well, this thread seemed to get off topic very quickly. I am reading a great deal of posts that are telling Dan what he should do and far less of these posts listening to what he is wanting to do.  Aren't we all supposed to be professional "listeners?"
 
Dan, please feel free to call me, (303) 410-8687 or email me directly... and we can discuss your work and how I can be of assistance to you.
 
Tom

BASSIC Productions
Well, this thread seemed to get off topic very quickly. I am reading a great deal of posts that are telling Dan what he should do and far less of these posts listening to what he is wanting to do.  Aren't we all supposed to be professional "listeners?"
 
Dan, please feel free to call me, [redacted] or email me directly... and we can discuss your work and how I can be of assistance to you.
 
Tom

Well, it seemed the OP had sorted out what they wanted so people were just chatting about the topic (and veering off a bit). It's a generally friendly free flowing place like that.
 
Don't think anyone welcomed you as a new memeber yet so... welcome.
 
I would suggest that maybe posting your phone number directly in thread isn't advised. This is a completely public forum so yanno... internet be crazy, bro.
 
There is a private message feature you can use. Not sure if if it's accessible to brand new users but I'm sure micrapp can send Skarda a message for you if need be.
 
You can also edit your posts to remove that number if you want.
 
Totally not tellin' what to do. Just a friendly heads up.
 
Cheers and again, welcome.

Beepster
And yes... I really gotta question the common sense/skill of some of the sound engineers for these TV shows/movies when they can't seem to balance volume levels in any reasonable manner.

We know someone whose daughter is a jobbing freelance film sound engineer/mixer. She's worked on some seriously big production major films, big stars, big producer, bigger budget.

I had a chat with her about this audio balance thing a couple of years ago. According to her one problem is that the producers tend to be very concerned about how their work will come across in cinema and high-end home theatre 5.1 and 7.1 systems, much less so about stereo on smaller speakers. The consequence can often be that when the mix is reduced to stereo the centre channel which carries most of the spoken content gets lost without the centre speaker to position it in space, isolate it and boost the volume.

It's the old translation problem again. She's of the opinion that a DVD release or TV release really should be remixed to take account of real-world home systems including stereo only, but the production companies don't always want to spend the money on the remix and are also aware that if the sound is different on a surround DVD to cinema Amazon etc. will be full of cork-sniffing reviews slamming the DVD release because it is "different" to the cinema release even though it might well translate better on their home systems.

Another issue is that loudness wars affect TV just as much as audio releases. Advertisers started volume maximising and brick-wall limiting their adverts so they leap out and can't be ignored, then the TV producers want their programmes not to sound weak compared to the adverts, and the advertisers retaliate and round and round it goes. And the average consumer doesn't like having to keep changing the playback volume to equalise the RMS at their end either.

Same familiar sorry tale as CD releases really, with the same problem that the sound engineers can only do what the customer wants and the customer wants LOUD.

I'm confused... how did this thread become a commentary about loudness wars?  Does anyone read the original post anymore?  I say again, "Aren't we supposed to be professional listeners?"