mixing with your eyes closed

[taylordeupree]

just read this very simple, but incredibly effective practice when mixing a song on a computer. seems so logical... because so much computer music is done VISUALLY and, if you move a fade to adjust volume your eyes will often judge when the fader goes "too much" "too little" or "just right".. instead of your ears making that choice.

here's a link to the original thread (the thread was about Ableton mixing, but this one response is what i'm talking about"

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/mastering-forum/454237-mixing-mastering-ableton.html

and here is the advice (from a gearslutz user chopstickkk):

some advice for mixing (especially if you're working with a computer) is this...


make all adjustments with your eyes closed.


decide if you need to make an adjustment.
grab that virtual fader or virtual knob in ableton with your mouse or trackpad.
close your eyes.
wiggle it around a bit so you don't know where it is.
listen and adjust it solely by ear.
listen.
repeat as necessary!

[mac]

here some more thoughts about eyes closed mixing:

http://www.homestudiocorner.com/2009/11/26/close-your-eyes/

[taylordeupree]

excellent post.. thanks...

we must all practice this every day..

[radere]

That's an interesting piece of advice. I do all my mixing within Ableton, so I'm definitely guilty of doing things visually more often than not! I'd never really thought about it from this perspective...

[Guy Birkin]

All 'sound' advice ;-)

But I also like to approach from the other angle: Making visual patterns with an interface, and using that as a starting point regardless of what it sounds like, then making adjustments (by ear) afterwards.

[YannNovak]

I actually have a hot corner set to darken my monitor for all adjustments, both in the composition stage and mixing stage.  I find that if I watch the playhead move through the visual composition it will inform how I hear the piece.

I am so used to doing that I can hardly have the monitor on anymore when listening, seeing something coming in the timeline totally distracts me and changes what I am listening to 'in the moment'.

[taylordeupree]

good advice, yann. i, too, cannot look at the playhead when listening.

what's your screen-darkening feature? is that on a mac? just a sleep/screensaver?

[YannNovak]

[steinbruchel]

i have a flat screen from apple which i can turn on and off in a split second with the small button on the side. really handy feature and always listening to my tracks like that, though i make all adjustements and corrections with the screen on as i don't have any mixer or any outboard gear.

[taylordeupree]

ah, yes.. i'l have to set that one. great tip.

[billygomberg]

basically - I agree with what everyone is saying in here and practice this myself.  and Yann's tip is pretty solid.

don't know how many times I've been watching an arrangement go by thinking "oh here comes that fade (or whatever) "argh that fade sounds terrible" - then hid my arrangment, listened again, and it's fine.

[taylordeupree]

yup... that's it, billy.. you watch those changes come and it takes away the mystery that the end listener will experience.

i just set up my hot corner for screen darkening. the nice thing is, i can continue to adjust levels because i've got the mackie controls hooked up. so it's like mixing in the old days w/o screens...

[jimmy behan]

Good topic.
I think all our senses are a bit cross wired to some extent, especially for people with synesthesia.
I'll always check mixes with the screen turned off, usually in low light conditions.
Maybe with less visual input, the brain can allocate more resources to the other senses.

I find a plug-ins GUI can often have an effect on how I think it sounds too, though that's a slightly different thing maybe.

[Koda]

I just turn the computer monitor off when mixing/listening. 

[JeffreyCollins]

Thanks Yann for the idea. Sometimes I feel like I would like to do that during recording. Have all my loops and processors set up for easy controlling reach and go at it. Either that or have one of the nice screen savers from mac be on to add more of a dimension to what I'm trying to do.