Welcome to issue #167 of Tape Op.

Every stage of recording music involves making decisions. Outside of the final mastering of a project, the mixing stage presents the last big round of choices for artists, producers, mix engineers, and everyone involved. The less decisions made prior, the more difficult the mix process will be and the longer it will take. Additionally, the end result will likely be worse, especially if the lack of earlier decisions affects your schedule and you run out of time.

Not committing to takes and sounds leading up to this moment means that all the mixing energy is spent sorting out ideas, as well as probably fixing ill-formed sounds. Do you have an unlimited budget and enough time to push the production of your music into the mix process? That's great if you do, but more likely you don't. (Regardless of budget, one can assume there are more enjoyable ways to spend that time.) The process now becomes all about sorting out ideas and arrangements, including trying to figure out what is on all the tracks delivered and what their purpose is. The end result of this scenario is that more time is spent on getting everything ready to mix, and this time lost means the actual mixes frequently end up getting less attention. That means the music suffers, with the potential that listeners will become far less interested in the results.

Commit to ideas along the way. Try new parts out then. Get the sounds you want instead of placeholder sounds to "fix later." Keep the process creative. Figure out what you are trying to do and stick with it. And, in the end, don't let an open-ended process drain the life out of your music!