I want someone else to mix

[Jim of Seattle]

I've been producing my own music for years now, and have learned a lot about production, but it's really not all that fun for me to spend all the time it takes to EQ the bass just right, get the right reverb on the backing vocals, make that bassoon pop out, all that stuff. I would love to have someone else do that part of things for me, but I don't know anyone who would do it. I'm not going to pay anybody, and I don't make any money off it myself. While my work is professionally released on a real label, it's just a fun labor of love, and I'm not trying to "make it". Also, my music can be exceedingly complicated, sometimes using 50 different instruments and 10 vocal tracks, crossing genres, changing keys and time sigs, all this crazy stuff. Which is part of the reason the audio production is such an overwhelming job. I'm thinking about how to improve the voice leading at that minor seventh chord in the brass section at the same time I'm thinking about whether the tambourine needs more rolled off the low end. It can be exhausting, and every song feels like a monster.

 

Are there people in the world who just enjoy mixing other peoples' work? Is that even a thing? I am pretty isolated from the music world, so it occurs to me that maybe there is a group of really talented people who would love to do this that I never knew existed. Or is it a chore for everyone, and no one likes to do it? I'm worried also that my standards are really high and my music is too challenging for anyone to devote the kind of time these things would take. I wouldn't want to use a beginner,because I have a lot f skills myself, but I'm not the greatest in the world at it either. If such people exist, how do I find them?

 

Advice?

[Jim of Seattle]

So what you're telling me is that there's no way to get out of actual hard work? Damn, I feared as much.

[Just1L]

Yeah, that's the dream. To be able to concentrate on the music itself, have someone recording it and then be able to stand over them and tell them how you want things to sound, but letting them do the work we don't like to get there. Hell, that's my dream anyway.  I'd love nothing more than to spend a few weeks in one spot, only working on pumping out songs, letting the mixers do their thing. Knowing what your music is like, it'd be a tall order from anyone lower than "highly experienced."

Edited April 1, 2016 by Just1L

[Just1L]

I'm here to turn that frown upside down. When you think of art in the actual painting/illustration artist using color, it's the actual mixing that can make the art. To get that perfect shade for the shadows, the perfect shade of skin, etc. When I was in college taking painting classes, mixing was always the hardest part, just like it is for me with mixing music. Concepts and ideas weren't the problem, getting it all to look exactly how I wanted was the tough part. Mixing is in-and-of-itself art.