The 4th

I had a great past two days of mixing, however.  I'm actually getting to the point that I sort of both enjoy and mildly look forward to doing it.  I mean, wow, what a change!  I've turned my attention fully to the "Effects of Connection" EP since that one is fairly close to done and then also finally the Defrost Nixon album.  Here and there, I also dabble in "Lost Weekend" territory.  I had to put "Mirror Land" aside yet again since I have these vocal issues to work out on "Only With You" and, well, I can't yet wear headphones so I can't do any recording right now.

I think I may finally have "Across the Desert" working.  I believe one of the real issues was that I was doing everything I could to control the high "ding, ding, ding" of the drum machine track and thus did a bunch of weird EQ cuts over a year ago.  After diving deeper into this one yesterday, I played around with that and lessened some of my cuts, and the results seem much more in line with what I was hoping for.  It's amazing how much a mix suffers when you pull out that sort of high end, and I guess we're just going to have to live with the "ding, ding, ding".  It's actually not as major on this track as it is on "Interstate Blind", which is really the song that I thought originally didn't live up to my expectations due to the repetitive drum machine sound.  I've done a bunch of very strange EQ cuts on that one as well but I haven't listened to it in awhile so I'm not sure where that one's at.  Maybe today I'll dust it off and tinker away.

I was super stoked about the Defrost Nixon mixes last night.  One of them I hadn't even begun mixing yet, really, and just dived right in yesterday.  On first cut, I got a pretty damn strong mix that only needs minor changes.  Wow.  The other two tracks sound pretty damn good as well, and I dare say "Scapegoat" may in fact be done.  I fought with the drums on this song for so long...I mean, again, wow.  Once I got the drum in place (and replaced), what a world of difference.  These three songs, all of which are Cameron's, all sound really strong to me so major pat on my own back.  I'd even dare say that they really rock.

I started tinkering with 2-3 other songs, all of which all have various glaring issues.  The bad thing and the beauty of mixing the Defrost Nixon songs and "Lost Weekend" is that these two albums pretty much cover a myriad amount of unique mixing issues.  In other words, I should come out the other end pretty well versed in things, that is, if I come out the other end :s  I'm actually feeling incredibly more confident, though, and I know I'll figure something out.