To make it even more exciting, it's actually going quite well. I'm kind of using this remix as a test to use my "lessons learned" literally from this entire year so far and the past 2-3. I've tweaked (simplified, really) my mixing process a bit with this one, thinking this will be my new way of doing things going forward, and so far it seems to be working quite well. I'm quite excited to see (hear) the outcome.
I started working on this remix project about 5+ years ago. The first thing I had to do was painstakingly go through each track and fix the anomalies that I always disliked, basically things that I wasn't able to fix back in 1999 because I was working with digital ADAT tape. Now that pretty much all audio is being done via computers and/or has been converted, with extensive GUI based editing, there were tons of items that I wanted to fix. I spent an enormous amount of hours on the song "Pleasure Oasis", for example, just trying to get the singing on key and more full.
Once I completed that editing, I actually started the remix back in 2022, and I promptly stopped working on it because I wasn't liking the results. It was partially what prompted me to do the deep dive on mixing that I've been doing now for the past 3 years. Since I feel like I finally got where I wanted to be, hence it was time to pick this up again, and honestly I'm really glad that I stopped 3 years ago because I would have been rather upset with the results. At the time, it felt like I was trying to push a square peg in a round hole...and apparently I was because I'm basically whipping these songs into shape all in about 2 hours per song rather than the countless hours I was doing back then.
It's funny because this really isn't a "remix"; it's kind of a first mix. I say that because I realized that I didn't really "mix" this album the first time around, I simply worked on leveling and panning...nothing else...which is partially why it sounded quite shabby. It'll be interesting to see what this sounds like given the full treatment.
As previously reported, I'm also finally slowing my pace, which was absolutely necessary, because I have put in more hours on mixing in the past 2-3 years than anyone could possibly imagine coupled with working a full time highly intensive day job. It's nice to finally not feel so pressured and under the gun. Hell, I'm even able to relax a bit during this week off and watch a bit of tennis.
I think the remainder of this year is going to be quite fascinating because I think what's going to happen is that I'm going to be releasing a new album/EP every month. I now have multiple projects all in that "hardening" phase and so it's just a matter of closing each one out, one by one. It's rather exciting, to me at least. I'm also now able to, for the first time in probably 3 years, think about being creative again and not only worrying about engineering. This is also a welcome mind switch.
I can't say for sure but I think the release order will be along the lines of the following: the "Mirror Land" EP, the "Petty Cash" EP remix, the Defrost Nixon album, the "Acoustic 3 Song Sampler" remix, the "Lost Weekend" remix, the "It's Raining Elvis Fish!" redux/remix album, and then the "Yet I Tried for You" EP. Yes, I actually believe all of this will be released by the end of the year...no joke. The one that's been held up is the "Wrecking Ball" album but that'll be my main focus for literal mixing between now and EOY so I predict that will ready to be released hopefully early next year. I'm actually already planning my release schedule for next year and any physical recording I intend to do for the remainder of 2025.
Next up on my "things to do" list, I'll start focusing on videos for select songs. I haven't been able to spend the time on that as much as I would have liked but I feel pretty comfortable in that realm already, at least enough to get started and be productive. It has been a really long time since I released something but I think that's all about to change dramatically.
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