2026 is here. Wow. I'm both not excited AND excited. Part of me is disappointed because 2025 didn't warrant a single musical release from me, whereas I was hoping for about 3 of them. On the flip side, though, 2026 will hopefully be the year I've been waiting for, really for far too long. Here's to hoping. Why the delay? Well, simply trying to up my game, get better at mixing, meet a certain expectation, etc. etc. I'd say that's the easy way to put it.
I did my usual 2 weeks off over the holidays and didn't write about any of it because I guess I didn't need to as much as I used to. Perhaps writing about it was a way of blowing off steam and frustration? Maybe.
I worked on 3 different projects over the 2 week time period, the biggest being going back to the "Lost Weekend" remix. I actually completely remixed the album again for the 3rd time (well, 4th if you count the original). I was actually slightly horrified by the sound of my remixes from August upon revisiting them. Now, you'd think this would spark anger and disappointment inside me but instead it just goes to show how much I've raised my own bar of expectation for my mixing work in the past 6 months, and that's not a bad thing. Overall, the remixing was a ton of work but I'm pretty confident in the results this time around.
Yes, actually, finally, at very long last, I think I mildly understand what the hell I'm trying to do. The great part about that is that once you get the fundamentals of HOW to do it, you can start focusing on the more FUN part of making things sound interesting, enticing, and dare I say sexy. I think that's really where the fun is...certainly not in the constant frustration of trying to endlessly figure out why things don't work the way you had hoped.
For anyone that may stumble upon this blog by mistake (I mean, why else would you be reading this???), I can offer this bit of advice: flipping mixes to "mono" has saved my *ss quite a bit. In fact, it's helped me tremendously, that is once I learned what I'm listening for. Here's an easy key, though - if you flip to mono and your volume suddenly drops, you've got some sort of phase thing going on, plain and simple, and that's a sign that something's not optimal (not albeit wrong...just not optimal). I have been fighting with this for literally years and just now, finally, after all of this time, I can flip to mono and things a) don't sound super small and b) don't drop in volume. Wow. The difference is hard to put into words.
For ProTools users, flipping to "mono" is super easy although not immediately obvious. Simply grab the included Stereo Width plugin, collapse the width knob down to nothing, and then save your own preset as "Mono". Going forward, just leave that open in your session and press the enable button here and there to check yourself. I don't remember what blog told me about this but it was brilliant.
The other thing that I can share undoubtedly is both a warning and a direct link to a saving grace. The warning is that there are countless people doing PT and mixing videos on YouTube, not to mention the endless blogs, etc. I'm not saying they're all worthless but the vast majority are people like you and I who a) aren't professionals, b) don't fully know what they're talking about, and c) sometimes leave out really important details. I'm sure we all have seen quite a few of these, no?
Well, never your mind...you can skip ALL of this and simply search for "Warren Huart" and his "Produce Like a Pro" videos. Warren, seriously...thank goodness you're out there and doing these videos, and if I ever meet you in person, I might just give you a bear hug :) I think Warren is the only guy you need to watch and listen to, and guess what? He's a PROFESSIONAL. Ah...now there's the key, isn't it?! I've spent countless hours watching many of his videos on YouTube over the past 6 months and it's made a world of difference, not to mention it's answered so many of the questions that I've had for years.
I had a so called friend bug me a couple years ago, trying to pressure me into doing YouTube videos on guitar playing, mixing, you name it. I said hell no. He responded "Well, you'll make money that way...", like that would change my opinion, and I still said "hell no". Why? Because I wouldn't feel comfortable telling other people how to do things like I'm some authority unless I knew for certain what I was talking about. Now, if only the vast majority of people thought this way (sigh). Besides, I'm NOT a professional...who the hell should be listening to me?! Now, if I start mixing albums for people, and this goes on a while, and people start hiring me, etc., then maybe I'd consider it. If you want to know about songwriting, however, that I can help you with for that's something I'm well versed in but it would probably be a fairly short video, something along the lines of "...there's no trick...you just do it..." No matter how hard I try, I just can't monetize things like this; it's simply not natural for me.
In any event, I'm excited to finally share some releases very soon. I foresee at least 3-5 this year, depending upon how things go. Again, sincere thanks go out to Warren Huart for he's a life saver and has made this guy (meaning me) at least very happy.