Recording - July 2020 - 72

FadeOut
Art vs. Science in Mixing-and Life?
By Aaron J. Trumm
One day not long ago, I was sitting in a plush lecture hall
in the Westin hotel in Los Angeles, listening to a workshop on
mixing by Grammy Award-winning producer and mixer Rob
Chiarelli (Will Smith, Christina Aguilera, Pink, LeAnn Rimes,
Janet Jackson, Stevie Wonder...). We were all excited to hear
what Rob had to say, and there were many enthusiastic mixers
ready with a host of questions. As you might imagine, some of
those questions were quite technical, and I remember early on
somebody in the back asked something I thought of as, well,
a bit nitpicky-something about LUFS on the pre-master mix
bus-something that, although I have the capacity to understand, would never have crossed my mind to ask, in 25 years
of making records. Naturally, I felt stupid.
I was prepared for my own internal embarrassment, feeling sure
that Rob would pontificate in great
detail on the proper way to handle
whatever it was, but was pleasantly
surprised when Rob scoffed. I don't
want to say he called it a stupid
question (he was very magnanimous), but kinda. Rob's answer was
basically this: does it sound good? Does it feel good? The thing
that matters most in a mix is the song. If you get so caught up
in the technical mumbo jumbo and fail to pay attention to the
mix's feel and sound, you'll probably mess it up.
That was a great relief. Rob did talk about some very technical points, and he did end up addressing the question in some
detail, exhibiting a deep understanding of the science of audio. Here was a guy who has a grasp of the balance between
art and science.
This is a fitting analogy for life in general. We need to understand the details, and science has been how we've achieved
most of what we take for granted now. It was physicist (Loud)
Tommy Dowd who gave us multitrack recording and the fader.
Electrical engineer Max Mathews brought us digital audio. But
when we get caught in the details and forget the reason for
them, we risk losing the art entirely.

We see that battle a lot lately, not just in music. Science is being
thrown away when it shouldn't be, but so is its counterpart, faith.
This is a dilemma as old as history. In college lectures on medieval
history, we called it the battle of faith vs. reason. In every era, one
overtakes the other, and there are always consequences.
This is what's so magical about mixing music. You really can't
get it right without both. Fail to understand the science, and
you're left guessing, bumbling, and making mixes that sound like
cats fighting or elephants dying. Skip the crucial details, and you
could find yourself overloading channels or recording silence
at a once in a lifetime performance-great ways to lose a gig!
If you can't step back and feel the music, let it tell you what
it needs, and worry less about peak meters and fancy plugins,
you could end up with a mix that
moves no one.
Balancing these two abilities sets
great mixers apart from mediocre
ones. One side is the ability to hear
details-pick out the high-hat and
hear that slight 3k resonance, or
hear the kick phasing just slightly
with the bass. The other is to turn
technical listening off and get lost in the groove, get goosebumps, and feel your head nodding. The ability to be both analytical and emotional-at times simultaneously-is what makes
for a truly fantastic mix engineer.
It's hard to be two opposing things at once, or we're led to
believe that. But I think in mixing, as in life, the goal is balance.
I think, and I feel; therefore, I am a musician!
If you ask me whether art or science is king in mixing, I'd say
they share the throne. Whichever side you tend to lean toward,
I encourage you to tilt the other way sometimes. See what you
can find by valuing both. Maybe you'll be able to mix art and
science a little better (pun fully intended).

The ability to be both
analytical and emotional-at
times simultaneously-is what
makes for a truly fantastic
mix engineer.

72 RECORDING July 2020

Aaron J. Trumm is always trying to learn more about balance, art,
science, and sound. If you want to talk about it with him, find him
on Facebook @AaronJTrumm or on his site at aarontrumm.com

http://www.aarontrumm.com

Recording - July 2020

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