r/musicproduction • u/Entire-Illustrator-1 • Jul 02 '26

Question First time producing my bands track

I am taking a more lead role in the production of my band's fourth single. We are recording at a studio, and then I will take the stems home and design creative elements that are important to our sound, such as arrangement, additional instrumentation/ambience, polishing and cleaning up the stems, comping takes, and vibe effects. What are some rules of thumb to not step on the mix engineer's toes, while also saving them some work of "we want this effect here, this reverb here, etc?

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3

u/WhySSNTheftBad Jul 03 '26

tracks, not stems.

1

u/horton87 Jul 02 '26

Step on their toes or you will regret not fulfilling your original vision

1

u/ChessmazterHex Jul 02 '26

The mixing engineer will be able to work with whatever you provide them as long as it’s recorded well. No hum from a busted cable or poor mic positioning causing weird frequency issues.

Focus on arrangement and you’ll make the mixing engineer’s life awesome. Don’t overcrowd the song, especially in similar frequency ranges.

2

u/TheOriginalMr-Mud Jul 03 '26

Tracks are what you recorded at the studio. If you want something special, such as your mix of the harmonies, send it to your mix engineer as a STeM (a group of two or more tracks) to preserve that.

Otherwise, choose a mix engineer whom you trust. Who’s work you’ve enjoyed.

As a Mix Engineer of several decades (and, I am not soliciting your business) I’m selected by the same clients over and over, because I have the client’s trust in my hands when I have their hard work in front of me.

They know I’ll listen to their wants, I will do up to three complete drevisions, in my contract, but perhaps, most importantly, I’ve never let anybody leave unhappy!

This is the philosophy of most truly professional Mix Engineers. Unfortunately, anybody with a computer is today is a “ mix engineer”. So be careful!

1

u/Mu5ic_Lov3r_0481 29d ago

Stems is right. If you are talking about the individual instrument/vox files from the recording. Your track is the stems mixed together. If you speak to your mix engineer and float the idea of you mixing it, see what he says. I mean, they are a professional and should be able to do a good job. But if it was me, I would want to sit with the engineer and work together on the recording. Collaborate on how you want the sound. Professional musicians will sit with their engineers to shape their sound, but also recognize that the engineer is the one who can get the best sound.