now all you need is decent materials at Goods Inwards and a well set-up studio to hear the benefits of it, including key ingredients in the Process in order to assess and reliably judge the level of Quality - education primarily, in both its widest and narrowest sense. it's education that informs us of the inadequate bits in our Process and sets about addressing it's shortcomings...another is talent...the gift at birth.
unfortunately, this is fundamentally what most are deprived of in this increasingly large and burdensome era of bedroom producers and bedroom studios. they might be well equipped with the latest and greatest pirateware (low market-entry costs which means they have nothing to risk), running on an insane processor which runs hot and fast during a gaming session, but we need to spend a significant amount of time trying to address fundamental inadequacies stemming from ignorance of those "musicians" who supply the materials. and in this process, we also have to address our own [relative] ignorances while doing so. neither of these two key factors are involved in MB's strategy and i personally, for what it's worth, would find his technique to be totally inadequate for the needs of most mixes that arrive at my DAW. indeed, simply considering the issues of poor arrangements which would benefit from some tweaking in the mix, isn't even on his To-Do list. this guy doesn't even have to mute instruments because of over-produced enthusiasm (read "Ignorance" of arranging and composing skills). what he does is ADD POLISH, which is actually THE DEFINITION OF MIXING. our definition of mixing is tainted by the fact that most of what we mere mortals have to do is - "Fix it in the mix". or at least try to! is the act of trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear mixing? not in my book. but it's not the techniques that are important so much as it is the way we think about what is REALLY important, from that which isn't.
the quality of the decisions we make affect the quality of the outcome. simply taking another's methodology which has been designed with needs that are well beyond, in stellar proportions, our situations would seem a backward step. i think most people in the forum would benefit significantly more by grasping the concepts of "sound", for example....and even what constitutes "Audio" in a Qualitative sense.....not simply capturing the "Performance" of the musician. here in the forum, we apply what should be "critical" listening skills, but nobody can critically listen to an mp3.......so already that part of the process is significantly crippled. yeah, some mixes are so bad that we don't need the other 80 percent of stuff that the mp3 has stripped out by the encoder to be able to make a rough assessment. but rough it can only be.....for some that's fine. is previewing mp3's part of MB's process? does he use mp3 for benchmarking his mixes against other studios? i mention this only as a thought-provoker.
yes, we learn from others, but first we have to learn fundamentals so we can make the right decisions in how we go about our tasks. this sentence should be read in a global, macro sense, not micro, yaaaah?
in the Dojo, the karateka spends endless hours doing nothing other than understanding and repeating the same "basic" moves (that is, repeating them with the attitude of perfecting the RIGHT MOVE, not perfecting the WRONG ONES!!!!). looking ahead at what the Grand Master is doing might fill us with admiration, but it won't help a white belt one iota. the Archers of the Samurai actually don't get to sit on a real horse for years....many years, but engage in the simple concepts until they can master them with sufficient proficiency before they move on. without embracing the fundamentals, we are nothing.........
there's one regular thread starter in the forum who's productivity is insane. i won't mention names out of courtesy. however, i note that he's still mixing the same way, and with the same issues today, as he was when i joined the forum. but that's a bit of a digression to the main point i wanted to make, but it is relative regarding the "Practise makes Perfect" brigade who believe that simply mixing and doing as much of it as possible, is the only way to improve. knowledge comes from outside the DAW, not so much from within it. but it's how we shape this knowledge and filter information, that sorts the men out from the boys, and the people with mixing potential from the also-rans. this is what has made MB the engineer that he is, coupled with a genetic inheritance....a natural gift which he's built on - everyone forgets how important "The Gift at Birth" is in this game! indeed, simply having the gift of being able to play an instrument competently doesn't necessarily imply they will make a decent engineer. yep, MB's had mentors, but crucially those mentors have implanted the "attitudes and concepts" required of a decent engineer, and even more crucially, those mentors spotted a latent talent in the coffee boy....and it's not just how he makes the coffee. MB has understood his own needs based on those attitudes and concepts, primarily.
In Sound on Sound magazine, they have a section entitled "Secrets of the Mixing Engineers". their biggest secret is that they have a gift and have built upon it...but that doesn't make good journalism nor sell copy.
only my opinion...FWIW.
if i may say, to get back to the subject of your mix, my feedback would be along the lines that i feel your mixes are over-processed - physically and academically. you need to fundamentally find how to make the instruments present their emotional elements in the best way possible (e.g. within the constraints of poor recording quality). i'm hearing some fundamental issues, and it's not because of your room and it's inherent acoustics translating though to me. my headphones too are supporting the [consumer-grade] speakers in that regard also and i'd expect your headphones to do like-wise. i keep coming back to the feeling that your monitors are your weakest link so far, irrespective of the self-declared room issues.
what monitors are you using??????????????????? it's truth and consequences time, mate. spill the beans then we can perhaps better help you. to again reiterate this thing about the "quality of our decisions affecting the quality of the outcomes"? this could be your biggest obstacle to furthering your improvement. one guy in the forum was repeatedly going around in circles making the same mistakes. everyone overlooked his REAL issues. i made a recommendation based on his circumstances, and i have to say that he's now producing some of the best mixes in this forum to-date....and furthermore, he's not adopting another's mix buss strategy to achieve it.
i/we can only do so much....but if you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting. simply looking outside for improvement opportunities to your mixes is all well and good, but sometimes the problems are within our own mind-sets. education changes mind-set. another metaphor..."We can lead a horse to water, but we can't make it drink".
i don't normally subscribe to threads, but i'll tag this one