Three Small Steps
Alright, it’s 2025! I’m pretty sure about that. And yet, with my current production, I’ve basically hopped into a time machine and keep landing smack in the middle of the ’60s. It’s like I just discovered multitrack recording—what a time to be alive!
To get into the right headspace, it helps to listen to some handpicked productions from back in the day—or just stream a classic movie from directors like George Roy Hill or Arthur Penn, just to name a couple.
So here we are, experiencing a tech-driven media revolution years before the social upheaval of the late ’60s even kicks in.
We’re sitting in a recording studio with a massive live room, filled with a string orchestra, a brass section, an upright bass, a drum kit, a grand piano, and an acoustic guitar—basically, we’re about to produce a global hit.
Alright… now what?
Step One: Stay Cool!
In other words, don’t immediately start messing around with fancy plugins, surgical compressors, dynamic EQs, or—worst of all—Auto-Tune. Nope. Step away from the screen and go straight to the source: balance.
All we’re doing is setting the faders. And we take our sweet time with it. Now, don’t get me wrong—taking time doesn’t mean slow-motion knob-twisting. It means taking breaks. Check the mix after half an hour, in the evening, or even the next day.
Boring? Maybe. But also pretty damn cool.
Now that our ears are free from sonic junk, we move on to Step Two: EQ.
Step Two: The EQ—Keep It Groovy
Don’t forget: We’re still in the ’60s, and our EQ options are limited to bass, mids, and treble. So, keep your hands off that sweeping EQ trick and instead, go broad and relaxed—use your ears, not your eyes on a frequency analyzer.
Which EQ should you use? Doesn’t really matter. Just keep it smooth, subtle, and not too extreme.
How does it sound? Great? Then let’s jump to Step Three!
Wait—NOPE. Not so fast. We circle back to Step One and let the whole thing breathe. Like a fine old wine.
Not because we believe some magical fermentation process will refine our mix, but because we need to clear our auditory palette again. Let’s take a moment to think about what a ’60s mix rack might have looked like—what was in it, and why?
Step Three: Painting with Sound Colors
On my virtual time-travel adventure, I’ve built myself a mega-rack of Pultec EQs, 1176s, LA2As, and a Fairchild.
The beauty of modern times? I can actually *afford* this setup! Because, let’s be real—this rack would’ve been just as financially impossible back then as it is now.
The trick is to embrace the sonic character of these beauties and use them wisely for the final step:
**Painting with Sound Colors.**
Sounds a bit like paint-by-numbers, right? Well, in a way, it is.
Just like in a nuanced, pointillist painting, we achieve the best results by layering tiny details—only in their sum do we reach the full sonic picture.
The magic lies in the accumulation of all those subtle adjustments—this is what truly shapes the final sound of the mix.
And that’s it from Studio Pfütze! Time to put my headphones back on and keep painting my mix. Catch you on the airwaves!