Great things are born out of taking a step in a direction.
For me, achieving a great mix happens in stages. Such is the case on a song I’ve been working on a mix for the last couple of days. The song itself is a great song. The first mix was sounding great, but missing an X factor. After some feedback, some constructive, some destructive, I went back and made some tweaks that improved it drastically. That is part of the reason why I like to withhold playing unfinished mixes to people, it makes it difficult for some people understand the steps that are involved (such is the case of the person who gave destructive criticism).
The same can be true for companies like Apple. They have a tendency to make bold moves which often times are cool but often leave out some things that would truly make it amazing. iTunes 9 is now out and it’s a major upgrade. New features and a new look. The new features are great, but are lacking in one or two cases that Apple may not have thought about but will hopefully add. The new look however is jarring and painful. Again, with customer complaints it may help give the end user a way to control it for themselves. We’ll see.
The idea of being One Step Closer to a goal is what brings me to today’s pick. Linkin Park came out with a bold sound a few years back. Slamming guitars, hard core vocals, some screaming that actually didn’t destroy the ears, and post production style to music editing. It all came together and made them what they are: a band for the time.
I’m sure that album came together in steps and spent a lot of time in the mix stage. The end result a harder edged music that I really dig having in my library. Do you have it?