"Free To Those Who Can Afford It..."

"...very expensive to those who can't."

The art of learning, according to the highly influential book Management of Training Programs (published in 1960 and still referenced today), consists of four basic stages: unconscious incompetence ("Yeah, I'm musical - I've got loads of CDs. How difficult can playing the piano be?"), conscious incompetence ("It turns out that playing the piano is really hard!"), conscious competence ("Right, I can play Chopsticks, but I have to concentrate..."), and unconscious competence ("Yeah, I can play Chopsticks as fast as you like. Watch this!")

Anyway, it as come to my attention (mainly listening to my early stuff on SoundCloud) that I could do with learning to mix properly, thereby progressing from what is clearly the lowest form of unconscious incompetence.

To this end, a couple of months ago, I set about the task by abandoning everything I thought I knew and starting again from first principles. With a focus on balance, depth, clarity, and smoothness, to my very great surprise, I appear to be getting better at it by the day, despite my increasingly old, tin ears, dulled by years of clubbing and loud gigs.

However, (there's always a however) there remains the issue of how to master (geddit?) the gentle art of making sine waves sit up straight and look their best. It requires mixing a lot of tracks in a wide variety of genres.

There is the Cambridge Music Technology Free Multitrack Download Library to explore, which is a fabulous resource for the budding mix engineer. I've been through it, from rap to power pop to extreme noise metal. However, mixing those tracks for my own amusement ultimately has no consequence. Unless I can find the act I've mixed and get them to give me feedback, the point is ultimately academic. I tried this with a band from Brighton, only to discover that since they donated their track to the library, they've split up and settled into day jobs.

<takes deep breath> So...

I'm looking for tracks from the EMOM community to mix, free, gratis and for nothing. By "EMOM community", I mean anyone who has been up on stage and played an EMOM-style event at least once. All styles are welcome. I'll do my very best with all of it.

Here's the deal...

1. Export the multitracks of your track to .wav files, along with your current mix for reference, zip it all up, and upload it to your favourite cloud storage site. Then drop me an email (address below) with the location.

2. I'll do my very best to mix the track, then send it back along with the new multitracks, all in .wav format.

3. If you don't like what I've done to your baby, either come back to me with suggestions or complaints (not a problem - I was a freelance writer for a decade, and I certainly can take criticism!), or just forget it ever happened - no issues or bad feeling at all.

4. If you DO like my mix, use it, tell people, spread the word. It's yours! 

EMOM is growing like Topsy because everyone gives according to his, her or their ability. It seems to me that providing a free mixing service to the community as I learn is what I can do. At the very least, it'll give you a fresh pair of ears and maybe some inspiration.

So, go on, drop me a line with a link to your zip file by contacting:

jon_and_libby_music_@_gmail.com    (Remove the 5 underscores and you'll get through).

 

Hey, and in other news, April is stacking up nicely for Libby and me. So far, we're playing in Todmorden (2nd), Shrewsbury(20th) and Stoke (25th). 

I've also applied to play BLEEP again in May.  

Happy days!