Reply To: Mixing Albums or Multiple Tracks

[Grant YoungParticipant]

I think it would depend somewhat on the diversity within the material itself. If all of the tracks are similar in sounds and feel, there’s possibly something to be gained from re-using some settings across tracks, at least as a starting point, and then tweaking/varying from there. However, if all the tracks sound that much the same, it might become a bit boring for the listener? Perhaps that’s an opportunity to use your mix to create some differentiation and dynamic variation across the tracks?

I’m currently working on a collection of three songs, and every song requires a different approach. The guitar arrangements and sounds are quite different. The vocal delivery is different. The sound of the kick/snare that the vibe of the track calls for is different, with different levels of parallel compression being called for to match the variation in vibe and dynamics across the songs. So I haven’t found much benefit in copying outright the settings from one track to the next. Because it is from the same artist, it still sounds coherent, and thus the overall sound of the mixes are not wildly different—they’re still recognizably the same artist and feel like they’re related—but there’s still sufficient variation to keep it interesting...