All In The Box Creator Thoughts....

[Donald BillowParticipant]

Hello all. First post as a new member here.

So I'm pretty much an all in the box kinda person, using Logic mostly. I do everything from writing to mixing there. So the idea of a traditional process of tracking in a studio, then mix, then master, etc. doesn't apply to what I really do. I write in multiple styles, not much EDM type stuff, so I don't use a lot of loops. I do use a lot of virtual instruments and hire out the vocal work. As I work thru my projects, I find myself pivoting back and forth between what might be considered the "writing" mode and the "mixing mode". I find myself needing to get great sounding parts to be inspired to flesh out the rest of the song. It's almost like production is it's own kind of instrument and is vital to the process of creation, it's not a refinement of something that's already created. I also find myself constantly evaluating the balance of "real instrument" sounding parts vs "synthetic/software generated" parts. Both are important to my work. I also find that once I get to a formal mixing stage, I sometimes find the need to change a certain part or even modify the arrangement in some way and I only came to this conclusion once the mix started to sound ok.

Anyway, does anyone else work in this type of model and if so, have you established any kind of process or approach that you can share? Lessons learned, advice, dire warnings....Maybe we can get some good thoughts flowing on this thread around this....sorry for the rambling and thanks for reading this.

[ChrisParticipant]

Logic user here too. I do not often record, my home studio setup is rather for mixing and/or remixing stuff. When I track, i do it "the old way", meaning I print to DAW and send a headphone mix to the performer. it's rather easy, since I cannot track more than 8 tracks at once, wich makes everything more simple and easy to handle.
The most I ever tracked (live) were Piano, Viola, Cello and Vox at once.
But to get back to your question: my aproach is: print first at a reasonable level, then mix. if it needs overdubs, they can always be tracked upon the rough mix-
I hope I could help
Cheers, Chris

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