The way your song is mixed, how it sounds is the first impression. Extremely crucial these days when it takes a second to press skip button and your song is gone probably forever.
We all want our songs to be perfect, to sound perfectly so they will stand out among the other comertially released songs. Yes... perfect... but hold on...
Does perfection even exist in audio world?
I said it millions of times. There is NO such a thing as perfect mix. You can always fix, change and tweak something. To know when to leave it and move onto next one is real professionalism and when you show real experience. Can mixes done by the best guys on this planet who charge thousands of dollars for a mix be tweaked and improved? Of course!
Also mixing is an art form, kind of performance and it's totally subjective. If you give your song to 5 professional engineers to mix, you'll get 5 different results. It's not even possible to mix the song exactly the same twice. It's a performance. Mixing and mastering is not only about technical aspects (although it's still important). It's about the vision and feel of the song. And we all feel differently. The final result depends on how you feel about the particular song at that moment. It's nearly impossible to end up with two mixes sounding exactly the same. Mixing is not like matching puzzle set.
The more we fear and obsess over perfection in mixing and mastering, the less attention is given to making music in a way that actually connects with the audience. So eventually we miss the whole point.
Another thing to consider is that it's all subjective, so what would perfection mean in audio world?
Even I would call it a perfect mix, it could be only a mediocre work for someone else as this person hear things differently and might like different sound, has different taste.
So my point is there is no such a thing as a perfect mix. We all chase that and spend days and months on a mix but it can be always tweaked somehow even after 10 years of working at it.
And how does perfection sound? No one knows.
Yes, there are standards we should follow and aim for but they are changing all the time. Well... if something sounds really bad it sounds bad (like digital clipping or low end overpowering the rest of the spectrum for example), but we`re not talking about extreme cases.
Just listen to the songs from 80s and today's music. All sound different and both songs were mixed to the best of engineers abilities at that time. But because of different trends they sound completely different. Both sound good right? So which one is perfect?
Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that many artists deliberately make their records imperfect, including the few cracked notes and slightly rushed rhythms here and there. Good example is Red Hot Chilli Peppers or artists such as Miles Davis.
So stop chasing impossible, focus on capturing the essence of the song and it's overall vibe making it sound good instead of chasing perfection. That doesn't exist in audio world. The art of letting go is baked in in the art of music. Be ready for the moment, don`t chase the impossible.
Lucas/LUMIC Studio