Just finished mixing "Karl-Marx-Allee" today, the 17th of February. So many times we do a mix and then realise it's on a date with the number seven in it. It was another all-nighter. Mixing seems to mean staying up all night for us. We had been putting this one off for a while and then last night got the feeling to start. Once you're in it tends to be a case of seeing it through all the way or possibly not getting back to finishing it for months.
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| Karl-Marx-Allee, Berlin |
Mixing is the hardest part of what we do because of a few things. It means staring at a computer screen for hours, usually sitting in a hunched up uncomfortable way in whatever makeshift 'studio environment' we find ourselves. This doesn't allow the energy to flow freely around the body and begins to irritate both physically and mentally. Our equipment is super lo-fi. We use €15 computer speakers to mix (difficult to judge the bass frequencies when you can hardly hear them!) along with better quality headphones, which you can at least hear the detail of the mix on, but are tiring to wear constantly.
Once you've gone through this process with a few songs it gets harder to motivate yourself each time. We love working on these songs and we love to see them past the finish line, and usually there is a point somewhere in the mixing process where it can become enjoyable and things start flowing. It's something we haven't quite mastered the balance of yet. There is nobody else to do the task and I feel somewhere along the line someone else who enjoys it far more than we do could take over but for now we are still trying to do it without losing our balance.
We are pleased with how this one turned out. It feels like this song has been through a long journey. It was the first brand new SoulJahm song when it came into being back in Budapest, March 2011. Now it's out there and ready to do it's work and we can keep moving on.
