Today I want to share a method of mixing that has been giving me good results in less time. Borrowing from the world of business and time management I’ve been developing some new workflows that I think can really help people in their studios. I call it the Tim Ferris approach to mixing because it’s based on some principles that were beautifully explained in the book The Four Hour Work Week by author Timothy Ferriss.
Via Gaurav Mishra Flickr
Get Better Mixes In Less Time
In Tim’s book, he addresses the problem found in the moder workplace: work for work’s sake. If we have 8 hours in a day, we fill those 8 hours and keep ourselves busy. It feels good to be busy, but are we really accomplishing much? Are we being effective? Most of the time we are not. Instead, Ferriss proposes we use two well known principles in combination to see extraordinary results in effectiveness and time savings: the 80/20 rule and Parkinson’s Law.
The 80/20 rule (or Pareto’s Principle) states that 80% of our results come from 20% of our activities. We see that in getting most of our mix in the first hour. Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Said another way: your mix will take as much time as you give it. By exploiting these two principles we can achieve better mixes in less time.
Focus On The Big Wins In Mixing
To save time in mixing, we should be focusing on the big wins. The critical 20% of activities and mix moves that make the biggest impact in final sound. In my mind these activities are clear: initial setup things like gain staging, volume, and pan, and then the core mix effects like EQ and compression. Those activities are what make up your mix. The rest is just candy.
Looking at this from the other end of the spectrum, try to avoid spending much time on the 80% of your activities that only contribute to 20% of the final mix. These would be mix moves like reverb, delay, automation, trying lots of random plugins, etc. It’s too easy to get caught up in the complexities of these activities instead of spending your time where it counts.
Give Yourself Tighter Deadlines
You know how if given a week to write a paper in school, you’ll take a week? But when a paper is due in 24 hours, you somehow find a way to get it done in 24 hours? That’s Parkinson’s Law at work. The power of a short deadline creates immense focus, allowing you to get more done in less time. Why not exploit that for our purpose of mixing?
By simply imposing a tighter deadline on yourself, you’ll likely increase focus and see better results. It seems counterintuitive, but it works. So if you typically take 6 hours to get a mix done, try to do it in 3. If you take 4 hours to mix, try to do it in 2. Give yourself half the time you normally take to mix and see what happens.
The Powerful Combination
The beauty of the Tim Ferriss approach to mixing is this: the 80/20 rule helps you to reduce the time spent on unnecessary mix moves, while Parkinson’s Law forces you to do your remaning mix moves in less time than you’d like. The result? You can get a mix done in less time that was completely focused on what really makes a difference to the listener.
I know that the goal of mixing isn’t purely to be fast. And I understand that if you’re brand new to this craft, it takes time to finish a mix. But I hope your eyes were opened to the possibilities and the power of this approach. Minimize work for work’s sake. Don’t waste your time on the mixing moves that don’t produce big results. And create more focus by having shorter deadlines. In the end you’ll get better at mixing. And ultimately that’s the goal.
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My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
Great post.
These two principles are great to save time. Lately I changed my workflow and decided to refuse to spend more than 3 hours on a mix. And it works fine.
This works well with limiting your options too: if you have only one microphone, you’ll obviously spend less time on mic choice, and be more productive.
If you test only two things (placement/plugins), you have a simple A/B choice to make and you learn things one at a time, but quicker.
If you record only two takes, you’ll comp much faster and you’re putting some slight pressure on you to deliver your best performance.
If you limit your track count, you’ll record only what is necessary.
Limitations are great!
Limitations are the keys, I’ll try this for dueling mixes this month. Another great post! Graham is a genius!
As a terrible procrastinator, I have a lot of experience with Parkinson’s Law. I think the basis of it is that most of us require a certain level of neural stimulation (panic) before we’re able to focus and really work on something. And no matter how much time we’re given, we won’t really do the job until the time gets short enough that we reach that level.
Honestly, I think it the natural brain chemicals that ADHD drugs mimic kicking in and making us focused and effective.
Great post, and this is a concept we should try to apply to our lives as well
Yes! I apply it to many things in my life.
Great great post Graham! I’m going to apply this on everything in my business from now on!
Do it. It’s really helped me with mine!
Well said Graham! And what a great book to promote.
Hi Graham! I wanted to ask a question regarding time. On a erage, how long do you usually take to complete a full mix? I know this depends on severa variables such as complexity, track count, revisions etc.. Say you had to mix a song with 35 tracks total; with no need to pitch correct, time align, or drum replace; good quality recordings, well edited, and organized. How long do you think it would take for that project to be fully complete? Provided that the client is ecstatic with the 1st mix bounce??
I ask this question because I feel I may be on the slower side of the fence. I tend to set up the session ready to mix by buss routing, grouping, proper track naming, colour coding, and setting VCAs. Then I do a volume/pan static mix, flip the thing in mono and go to town with EQ. I follow with compression, other trickery if needed, then FX, I then go back to the main vocals, re EQ and compress them, compare with the previous settings and make any adjustments that slow vocals to be heard, understood, and good sounding. I then go through the song making notes as to what would make the song emotionally engaging and make a list of things to work on. I take care of that, then I go through the song again checking level balances and making individual track volume adjustments. Then I automate volume/pan/filter changes through whatever tracks need it across the whole song (This process tends to take me a while). I go back to the main vocals again, this time I write small volume automations to ensure every word is balanced. I finish by visiting the bass last, referencing a commercia release, making EQ adjustments, setting comparable bass levels, and writing bass volume automation.
I then slap a limiter, bring it up to -11dB rms, bounce it, give it to my client and reference in as many stereos/headphones/cars/earphones/speaker systems I can. I take note of level balances and nasty frequencies, go back to the mix, make the appropriate changes and do whatever the client wants revised.
At this point I’m done.
This whole thing takes me anywhere between 8-16 hours of work. Is this a normal workflow? I’m a crazy perfectionist and find it to slow me down because once the big picture works, I go microscopic and start work every element til’ is just right. This perfectionism is highly appreciated by my clients. Especially in vocals. However, I often find 20 minutes is a very long time to volume automate a vocal, no? I use compression to balance and ad/remove punch/sustain. But I’m not fan of pumping or using 3 compressors. I’ve also considered using Waves Bass/Vocal rider to do this for me. Somehow I haven’t jumped in cuz I fear the machine won’t do it righ and I may have to go in and do it anyway.
Am I just plajn and simple taking too long? Am I a slow f****? I’m just fearing my clients may find 10-12 hours to be a horrible turn around for just one song. I’ve seen some online mixing sites offering full mixes in “next day delivery” fashion. And it’s making me consider whether I’m cut to do this or not. My clients find y work great, I believe it’s comparable to commercial releases, but given the rate at which top 40 artists have singles put, I wonder if these engineers are turning out full mixes in just a few hours. Am I a dinosaur?? Sorry for the lengthy post.
Hi Juan,
To answer your question: a typical full mix takes me no more than 3 hours. I follow a very similar workflow as you, but I just must move faster 🙂
Perfectionism is good in that you care about your work and the details. But I would do apply these principles above to your workflow and see if you don’t just get a mix that’s as good in the client’s eyes but takes you less than 6 hours.
Damn! Im mad slow!! Thanks 4 the advise, imma pick up the pace wayy up!
Great article Graham! This will really help me speed up my workflow!
Guys don’t feel so bad. I’m almost done mixing 3 songs that should have been mixed 15 years ago. (Seriously!) With this 80/20 rule and setting a deadline, they all should be done by the end of the month. (I hope lol)