Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475048
Mixing to Taste When I was interviewing the mix team behind the movie Dune for the CAS Quarterly Summer 2022 "Meet the Winners" article, re-recording mixer Doug Hemphill made a statement that really stuck in my head. He said, "It all comes down to taste." That observation really made me think. What is taste? Where does it come from? How do you hone it? Or is it just something we are born with? I spoke with a few CAS members to get their impressions on the subject to hopefully get to the bottom of it. I'm sure many of you have heard the analogy of mixing to that of being a chef. A chef must understand their ingredients intimately and balance them properly to make a delicious dish. A true tastemaker not only knows when there is too much of one ingredient, but also when a key ingredient is missing. But what about the taste innovator? One who can think beyond the flavors we have all tasted before and think outside the box to create entirely new combinations no one has tasted or, in our case, heard before. Obviously, it's easier said than done. Let's go a step further and think outside of the technical realm of EQ, reverb, and levels. What about taste in terms of the soft skills of communication? I believe that is where the true artistry lies. In many ways, we are not only mixing sounds, but we are also mixing ideas, balancing our tastes with the tastes of our collaborators. That's my "We Are the World" impression at least. Let's see what our friends have to say about it. b y C A S A s s o c i a t e m e m b e r S a m C a s a s