Mixing/Mastering an Extended Track/EP

tgod

legend
Hey guys,

I wanted to get some feedback regarding this before I get started.

I plan on making a 10-minute or so EP soon. The thing is, I don't want to mix + master + bounce individual tracks. I want this to be a cohesive, continuous 10 minute long track. Not that the entire 10 minutes is going to be the same instrumental, I am just going for a more experimental-concept type EP that I would rather have it be a single "Listen in one sitting" piece vs multiple single tracks.

That being said, I am debating on how to go about this. I work in Logic. I could simply achieve this in one project, but I know it would get Very long and messy by the time it is finished. I would probably have a good 50 tabs running.

To make this easier, I am wondering If I can split this EP into a few separate tracks to make it more manageable, and then when I am finished, Import the mastered tracks onto a single project and merge them together so it is still cohesive. Would this work, or would it tank the mastering I had done on each segment? Just not sure if importing already mastered tracks onto an unmastered project, and then bouncing it out as the single track would ruin it.

If anyone has any advice or the best way to go about this, please let me know :)

Thank you+
 
I've never done anything remotely near something like that, but how I'd approach it
would be to use one template for all the track you make. Just to keep all the mixes
pretty similar level wise, and you might want to use very similar tempos as well since
it sounds to me like you're going to be cross-fading the songs into one another. Use
one project as a template and just either reload it every time you're going to start
a new track, so that each track you're working on has the same effects, levels and
other properties for the drums, same properties and levels for the chords, same
properties and levels for the bass lines, etc. I would then export each beat once
finalized, then just do the whole ten minute mix on a separate project with all the
beats already similarly mixed and arranged so that it's a little closer to being seamless
than just something completely different each time a new beat fades in.

Just my strategy, but I'm sure there's a dozen ways it can be done. I hope it works out!
Keep us posted.
Good luck!
 
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I've never done anything remotely near something like that, but how I'd approach it
would be to use one template for all the track you make. Just to keep all the mixes
pretty similar level wise, and you might want to use very similar tempos as well since
it sounds to me like you're going to be cross-fading the songs into one another. Use
one project as a template and just either reload it every time you're going to start
a new track, so that each track you're working on has the same effects, levels and
other properties for the drums, same properties and levels for the chords, same
properties and levels for the bass lines, etc. I would then export each beat once
finalized, then just do the whole ten minute mix on a separate project with all the
beats already similarly mixed and arranged so that it's a little closer to being seamless
than just something completely different each time a new beat fades in.

Just my strategy, but I'm sure there's a dozen ways it can be done. I hope it works out!
Keep us posted.
Good luck!


Thank you for the reply :) I know i'm late but had a question for you if I went this route-

Would I be best to leave the final project un mastered, since the individual songs that I place in it will already have been pre mixed and mastered? I just don't know if re-compressing, limiting, eqing, etc tracks that have already been would over do it.

Or I could mix each individual track, but leave them unmastered, and then master them all together at the end on the final project?

Hope this makes sense. I've been doing each track individually so far and am hoping it will piece together nicely in the end
 
I literally just went through this. Sony had me mix a song for J. Monty called “100 Bars Pt 4”. It should be dropping really soon so look for it and then come back and hit me up. It’s basically three different songs, like a giant medley. It was absolutely BRUTAL to mix. It was like 150 tracks, but more importantly, the style of the music changed from section to section with transitions, but still had to sound cohesive like one song. I mixed it all in one session. But I can say that from a production standpoint (name of the producer is escaping me at the moment) it was done in three different sessions. It might have been two different DAWs also. So I got three folders; one for each section of the song. And then I mixed them as one song.
 
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