Wade wrote:
Would be interesting to find out how many here enjoy mixing and are using HD tracks.
I'm happy to start out and say I've never uploaded an HD track and am happiest when a mix comes together as quickly as possible. I'd also be happy to start posting HD tracks again if there was an indication that many would find this useful. However, as said, I've upload lots, and didn't have anyone (that I know of) use them.
I think your comment regarding the 'fringe instrument' may well ring true to a fair extent. I nearly always provide an HD option, except where previous uploads in the tree haven't - I don't see the point if the entire stem can't be remixed individually. But then drums are, I suppose, a 'base' instrument so demand will always be higher in that sense. I've lost track of the number of people who do templates to just a metronome and lament not having a 'real' timebase to work with. To that end, and looking at my download/remix ratios, I'd guess 60-70% of the downloads of my tracks are presumably used elsewhere for practice, etc., which is fine by me.
With drums, it's harder to decide what to do because we're uploading a mix of a mix - we can't upload, in my case, 7 individual tracks so some level of 'fixed mix' has to be provided and mix priorities decided - for example, how far forward the kick drum is, etc... As a rule, I provide HD mixes with reverb removed and, depending on the track, sometimes the multiband compressors removed as well. Often it's just the mix 'as is' with only EQ applied.
Which leads onto maybe the thing people struggle with the most with the HD option: having their playing 'exposed' for all to hear. It takes a lot of confidence to upload your playing in isolation - all those mistakes and, in my case, dodgy edits we all hate to hear being laid bare for analysis without the rest of the music obfuscating the errors. I totally get those who do not have that confidence.
But I consider, in the case of drums at least, it a useful service to provide HD drums, even if they're not destined to be used on that track. I guess, again, drums sit uniquely because they're not necessarily 'tied' to the track they were performed for and can readily be reused elsewhere.
Edited by
mpointon on December 31 2018 14:01
If you make a mistake, do it again and make it look like you meant to do it!