Mixes from actual, honest-to-goodness, kick-ass studios with really great gear, talent and engineers?

Maybe 15-20% except for a volume adjustment.

From everywhere else... I remember one... Two? No, just one.

Back in the good 'ol days, it was really nothing more than a little enhancement and volume adjustments. It still had to be done right, and with the right gear, but there was a lot less "fixing" going on.

The really great ones tend to cluster (obviously, I suppose). If you listen to one track and there's really nothing to do with it, you might get away with doing nothing more than volume adjustments to half the tracks or more.

10 years ago, maybe 25%. today maybe .5%

Once in a great while i'll get something that I can not improve. But it is so rare now. It mostly has to do with experience. But also has to do with volume now. A lot of clients want it loud and you have to do some tweeking to get it loud and still sound good.

Hank Williams (Mastermix in Nashville) masters my stuff. He has a somewhat hands off approach but still he tinkers a bit. Last thing he mastered for me he added .5dB at 1.5kHz on most songs. He didn't do much else other than that but it helped the overall clarity of the album. Several got through without tweaks but most got the 1.5kHz.

Sonic surgery seems to be the rule of the day today.

When I learned mastering in the early 80's most material that came in was so well done that very little had to be done to it.

Now days it seems like everything that comes in has to be tweaked and massaged before it can be "mastered" A lot has to do with the GAIN WARS and a lot has to do with the inexperience of the recording/mixing engineers.

It seems like most people are putting off the final decisions on how something should "sound" until later and later in the process. We are even getting some people who are bringing in their Roland all in one units and are tweaking the mix as it is being mastered. I see "stem" type questions a lot more from clients than I ever did before. I guess a lot of people are looking at mastering as a final mixdown session after the premix session with the mixing engineer.

I hope the loudness race goes away fairly soon and we can get back to making REALLY GOOD WELL RECORDED SONGS SOUND GREAT! but I don't think it is something that will happen quickly.

MTCW

only the things i mix myself :lol: :lol: :lol:

no seriously..... none

unfortunately everything i recieve needs fixing

It happened to me twice. It envolved just some levels and fades. One of them, the producer was not happy to hear that I suggested not to do anything !?! But I was right and I think he knows. The album went out and he seems happy. All the rest needed something to do.

Richard

I do get the occasional project that needs nothing. The "Smile" cutting was one example. But as has been stated above, that was the product of really good decision making by great engineers down the line from me.

Sometimes there is the project where one or two tracks sound just fine & I then try to bring the others up to that sonic benchmark.

Much as I hate to beat a dead mastering horse, lots of times it's inexperienced recordists who do there own premastering that stresses the project to the point where help is needed.

Less is more sometimes......I'm not being paid to produce the project.

I'd say 5% or less.

I'm also getting a lot of the "stem" based projects like Thomas mentioned. Nobody seems to want to, or be able to make a decision.