THE BUILD 004 — The Flattering Level

More bass. More hats. That was the call, and at the volume it was made at it felt obvious.

At conversational level it collapsed.

Loud doesn’t only make a track sound better. It makes it sound better in a direction — the bottom and the top come forward on their own, and they come forward because of the level, not because of anything in the file.

So the excitement was real. It just wasn’t in the track. And the call was to go and get more of it.

Nothing external lied here. No meter, no reference, no target. The file was fine and the room was quiet. The wrong call got made anyway, by the one instrument in the room you can’t calibrate.

You set the condition. That’s the whole trick of it. A tool that flatters you is something you can learn to go and check. A condition that flatters you is one you chose, and you chose it because it felt better — which is what it was for.

So the level comes down to somewhere you could hold a conversation over it. Not as discipline. It’s the only setting where the track has to be good on its own terms instead of on the volume’s.

Taking it back out cost the track its excitement. Not a trick ending where the honest version turns out better — it is flatter than what was there before. The excitement was real. It was on loan from the volume, and the volume doesn’t come with the track.

The volume doesn’t come with the track.

— Bolie Jackson, Mix & Master

Start the arc: THE BUILD 001 — The Meter Was Sure