There’s an old saying by legendary engineer Mark Rubel that hits like a punch to the gut for anyone who’s ever tried to polish a turd in the mix: “Nobody dances to a compressor.” In other words, no one gives a damn about the gear you used or the magic you tried to sprinkle on in post-production if the core performance just ain’t there. You can’t make a bad take sound good with plugins, and no amount of mixing tricks will fix sloppy playing or a half-baked performance. Yet, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “We’ll fix it in post” from musicians who’d rather roll the dice in the mix than hit that “redo” button during tracking.
Look, I get it. The vibe’s hot, the clock is ticking, and no one wants to be that guy stopping the session to redo a guitar part for the fifteenth time. But trust me when I say, fixing things in post is a losing game. You think you’re saving time now, but future-you is gonna hate present-you when you’re sitting in the control room, begging a busted vocal take to behave.
“Fix It in Post” Is the Path of Least Resistance—And It Sucks
Let’s break it down. We’ve all been there: you’re tracking, and a note or two goes flat, the groove slips for a moment, or the drum hit lands just off. Instead of punching in a quick fix or recording another take, someone inevitably says, “Eh, we’ll fix it in the mix.” You think you’ll EQ out the flaws, throw some reverb on it, slap an auto-tune plugin on the vocal, and boom—it’ll be like it never happened, right? Wrong.
You’re not getting away with it. Mixing can only do so much. And by the time you’re in post, your options are limited, and all the magic dust you thought you’d sprinkle on is more like a band-aid on a bullet wound. Let me tell you, when the groove isn’t locked in the first time, no amount of compression, EQ, or time-alignment is going to make it feel “right.”
I once worked with a band that had this incredible energy live—like, spine-tingling—but in the studio, they had this awful habit of saying, “Just get it down, we’ll polish it up later.” Well, guess what? Later came, and that spark from the live shows was nowhere to be found. We spent hours—days—in the mix trying to bring life into dead performances. But it’s like trying to jumpstart a car with a dead battery: if it ain’t got the juice from the start, you’re just wasting your time.
Record Like You Mean It (Because You Should)
Here’s the thing: recording isn’t a rough draft. This isn’t high school English class where you can half-ass your essay and “clean it up” later. You’re laying down the foundation of your entire track. Think of recording as the performance, not the thing before the performance. Every take should be played like it’s going straight to the radio—or whatever we’re calling Spotify these days.
If something’s off, stop and fix it right then and there. Re-record the take. Hit the note. Nail the timing. It might seem like a pain now, but future-you—and your future mix engineer—will thank you.
I was recording a session once, and the singer kept sliding sharp on the high notes. Rather than letting it slide (no pun intended) and saying, “Don’t worry, we’ll auto-tune it later,” I stopped everything and told him to grab some water, take a breath, and let’s go again. He was frustrated at first, but after a few more takes, he hit it just right. That vocal take went from something we could fix later to something we didn’t have to touch at all. And guess what? It felt real. It had energy. You can’t fake that.
Don’t Rely on the Mix Engineer to Save You
This one’s personal for me because I’ve been in the trenches as an engineer for years, and let me tell you: I can’t save you from a bad take. You know what makes for a great mix? A great recording. You know what makes for a terrible mix? A track full of half-hearted performances and mistakes that were supposed to “get fixed” later.
The number of times I’ve been handed a pile of sessions with phrases like, “We had some issues, but you can clean it up, right?” is honestly staggering. And sure, I can try to clean it up, but all the plugins in the world can’t fix the soul that’s missing from a half-assed performance. Compression, EQ, automation—they can all enhance something that’s already great, but they’re not gonna magically turn a so-so recording into a masterpiece.
The Art of the Do-Over: Don’t Be Afraid to Re-Record
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in the studio is this: There’s no shame in a do-over. Sometimes you just need to hit reset. If the timing’s off or the groove’s not right, go back and do it again. Hell, some of the best albums you’ve ever heard were built on hundreds of takes. Hendrix didn’t nail every solo on the first pass, and even The Beatles spent weeks perfecting takes that they knew had to be just right.
A buddy of mine who’s a session guitarist once told me, “Every take is either a rehearsal or the final cut, you just don’t know which one.” He’s right. Sometimes you have to re-record something 15 times to capture the magic, and that’s okay. The important thing is to put in the work upfront. Sure, it might feel frustrating to redo a part when you’re in the flow, but it’s a lot easier to do it right the first time than to fight a bad take in the mix. Trust me on this.
Why Musicians Need to Embrace the Art of Now
The bottom line is this: recording is your shot. It’s not some throwaway placeholder that you’ll fix later in post. It’s the moment you capture your sound, your energy, your vibe. If you’re waiting until the mix to bring it all together, you’re already too late. And for the love of all things musical, stop assuming the engineer is some kind of audio wizard who can polish up anything. We can only work with what you give us.
The music lives in the performance, in that moment you hit record. So, the next time you’re in the studio and something doesn’t sound right, don’t shrug it off with a “fix it later” mindset. Stop, take a breath, and do it right now. Your future self, your mix engineer, and your fans will thank you.
And trust me—if you can get it right when you track, the mix process will be a breeze, and the end result will sound like you meant it.
