“Force always creates counter-force; its effect is to polarize rather than unify.”
— David R. Hawkins
David Hawkins says that force always creates counter-force.
In music production, that's the four hours we spend making a vocal louder before we notice the whole mix eventually came up with it.
Force has to push on something. Power doesn't push at all, and the only one of the two that is effortless.
The Starting Point
We can hear force in a mix.
The vocal gets turned up because it wasn't cutting through; the second kick gets layered onto a kick nobody tuned; that extra 2dB because the reference mix was louder.
Every one of those is a push.
Everything we push, pushes back, usually as a frequency problem we spend the next hour chasing.
The Invitation
Another move is always sitting right there, and it's super boring.
Turn down whatever is parked on top of the vocal instead of turning the vocal up.
Tune the kick we already have.
Fix the balance levels instead of handing the job to a limiter, which will keep attempting it, badly, for as long as we let it.
It's a better result, and a better use of resources.
The Test
Two albums already ran this experiment for us.
Death Magnetic got mastered so hard in 2008 that fans went and ripped the Guitar Hero versions instead, because those hadn't been flattened.
Dreams barely gets loud anywhere, and in 2020 it climbed back onto the charts forty-three years late after a dude filmed himself drinking juice on a skateboard.
Force wins the room it's playing in. Power wins the decade.
The Guidepost
A distorted master has to win an argument in every room it will ever play in, meaning it needs someone there to defend it.
A dynamic mix even wins in rooms we'll never stand in.
That's the whole difference, and it's why the loudest mix of any given year is rarely the one anybody still plays.
The Change
Stop asking a mix to get bigger and start asking what is stopping it.
The answer is not the limiter.
It's the two parts sitting in the same octave, or a reverb doing a job nobody assigned it.
Take one of them out and the whole thing grows without a single fader sliding up.
The Return
We already know which of our sessions were force, because they hurt to listen to for too long.
The good ones got set on repeat for hours.
That's what it feels like when we stop pushing.
During your next mix, don’t ask:
“How do I make this bigger?”
Ask:
“What's getting in the way?”
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Song of the Week 🎧
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Two chords simply repeating all the way through. Christine McVie thought it was boring when Stevie Nicks brought it in. It was the only US number one the band ever had. This is one of my favourite mixes.
Listen for what this recording doesn't do. Nothing shows up late to the party, and because nothing pushes you away, you end up leaning in. A masterclass in dynamics and simplicity. Kick, snare, bass, and vocals. The rest seeps in naturally.
A/B it against Death Magnetic. Two albums you can sit beside each other on your album analysis list, one filed under Dynamic and the other under Squashed.
YouTube Wisdom of the Week 📚
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Power vs. Force (The 16 levels of Consciousness)
Power vs. Force — David R. Hawkins
Hawkins' practical bit, stripped of the mysticism: notice which emotional state you're making the decision from. A fader move made from panic and a fader move made from taste look identical on the screen. They don't sound identical.
Plugin of the Week 🔌
The honest loudness plugin. It adds apparent volume without adding level, which means the meter barely moves and the mix feels a size bigger. Start at 50% Effect, 0% Curve, and turn Input up until it lifts. If you hear it working, it's too far.
Free Plugin of the Week 🆓
Two knobs and two switches, and it will do more for a drum bus than most compressors with thirty controls. Klanghelm gives it away. This is the plugin that talks you out of reaching for the limiter.
Unsolicited life advice for music makers
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