Us Icelanders have a funny rivalry with
the Swedes.
Especially when it comes to who the "real vikings" are.
Us, of course. They just stayed home and cuddled.
But, there's one thing the Swedes do better than anybody else.
Especially when that furniture is from IKEA...
I've lost count of how many things I've screwed together from IKEA.
But it also taught me a lot about being
prepared.
The first time I put a YURDIGURDY thing together from IKEA I just ripped everything out of the box and started to piece it together. I flipped to the first page of the instructions and stopped immediately because I didn't have the right tools.
So I stood up and got the tool I
needed.
I got halfway through the instructions and realized I needed a second tool.
So I put the half-finished shelf down, walked to the shed and grabbed the next tool I needed.
Finally, I finished the shelf, and although it was frustrating to put
together, I felt good about myself.
The next time I put a BLATHEBRA something or other together I started by asking myself:
Once I knew, I could grab everything I needed. That way I could just sit down and put everything
together without having to waste time wandering around the house looking for my tools a bunch of times.
Usually I only needed about three to five tools:
That was usually enough for everything from putting shelves together to hanging up curtains.
It's the same with mixing. You only need about 4-5 tools when you're mixing:
Of course, there's plenty more to choose from but they're not necessary.
For instance, I have a screw machine I use whenever I need to screw a ton of screws for a project. But most of the time a normal screw driver works just fine.
So even though you might want to use your fancy channel strip plug-in that
includes effects, transient designers, amp simulators and stereolizers you don't need them all the time.
Sometimes you just need a simple EQ, a compressor and some effects to get you there.
Speaking of EQ, I always feel a well EQ'd instrument is the perfect foundation for further processing. If you have EQ problems you might
escalate the situation if you ignore it and start adding more plug-ins.
That's why I created my hour long EQ walkthrough video on mixing with just EQ. It'll help you learn everything you need to make your instruments cut through the mix and sound good together.