Doing a remix on an airplane. Am I crazy?

Posted February 15th, 2008 by Oliver Chesler
Filed Under: hardware, song writing

United Flight

I am about to jump on a nine hour flight. I have an important remix due in about ten days. I have not even opened the files to hear the song or the parts I was given to work with. Given M-Audio IE-30these facts I plan on making the most of tomorrow’s flight and see how much remixing I can do in coach!

I used this challenge as an excuse to go on a little shopping spree. I bought some M-Audio IE-30 in ear headphones and an extra Macbook Pro battery. I guess I should do an official review of the IE-30s when I get back. They certainly feel a lot nicer than the Apple earbuds I have been using.

With laptops we have full recording studios where ever we go. But do we ever really making music in the park or on a flight? I will tell you my answer soon!

photo credit: caribb

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7 Responses to “Doing a remix on an airplane. Am I crazy?”
  1. andras! Says:
    February 15th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    i once went on a business trip from detroit michigan to boxberg, germany. my goal was to create an e.p.i that time period. i did. using my powerbook, ableton, idrum, arp 2600 software and the built in mic. i call it new germany. and it was alot of fun to make, and i consider it one of my finer moments. there is nothing better than having time constraints on a creative project.
    http://www.andrasklang.com/shorelines
    its available to download if you are interested.

    thanks
    sean patrick

  2. andras! Says:
    February 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    http://www.andrasklang.com/shorelines.html rather…

  3. tj milian Says:
    February 16th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

    not crazy at all. i’ve worked on remixes and song ideas on flights. you might have the person sitting next to you watch you the whole time though, but it’s all good.

    several years ago (pre-9/11) i got a bad reaction from the flight crew when i broke out my portable dat recorder and a stereo mic to record the pre-flight announcement coming out of the overhead speakers. the flight attendant asked me a few questions and then brought the pilot over to tell me it wasn’t cool. oh well.

    sean- listening to your new germany tracks now. good stuff.

  4. Andy Says:
    February 17th, 2008 at 10:57 am

    It should be good for getting basic ideas but because of the external noise and the difference in air pressure between your studio and the cabin of a plane, you won’t be able to mix things properly - I expect everything sounded WAY too bassy when you listened to it back on Earth.

    There’s also a problem with mixing on headphones due to the isolation of each ear which results in sounds that are hard panned only being heard in one ear as opposed to the natural spill to the opposite ear that is experienced when hearing a sound with ‘naked’ ears. I think there are plugins that are supposed to avoid this by introducing slight ‘crossfeed’ to the signal of each channel and some headphone amps also do this. Might be worth checking out…

  5. Andy Says:
    February 17th, 2008 at 11:07 am

    Here’s a SOS article about mixing on headphones that might come in useful…

    http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan07/articles/mixingheadphones.htm

  6. andras! Says:
    February 17th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    thank man!!!

  7. J-chot Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 11:46 am

    if I can make an EP in 7 mos of 30 min lunch breaks at work, then I say
    YES.
    you can do this remix on a plane.

    http://www.memoryformat.com/#mfm04

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