The first issue was deciding on the right radio mix. By the time a song is played on the radio, it may have undergone several transformations from the album version. This is why radio listeners often have the confusing experience of buying a CD and thinking, “This sounds different from the radio.” It is different—sometimes dramatically so. If the same song is played on a variety of radio formats, there may be several mixes: an alternative mix with louder guitars and drums, a pop mix with friendlier guitars and more vocals, an acoustic mix, a dance mix, and so on. The mix engineers all have distinct sounds. It’s not unusual for the alternative-rock radio mix to be done by one engineer and the pop mix by someone else. Plus, the alternative-rock mix by engineer A may be scrapped, and engineer B may be called in to redo it. The competition is fierce, and mix engineers love to snatch a song away from one of their rivals and remix it.
So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful Of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer’s Life
Jacob Slichter
NOTE – Recommended book.