Your taking what I said wrong. I agree with what your saying but you should start with a good sound and particularly the sound you want. You can't record a bluesy sounding guitar and expect to be able to Eq it in the post mix and make it sound more metal. If he's recording metal he knows how to get a metal sound (scoop the mids), then later it easy to boost the mids (usually only slightly) to make them fit in the mix.

Your right you have to have a mental picture of what you want to hear in the end beforehand. Naturally you will replicate that in the pre-mix as close as possible, then the alteration later will be small. If you have a final mix in your head and you don't go with it (say you boost the mids) then the alterations in the post-mix will be greater. Big no no. Don't fight what you want because of rules. See we are saying the samething but your just taking what I'm saying the wrong way. If a good enginner can exactly balance out all the frequencies before recording a single track, he/she is god. No engineer can do that because you never know what the right balance is, it's a process that changes everytime you sit down to mix a song. Many factors play a role here, most aren't in our control.

[Edited by noticingthemistake on 10-12-2003 at 09:55 PM]