Services

Please take some time to read more about our services, as well as our detailed instructions on preparing your tracks for mixing.

 

Recording

TRACKING AUDIO

The recording process are the foundational pillars of high-quality sound. It’s very important that the sources of your audio are captured at the highest quality from the beginning to ensure a professional sounding mix. This includes using the right microphones, preamps, dynamics controllers, and the right sounding room. Don’t ever underestimate the power of the room acoustics!

 

Mixing

Mixing is the process of taking individual tracks/stems/instruments from a song and blending them together in the most audibly pleasing way (which can be very subjective) with the use of volume control, stereo imaging, dynamics, equalization and effect processing. This process allows for the most “life” to be brought out of your piece of music and shared with the rest of the world.

Mastering

You can think of mastering as the final polish and level adjustment to your mixed song. The mastering engineer, usually someone other than the mixing engineer, will take the final mix and bring out the subtle nuances of the track. This can range from very minute eq and volume adjustments to full blown “slamming” of the dynamics and limiting with heavy equalization to bring out every last bit of volume and energy that is possible to compete with the current professionally mixed music.

Expectations

Dont expect greatness from mediocrity in recording. Don’t expect for your mix to sound like a number 1 smash radio hit if you decide to record the tracks in your bedroom and closet with handful of $100 and below mics going into your Apollo. Not to say that there are not hits that have been recorded in obscure places with less than stellar recording equipment, but the most important part of a mix is the source material. If the source material is not high quality and structured in a pleasing and unique manner than no amount of mixing or level of experience from a mix engineer will be able to rescue the song sonically. All that being said, an amazing song will shine through a poor recording, just like a terrible song cant be saved by the most immaculate recording and mix.

Preparing Your Tracks For Mixing

 

 exporting stems / getting tracks out of the computer

If you are working in Pro Tools send me the session files/folders. I can open any current Pro Tools sessions. I also have Logic Pro X and can mix out of it (I’m not very adept in Logic) or consolidate files and move to Pro Tools for you. If you don’t work in Pro Tools or Logic, you’ll need to consolidate the tracks and export them from your sessions. When consolidating (making each track/instrument into one continuous audio track without edits or fades) make sure all tracks in a song have the same starting point. Failure to get this right can completely ruin or stall a mix session! If you are unsure of a fade that is about to be consolidated (like say a fade out at the song’s end) then remove the fade before consolidating and make a note for me that it needs to fade out. Put all the tracks for a given song in a folder named after the song. If you are unsure how to consolidate tracks in your DAW do some research online. There are many resources for this. Some recording platforms (like Logic and GarageBand) seem to want to export every track as a stereo audio file. If you do this, please note for me which ones really aren’t stereo, like say a kick drum as opposed to a stereo keyboard. If you can convert these “not really stereo” tracks to mono that will make everything go much faster on my end.

plug-ins

I prefer to start the session without any plug-ins carried over from the tracking session. Reasons? Many plug-ins can be replaced with better plugins or actual hardware equipment that usually sounds better to me. You may own plug-ins which I do not have in my arsenal. But, if the plug-in is performing an essential function, then render the track with the plug-in sound. In this case please keep the original track as well, and make a note of this. I may be able to come up with a better version of the sound you were after, but the plug-in could be a great reference point to start from.

panning

If instruments should require specific panning in a mix make note of this. A track can be labeled as such, like “overhead L” or “guitar L”. If some sort of “automatic” panning is desired a stereo bounce can be created with this move, or notes can be made to explain the moves.

Things generally not to do when prepping mixes:

  • Gate drums. Don’t. Ever. Do this. Unless you’re trying for some special 80’s effect.

  • Auto-tune vocals. If you really feel you need to then give me a not Auto-Tuned version too.

  • Run subharmonic synths or octave dividers on bass guitar tracks with no safety version.

  • Send songs with multitudes of DI’d guitar tracks for reamping without notice. This takes time. Lots of time. I'm happy to do this but I'd need to know in advance

  • Print compression if you do not understand how to use it. Please.

  • Overdrive your mic preamps because it sounds exciting (works 1 in 100 times and only on the best preamps).

  • Digitally overload and clip tracks causing “overs.”

  • Create composite tracks with different instruments printed on them.

entering the session:

  • Remove any tracks or songs that were tracked but you don’t want mixed. I have spent hours mixing an unneeded song before. 

  • Note which songs share the same tracking sessions, especially for drums.

  • Check all the raw files you will be bringing in via a new session to make sure things line up and are what you meant to send. 

  • Send a folder of extra “unprocessed” tracks if you’ve sent me tracks with effects, EQ or such applied.



getting your tracks ready

Have rough mixes of all songs for reference. Non-MP3 roughs are preferred. I will import these into the actual session for reference.

Cleaning up tracks can save time on my end. If you know how to edit well, then clean all edits and punches (learn about crossfades), and get rid of unwanted noise before and after a desired instrument begins. With vocals, make sure there are no clicks and pops or chopped-off breaths. But don’t get rid of all breaths! Check any drum edits for rhythmic problems, bad punches, crossfades and chopped off cymbals. Please do not digitally process tracks unless you are completely certain this needs to be done. I have spent hours repairing gated drum tracks, improperly tuned vocals and poorly normalized recordings when the original, raw files would have been much easier to deal with. If you have any doubt send me processed and unprocessed versions of the tracks (and label them as such).

If a track is noisy, with sounds like amp buzz, hum, hiss or background noises then leave me a section at the beginning or end (or create a separate track just for this) that contains just the noise by itself and note this for me. This will allow for applying single ended noise reduction to the track if needed.

If there is a cool noise that you want to keep but one that a mixer might possibly think extraneous, then make a note of where it is (track/time) and why you wish to keep it. Count off stick clicks, guitar noises, and talking or noises at ends of songs are common situations where this arises.

 

levels & formatting

If you are soloing a track and then bouncing to disc or such to isolate it (like in GarageBand), make sure you do so at decent output levels. Many times this creates a pile of very low volume stereo tracks which can create a higher noise floor when the levels are brought up to optimum volume. Instead find out how to properly export the raw audio files from your session. (Hint: Unity volume and center panning…)

If you are working in a “non linear” program like Ableton Live or Reason you can still export the individual loops/tracks as continuous files. There are many forums and sites online to explain this process.

If you are working with virtual instruments, loops, or MIDI-triggered samples print a version of as an audio track so I can work with that as if it was a recorded instrument. For example, in Pro Tools one would solo the track and bounce to disc for the length of the song. If you are using MIDI drums, drum loops or such please see if you can provide me with drums printed on individual tracks and not just a stereo mix of drums. And turn off any reverbs if possible. But also, send me all MIDI files and song BPMs just in case. I have some great drum samples and can swap parts out for a better mix. If you are working with MIDI in Pro Tools send me the session files/folders. 

Label all tracks/audio files as to what instrument or source they are! Nothing is harder to deal with than 40 tracks of “audio_01” and so on. Some people put the song name in the label, but if the tracks are properly organized in folders this isn’t necessary and keeps the names shorter and easier to read.

Keep all audio tracks at the original file type of the song session (Wave/AIFF/etc.) and sample rate (44.1 to 192 kHz) and word length (16 or 24 or 32 floating bit). Sample rate conversion can drastically alter the sound of a track so should not be undertaken, especially at home. I may upsample 44.1 and 48 kHz tracks to 88.2 or 96 kHz for mixing. This allows for capturing the analog mix at a higher resolution and gives you future proof files. 

If there are crucial volume moves on a track you may consider splitting the track into sections that require these different volumes. Like “vocal verse”, “vocals chorus” and such. If not, make notes of what times in the song these changes are needed. You could also print/bounce/render the track with these moves, but be aware that in the final mix this usually doesn’t work on my end.

bring your sources:

Bring the original sessions the tracks were recorded in and extracted from if possible. Bring a laptop with the software that can play these tracks, and any portable hardware audio interfaces and dongles that are needed for this program. Many times someone has had to reopen the original session to pull out one missing track or fix the starting time of a track.

Bring something to take the finished mixes home on. This can be hard drives, flash memory sticks, or even stashed on your laptop. It can be the same media the tracks were brought in for the session on - if there is room on it. If you want the actual Pro Tools mix sessions I created make sure there is enough room for these as well (it will be at least as much data as you brought, plus at least 3 mixes per song). HINT: I BILL FOR THIS BACKUP TIME SO BRING A FAST (Thunderbolt) HARD DRIVE AND YOU WILL SAVE TIME AND MONEY!