Recording your music is only one half of the music production process. A professional sounding mix gives your track the best chance to be heard and love by new and existing fans.
If you’ve been recording songs at home or in a studio a professional mix is key to their success. A lot of studios will mix projects that they record. That’s absolutely fine. But it can give your project an amazing lift when you give it to a fresh, creative set of ear to mix.
I specialise in great sounding, creative, genre specific mixes. I will work with you to get the mix sounding how your want it. I can also offer helpful input to get the best from the recordings you send through for mixing. I want your songs to stand out from the crowd.
Isn’t The Person Who Recorded The Music Supposed To Mix It?
There are a lot of amazing recording/mix engineers out there who do both. I’ve recorded and mixed my projects for clients many times myself. But there are no rules when it comes to who records and who mixes.
Truth be told there a many sound engineers who were once recording engineers as well who just focus on mixing now. I’m in that boat myself. I still do a little recording here and there but my love for mixing has made me want to focus on this aspect of the music making process.
You can get some amazing new perspective and creativity injected into your project by going to a dedicated mix engineer.
When they turn up the faders with fresh ears that haven’t already spent hours and hours recording, producing, making arrangement decisions, production suggestions etc. you have a major advantage in many ways.
Trust me, it takes a lot of focus and objectivity to not get bogged down in a recording project that you’re recording, producing and mixing.
Okay, So What Do You Do When You Mix?
When I mix a track it’s like opening a surprise package. Sure I might have a rough mix to go off but those individual tracks are something quite enigmatic. Turning up some drum overheads and starting to build a picture of the kit with the close mics or turning up that amazingly woody sounding acoustic guitar track or that magic vocal take are little aural surprises that I love opening.
Okay, I’m a big audio nerd but that’s why we do it right?
When I’m working on your track I’m thinking about a number of things:
- Your rough mixes
- Your reference mixes (other artists/bands tracks that you admire and aspire to sound similar to)
- How the track is speaking to me creatively and thematically especially when it’s part of an album or EP.
- If you’re open to it, extra production that might help “set the track off”. This is quite common for mix engineers to add some extra production at mix.
- Are there any problems with the recordings of the individual instruments. Is this a deal breaker for the track.
What Genres Of Music Have You Mixed?
I have worked on projects in a wide variety of music styles in Australia and the US (Nashville). Genres I have mixed:
- Alternative/Indie
- Folk/Country
- Rock
- Pop/Electronic
- Soundtrack/Ambient
If you’re genre isn’t listed above get in touch to see if we can help you out. Use the contact form on the side of the page and tell us more about your project and we’ll let you know if we can help.
Why Spend Money On Mixing?
One of the things that surprises me the most is the lack of investing time and money in mixing by artists and bands.
Often the goal is to get into the studio and get the songs down but mixing (and mastering) are often left as an after thought. This neglect isn’t purposeful of course it’s generally just a lack of understanding about the recording and production process. In some cases it also might be a bit of “wishful thinking” about what it takes to truly produce a great song, EP or album.
A great mix can make an amazing track sink or swim (notice I said amazing track – an amazing song recorded well is also required).
Like any artistic process, mixing is a blend of experience and skill on the mix engineers part. Great artists make what they do seem easy but really they are standing on years of experience, mistakes made and corrected, skills built and refined and many other less obvious processes. That’s what you’re paying for when you have a skilled mix engineer work on your project.
Don’t forget, you’ve spent a great deal of time and effort writing, recording and even producing your music so it seems crazy to skimp on getting an amazing mix.
I understand people are on a budget and I’m flexible when it comes to paying for projects but I hate to see (hear) a great track or project end up sounding mediocre or downright bad because of an artist or band not being willing to invest the right amount of money into mixing.
If you’ve been umming and ahhing over the cost of mixing get in contact with me (0424 579 416) and I’ll give you the skinny on what you need to spend to get your tracks sounding outstanding.
Online Mixing
Not on the Sunshine Coast? I can still help you with your mixes where ever you are in Australia or the world with my online mixing services.