On June 16, 2008 I mixed an hour long set for O.A.R. at DeepRockDrive Studios Las Vegas where I was Audio Director and Mix Engineer for the innovative start-up company. This was a live “real-time” mix to HD video simultaneously distributed to viewers over the internet “as it happened”. DeepRockDrive was, and still is, the only live production internet concert providers that had a deep level of interactivity. It hasn’t been matched yet. Viewers at home were able to text the bands in real-time on some forty big-screen monitors positioned in front of the bands enabling them to pick and chose fan comments. Fans would text the band, band would reply over video. The delay was a mere two seconds so real conversations with fans between songs was the norm and the band loved seeing comments during the set.

As it usually happens for a live video music broadcast, the video team of 14, being much larger than the audio team of 2, took the lion-share of the time blocking cameras and lights. Me and our monitor engineer were lucky to get an hour with O.A.R. right before the prompt broadcast. It was a bit of a white-knuckler, but aren’t they all, lol. I mixed the broadcast on a Digidesign Venue console and mastered through a Waves L2 maxx bass processor to our codecs at 128kbps for audio.

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I mix with Pro Tools HD in-the-box and through analog consoles, but It doesn’t matter what music program you use for writing and recording your productions. Simply prepare the audio to be universal, useful on its own and not dependent on its session file. Next is how.

* All tracks need to be continuous individual files. Meaning: no edits in the audio. Each track needs to be one single file, or stereo file if that is the format your music program uses. Examples being GarageBand and Ableton Live among others work solely in stereo tracks. Before you buss record or disc record the file (also called: – bounce to disk – render – join – make continuous ) you’ll need to prepare the multi-tracks.

* All tracks you prepare need to have your mix plugins removed. I need your RAW un-proccessed audio tracks as they were recorded unless you have tracks with specific sound design elements from plugins or external manipulation. Simply record those elements onto discrete audio tracks. Separation is good. Remove EQ, compressors, reverbs and delays from “all” your tracks. If your program renders tracks through the stereo buss like GarageBand, then remove all stereo mix buss processing before you make the audio tracks for mixing. And just as a reminder while you’re recording, record your tracking with little to no compression. Keep your dynamics for me. If you have some cool vintage or vibey analog compressors, just tap it a half a db at peak.

* Stylized FX – Remember, if you have sound-design effects that rely on live plugins, render those as a separate sound file. You don’t want me recreating an effects move you’ve created, you want me mixing. Put it to its own track and all is good.

* All tracks need to begin at the same start-time or same time-stamp. Even if you have a sound event on one track at the very end of your song, the bounce or render needs to begin at the same very beginning of your song, before your intro, exactly at the same start-point as all the other tracks. The end of the files can all be different. When the sound ends for the song, the audio file can end there.

* Don’t slam the audio inputs when recording/rendering/bouncing to disk. Slamming digital inputs will have no benefit sound wise and will cause problems for me so keep the levels within 80% of digital zero (the top) I rather have too low a signal than too hot.

* Sample rate, Sample Frequency, File Type – I can handle whatever rates you are using. WAV or AIFF are preferred. Don’t change or up-sample before your render, just give me the same rate and freq you’ve been using in your project.

How to deliver your mix audio files with FTP

How to use the online mix system

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I communicate with most of my clients through a combination of email, cellphone and texting. Many will exclusively communicate in email or facebook private messaging, but any method is absolutely fine. Below is a basic how-to, to get us rolling.

1. Email an mp3 rough mix of your first song that needs a mix.
Sending a rough mix is the first best thing you can do for your mix engineer. What i’ll get out of it is what you’re looking to do no matter the quality of your rough mix. This really helps me interpret your vision and goal for the song.

2. I quote you a mix rate.
After I hear your song and know the amount of tracks to be mixed, I’ll understand enough to quote you a rate that fits the song.

3. You email or link me to a few similar popular songs for the additional reference point.
This helps me know a bit more about how you would like to sound. All artists have records they aspire and compare to. Just make sure the example songs you link me to or email are similar in tempo and track density like the instrumentation and vocal production. It may take a song or two to help you communicate those things to me but whatever works for you is great. Point being, the best way to communicate about music is through music.

4. If needed and if possible, touch up a few tracks before mixing.
Sometimes i’ll suggest a fix or an additional overdub or two that would greatly improve your final master if you have the means to do so in your home studio. If not, no worries. I’ll let you know.

5. Deliver your Multi-Track files to my FTP server or FedX a DVD.
I will provide you with your own private FTP box for all your uploads and downloads. Sometimes my clients have slow internet upload speeds so they’ll simply mail a DVDr or CDr with the session audio files. After that initial delivery, we’ll then do the rest of our file exchanges through the Songworx FTP servers.

6. I mix your song.
Average length is a little more than 10 hours of mix time before the first presentation of the mix to you.

7. I email a high quality mp3 or upload to the FTP server a full CD resolution audio file of mix #1 for your review.
You can certainly live with the mix for as much time you need to review it plus you may have some adjustments and suggestions so just let me know.

8. If you do have adjustments, I make the mix adjustments, send it to you like before and review again.

9. Continue mixing till we are happy and master your song.
After the final adjustments are made I master your song and get it ready for commercial consumption.

10. Your song is now ready for iTunes, CD, radio broadcast and world domination!

How to prepare your audio tracks for mixing.

How to deliver your mix audio files w FTP.

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