Sass Jordan “Dusk Til’ Dawn” 2010. This is Sass’s seventh record and she’s sold over a million records to date. I mixed this latest 10 song album remote mix style in my Los Angeles studio with record producer Derek Sharp who was in Montreal Canada during the process.

Sass and Derek live in Montreal and are very busy people so the remote mix style fit right into their lifestyles nicely. They loved the process and how easy it was for us to communicate and how no-pressure and smooth it went. I simply emailed Derek and Sass an mp3 of a mix during the sessions where they listened and sent notes based on their own pace.

I mixed the record completely in-the-box, itb on my ProTools HD3 system. They really wanted a timeless warm analog sound so I invoked a 1970′s studio record vibe and mixed as old analog as I could. That mostly involved not over-processing and a few other tricks to keep things intimate, gritty and vintage, but helping that are no click tracks, no auto-tune, no crazy edits. It’s mostly one take performances from front to back. It’s a very honest and true rock record showing the soul, confidence and expertise of everyone involved. Especially of course Sass’s beautifully honest, powerful vocals and lyrics that a true classic record must have. Rock records used to be made this way when you had to be great to make them that way. http://www.sassjordan.com/

What I need

Live Mix _ At DeepRockDrive Studios on May 29 2008 I mixed a 70 minute live real-time internet broadcast for over 10,000 Disturbed fans to 66 countries. Here is a clip from that broadcast concert. This is the actual live audio and video with no post processing or mastering. I spent a little over 2 hours with the sound-check audio on a Digidesign Venue D-Show console before broadcast.

Disturbed liked the sound and mix very much so they released an audio EP titled “Live & Indestructible” available on iTunes. I was stunned to learn they used my actual “on the fly” broadcast audio and did not remix the show. Whoa! I don’t know of too many bands or any band for that matter that has the guts to show themselves in the raw like that. But I can see why… cuz they simply rock that way and don’t need to hide behind any studio sweetening if they don’t want to. It’s pretty cool they didn’t.

One thing though, I hate the mastering job WMG did on the audio before they released it. WMG used wayyyy to much compression and limiting. I’ll post the raw stuff from the actual show soon. It sounds much better by a large margin like the video above.

I would like to thank the band and Skitch for trusting me with their sound and broadcast. It was great fun working with such a great band and dedicated crew. Best of luck guys. Cheers!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_&_Indestructible

“Live and Indestructible” EP set as follows:

01. “Inside the Fire” (live from Deep Rock Drive)
02. “Stricken” (live from Deep Rock Drive)
03. “Stupify” (live from Deep Rock Drive)
04. “Indestructible” (music video)

“Mama’s Chain” by VEG 1997. Here’s a time-capsule look at some of my mix work from 12 years ago. Most of the songs were written by Parthenon Huxley – guitar/writer/vocals. This song and most of the record was recorded by Harvey Moltz of Rainbow Guitars fame in his living-room with Neve 1073′s, V72′s and all kinds of vintage guitars and tube amps recorded to ADAT black face recorders. 7 songs were mixed at “Drive By Studios’ which is really Dave Rouze (Bay7, Rolling Stones) garage studio conversion. Dave has an amazing collection of vintage recording gear and an old seriously beat up JH500 MCI 23 channel mixing desk with 8 vca’s. All of these mixes were done without automation or computers. I simply marked and rehearsed my fader moves and picked the best pass of about 10 runs at it at most.

“Are You Always High”

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“Meteor Sky”

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“Charmed I’m Sure”

“Cherry Wants My Fist” from the album “Car Bomb Opera” Judson Frondorf (2006) This is the most simply made album in the history of record production. Judson composed and recorded his entire 10 song set in Apple’s Garageband with the stock loops and various others from free sample’s sites. He used absolutely no external equipment. Zero. None. Nada. Judson even used the built-in Powerbook mic hole in the Laptop for all his vocal tracks! Yup, you read it right. It really showcases the fact that even with the most extreme minimal setup, great results can be had. I mixed all ten songs from my ProTools HD3 system in my Humble Venice studio. Since Judson lives in New mexico we mixed it remote style. He uploaded his Garageband sessions and audio files to my FTP server with his own private password provided for him and then downloaded and transferred the files into Pro Tools for the mixes. I emailed a couple mp3′s of the mixes until it met his liking and mastered the 10 songs, uploaded it back to Jud which he has made available on iTunes. xjudson is at http://www.ackackack.com

“Cherry Wants My Fist”

Rusty Anderson, “Everybody Deserves an A” from the album “Undressing Under Water” I mixed three songs for Rusty Anderson’s solo record in 04′ over a very fragmented time schedule as Rusty plays guitar for Paul McCartney. He was quite busy but determined to finish his record regardless, so we used a remote mixing method where I simply emailed mp3′s of the mixes to Rusty as the mix progressed. He would return notes or give me a call to discuss direction ideas and I would realize his vision. Not all of it was pure mixing, much of the process was editing and experiments as Rusty likes to do, but mixing in Pro Tools HD exclusively made this possible because Rusty wasn’t able to get back with notes and ideas so quickly because of his crazy travel schedule. His mixes sat on my Pro Tools rig for months as we worked a little bit at a time and in between my other mix sessions. Every once in a while Rusty would want to hear the mixes in full 44.1k 16bit CD format so I would upload the large AIFF files to my FTP server and he would download them and burn a CD on his LapTop. It never mattered what part of the world he was in or even if he was home in L.A. just 10 miles away from my studio and couldn’t come by, lol. He absolutely loved the results and enjoyed the remote mixing process.

“Devil’s Spaceship”

“Maybe I” From “Echos in my Head” Julie gribble 2007. I recorded, performed all elements and mixed for Julie’s 2nd record release. I also co-wrote with julie and the whole production was done in my home studio. I composed in Abelton Live5 with NI’s Kontakt2 and battery2. After the programming was mostly complete, I transfered the session into my ProTools HD3 system. There i recorded Julies vocal and my guitar and bass overdubs and finally the mix.

“Little bit lonely”

“Just Stay”

“Just Stay” from the album “So typical”, Julie Gribble 2005 Produced by Dan Lavery of Tonic, and recorded by engineer Arron Walk, these songs were cut at Westlake studios in Hollywood CA. They were recorded through an SSL 4000G, Neve 1073’s, La2a, 251 into a Pro Tools Mix system. Dan’s giutar od’s done on a Digi 02 at home. I mixed the first six album tracks on my then, ProTools Mix3 system in my home studio. The mix sessions were largely remote mix sessions. Dan Lavery only lived 15 miles away and never came to my studio but he simply didn’t need to because he absolutely loved the mixes from the first reference mp3 I emailed him. He really got into the remote mixing method because of the fact that he had other sessions going and a new child in his life. He loves it!