Bass & engineer Michael Jackson

 

songworx.com – Michael Jackson – Xscape deluxe – I was fortunate enough to engineer and play bass guitar for Michael Jackson in 98′ after he asked me to record several of his vocal sessions and producers. His passing was some very sad news and my memories of those studio sessions has compelled  me to share a few of my experiences and observations about Michael so here’s one of a few i’ll post.

Several days after Michael’s passing a friend of mine came across a TMZ entertainment news exclusive of an unreleased Michael Jackson song and sent me a link to a short mp3 clip at the TMZ website.

To my surprise it was a song I worked on as a recording engineer and bass player as well in 1998 at the “Record Plant” in Los Angeles. The song was called “A Place With No Name” which was a re-make or more like a flip of “America”, the 70’s rock band’s timeless hit “A Horse With No Name” It was a muse track for Michael and producer Dr. Freeze, writer/producer for “Bell Biv DeVoe” and “Color Me Bad” hits. I’m not certain if it was Freeze or Michael who kicked off the idea first, but I know Michael loved the “America” song, though he did work out lots of other music explorations for the fun of it, or at least with no specific outcome in mind other than finding a surprise in the process. An observation.

Actually Michael has hundreds of songs worked up on that premise and I’m certain what I saw was only the tip of that iceberg! That sound clip is definitely a session rough mix since it doesn’t have a mix and master polished sound on it. For those unfamiliar with what a session rough mix is, it’s from the session multitrack tape that was up on the recording console that day for whatever work was being done to it, which was quickly or “roughly” mixed and recorded to a recordable CD or DAT tape as Michael liked it. Also, my bass track sounds raw and loosely compressed so it just may be from that very bass session, but I can’t be certain.

Anyway, of course I had a lot of fun recording Michael and Freeze, but what was most fun was playing bass on the track and how it showed me Michael’s relentless musical energy so vividly. A few days before my bass session, Dr. Freeze expressed that he and Michael wanted to have a “bass guitar” sound on the track. I told Freeze I can play and would be happy to lay something down for him. I brought my bass down to the studio, and a few days later Freeze was ready to record it. The problem was I was a bit concerned to play on MJ’s tracks while MJ was around. I just didn’t want to jeopardize my position as an “Engineer” goofing around on Michael’s music, but in the end it was unfounded paranoia on my part. Regardless, we waited till late in the eve when Michael usually slipped out for home long before that, at least based on his MO from the previous few weeks.

When I was certain Michael had left the studio I plugged in my bass and started to play around with the track with Freeze. But the very second I plugged in, I saw Michael emerge from his studio lounge through the vocal booth glass and into the control room, so I was like; Uh oh!, since I kind of felt busted in a way. Michael immediately said; “what are you guys doing”? I replied sheepishly; laying down some bass Mike. He said; let’s hear it. So I played a few bass licks and he immediately got excited and said; are you recording!!? Umm, no Mike, I’m just trying to find a vibe. Mike said; play and record it all! So I dropped in (hit record) and jammed on the song. Well, Michael turned up the big main speakers LOUD! and was loving what I was playing.

After several seconds Michael was in my face rockin out while I pulled off all kinds of bass ideas. At the end of that pass he said to do another and off we went again. Michael was groovin, playing air guitar while we pulled out rock poses in front of the console. He would say; Oh yeah CJ, that was stinky!, sooo stinky ( a good thing for Mike ) Lets do another! Ok Mike, I dropped in a total of five or six times with the last one being a solid groove track so we didn’t have to comp a bunch of bass ideas to make the song listenable right away. Which sounds like that bass pass in the “A Place With No Name” mp3 clip if my memory serves me. After more than a half-hour of rockin with Michael and a few more loud playbacks, I put together a quick rough mix and made him a dat tape to listen to. He graciously thanked me again and then went home for the day.

CJ deVillar – Producer Mix Engineer Bassist

cj’s credited works

Michael Jackson CJ deVillar recording engineerMichael Jackson _ Bass Guitar and Recording Engineer. I Engineered two songs on XSCAPE deluxe original versions and played Bass on “A Place With No Name”
Disturbed _ EP “Live & Indestructible” 2008, Recording Engineer, Mix Engineer for their live broadcast at Deep Rock Drive”
Quincy Jones _ “From Q with Love” 1999, Sound Designer, Recording Engineer – great work with the best crew in the biz.
Quincy Jones _ “Ultimate Collection” 2002, Sound Designer, Engineer
Glenn Tipton _ of Judas Priest “Baptism of Fire” solo record 1997 and 2006. Bass Guitar. I was engineering for Glenn, then ended up playing bass on five songs. \m/
OAR _ Mix engineer, Recording Engineer for world wide live broadcast “Live from DeepRockDrive” June 16 2008.
Motion City SoundTrack CJdeVillar Mix engineer Motion City SoundTrackMix Engineer, Recording Engineer. – for world wide broadcast “Live from DeepRockDrive” May 11 2008
Gilby Clarke CJ deVillar producer mix engineerGilby Clarke _ “The Hangover” 95′ Producer, Recording Engineer, Mix Engineer as well as Gilby. Played some Bass and Vocals on a few too.
Van Halen CJ deVillar recording engineer mixVan Halen _ “Best Of” Vol.1. 97′ Engineer. I’ve had lots of spotty sessions over a few years with VH and some of it ended up on 3. Dave was back in the band for a minute so it was my High School-soundtrack Van Halen, lol.
Lady Antebellum cj devillar mix engineerLady Antebellum _ Mix Engineer, Recording Engineer. – for world wide broadcast “Live from DeepRockDrive” May 16 2008.
yolanda adams cj devillar recording engineerYolanda Adams _ “Believe” 99′ Recording Engineer. I recorded Yolanda’s amazing voice on this grammy awarded record with amazing producer Warryn Campbell at the Record Plant.
p diddy cj devillar recording engineer mixP Diddy _ Recording Engineer. Lots of work for Bad Boy Entertainment productions at The Record Plant.
the nixons cj devillar recording engineerThe Nixons _ “Foma” Recording Engineer. 1996
steel trains cj devillar mix engineerSteel Trains _ Mix Engineer, Recording Engineer. – for world wide broadcast “Live from DeepRockDrive” April 6 2008.
ice cube cj devillar recording engineerIce Cube _ Recording Engineer. It was several days at the Record Plant in 1999 He’s all business, gets right to it and works at break-neck speed for loooong hours.
rusty anderson cj devillar mix engineerRusty Anderson _ “Undressing Under Water” 2005 Mix Engineer. Currently Rusty plays guitar for Paul McCartney.
dr dolittle cj devillar recording engineerDr. DoLittle Soundtrack _ Recording Engineer for a couple of tracks 2002.
takui cj devillar mixing engineer producerTakui _ “Nuclear Sonic Punk” Producer, Recording Engineer, Mix Engineer 2002 for Unlimited records in Japan. A few things are in the mp3 player.
Next CJ deVillar recording engineerNext _ Recording Engineer 2003 I’ve also cut a bunch of stuff for RL, Tweet and T-Low. Fun sessions.
nate dogg cj devillar recording engineerNate Dogg _ “Music & Me” 2003 Recording Engineer.
stevie salas cj devillar bass guitarStevie Salas _ “Colorcode” 1990 I played Bass in this band
RL cj devillar recording mix engineerRL of Next _ “Elements” 04′ Recording Engineer. I’ve cut maybe 50 complete songs for R.L.’s production company and his records with producer Walter Milsap. Sometimes we would cut two full ready to mix songs a day.
julie gribble cj devillar mix engineerJulie Gribble _ “So Typical” 2005 Mix Engineer. I mixed the first 6 songs on Julie’s debut record.
shaquille oneil CJ deVillar recording engineerShaquille Oneil _ Recording Engineer, Mix Engineer. 2002 Producers RL from “Next” and Walter Milsap put together some great tracks for Shaq.
the neptunes CJ deVillar recording engineerThe Neptunes _ Recording Engineer. I’ve had a dozen sessions or more with Pharrell not long before he broke out huge. He’s a cool cat, works fast.
wyclef jean cj devillar recording engineerWyclef Jean _ Recording Engineer. A couple sessions with Earth Wind & fire and Cannibus.
veg cj deVillar mix engineerVEG _ Mix Engineer. 1995 Great, great record.
sisqo cj devillar recording engineerSisqo _ “Unleash the Dragon” 2002 Recording Engineer. I was credited for one song but worked on tons more including “The Thong Song” and some Dru Hill tracks.
michael lord cj devillar recording engineerMichael Lord _ “Sway” 2006 Mix Engineer. For one song
modern jazz quartet cj devillarModern Jazz Quartet _ “40 years of MJQ” I second assisted on this session and was honored in celebrating drummer Connie Kay’s 66th birthday with cake and an intimate round of happy Birthday, then they got behind their instuments and tore it up.
the temptations cj devillar recording engineerThe Temptations _ Recording Engineer, Mix Engineer. Feb. 1995, original Tempation Melvin Franklin had just passed away, so the rest of the temptations had a tribute session for him. The Temptations families came down with food and the kids too 🙂
judson frondorf cj devillar mixing engineerJudsn Frondorf _ “Car Bomb Opera” 2006 Mix Engineer. Judson made this with Garageband and a laptop only. He used Apple loops and some free stuff off the web. He also did all his vocals in the little built-in mic on the laptop screen!
parthenon huxley cj devilar mixing engineerParthenon Huxley _ “Purgatory Falls” 00′ Recording Engineer.
perry ferrell cj devillar recording engineerPerry Ferrell _ Recording Engineer. I worked with perry at the Village in Santa Monica with the Neptunes.
marc nelson cj devillar recording engineerMarc Nelson _ “Chocolate Mood” 2003 Recording Engineer.
total puff daddy cj devillar recording engineerTotal _ for P. Diddy and Bad Boy in 2000 Recording Engineer.
3LW cj devillar recording engineer3LW _ “A girl Can Mack” 2002 Recording Engineer.
js johnson sisters cj devillar recording engineer mixingJS – Johnson Sisters _ “Ice Cream” 2002 Recording Engineer.

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Other great people I’ve had the pleasure of working with:

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mashimo cj devillar mixin engineerMashimo _ Mashimo-san has taught me much about how to handle biz. Mashimo is CEO of Unlimited Records in Tokyo. A great record man. Sensi.
arif mardin cj devillarArif Mardin _ I second assisted on some “Manhattan Transfer” and “Modern Jazz Quartet” sessions at Conway Studios in 92′, 93′. Arif is an enormous legend. A real honor to watch him work up close.
Rose Mann Chereney cj devillar the record plantRose Mann Cherney _ Rose is the high priestess of all things studio. Rose hired me at the Record Plant in late 97′ and by 98′ I was engineering for Michael Jackson and a bunch of other great artists. How can you not love Rose. Her man has an amazing golf game too. that’s important. Cheers Ed! 😉
More on the way. Work in progress…

live concert broadcast for O.A.R.

 

I mixed an hour long set for O.A.R. at Deep Rock Drive Studios Las Vegas in 08 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.

DeepRockDrive at the time was the only live internet concert venue that had real-time interactivity. 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 only about two seconds so real conversations with fans between songs was easy going. Amazing really. The fans would also let the band know how the mix was going immediately, lol.

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.

I mixed the broadcast on a Digidesign Venue console and live mastered through a Waves L2 maxx bass processor to our codecs.

Neve 8078 Console

I owned this gorgeous vintage Neve 8078 console as a partner and then sole owner from 2003. At the end of 2011 and just months before his passing I sold the 8078 to Beastie Boy MCA Adam Yauch for his studio in New York. He enjoyed the process and worked me over pretty good in negotiations ; ) He is greatly missed. By popular demand I’ve left up the advert details.

Neve 8078 Photos   .  Video Of Automation Test  .  8078 Wiki 

Featured Modifications

  • All monitor channels headroom increased from +18dbv clipping to +26dbv clipping.
  • All monitor channels have balanced output amp which allows send to recorder.
  •  4Track-2 monitor section to 4track-1 fold-down, which allows 72 channels for mixdown.
  • 4track1 Stereo Buss Insert Send/Return Circuit.
  •  Frequency response improvement mod.
  • API EQ’s with Balanced +26dbv headroom in and out.
  • Active meter amps with Line in, Buss, or Monitor selector.
  • Phoenix Audio (Geoff Tanner) class A output stage on mix out.
  • 48 VU meters all actively buffered can select Buss, line in, Monitor In.
  • Moss and Mitchell TT patch-bay all wired to 56 pin Elco, ready for 96 chnls.
  • In-Board 5.1 Monitor Control unit.
  • In-Board LYNX console control.
  • Outboard LYNX System Supervisor for Flying Faders Machine Control.

Console Configuration

The patchbay and producers desk with the api’s and machine control can be removed from this 8078 and then rack mounted with the patchbay which greatly reduces the size of the console for small studios. If the setup is full-length as it is now, patchbay can be moved to either side of the console or racked.

Included Accessories

All Manuals, schematics and service documents, power supplies and related wiring. spare parts, spare power supply, extra 31105, extra API EQ.

Refurb Information

In addition to the cosmetic re-fitting done in the spring of 1999 which included fabrication of a new leather bolster, new red oak trim and re-screening the panels, a complete hardware inspection and extensive re-furb were performed under the watchful eyes of Barker and Tanner. This re-furb encompassed all aspects of the console with a focus on the utmost signal integrity without losing that vintage “Neve” sound for which these consoles are so vastly sought after.

Every module was removed, cleaned and upgraded. The monitor section was modified with balanced output drivers on each channel to allow recording directly to tape from the monitor section. This facilitated an increase in headroom from +18 to +26dB as well. A custom “Producers Desk” was built into a bucket containing (8) Channels of API 512 Pre’s and (16) channels of API 550 EQ’s (normalled to the monitor section while fully patchable), 5.1 monitoring control, Lynx System Supervisor Control unit (allows control of up to four Lynx synchronizers), (8) 2-Track Playback selectors and an additional (4) Shep 31105 modules, (2) 1073 modules.

Neve 8078 A7396 History

This NEVE 8078 ( serial #A7396) was originally built for Ronnie Milsap in about 1977. It was sold to A&R Recording after that and many sessions by Phil Ramone where done on the console. After A&R it Wound up at Cove Sound on Long Island. It eventually found it’s way into Sony Music Studios NY’s Studio D. Prior to installation in Sony NY all capacitors where replaced, all send and aux pots in all channels where replaced with new clarostats, balanced meter amps and a new Moss and Mitchell TT Patchbay where added. After a few years of use in that facility, it was de-commissioned, packed and crated for shipping to the West Coast.

Once on location at Sony Music Studios in Santa Monica is spent 4 months in pieces being meticulously cleaned, mod’ed and restored by Peter Barker, Sony’s Director Of Engineering, and Geoff Tanner of Phoenix Audio (not to mention a member of the original 8078 design team). It was re-commissioned in the summer of 1999 to rave reviews. A party held in its “honor” attracted the likes of Bob Clearmountian, Ed Cherney and Steve Churchyard among others.

Among the artists that recorded on it at Sony Santa Monica were Elton John, Pink, Journey, Ozzy Osbourne, Jennifer Lopez, Train, and Destiny’s Child. This Console performed dutifully until the closing of Sony Music’s west coast studio operation before it’s location to Threshold studio’s Santa Monica and then purchased by myself and partners in 2003. In December of 2011, Beastie Boy MCA Adam Yauch purchased the 8078 which was subsequently installed at Oscilloscope Studios in New york.

mixing warm with digital or analog

I receive questions asking me how to achieve a warm analog mix in the digital domain and how to reduce high-end harshness. I do have a couple cures for that but let me first reply that I make no distinction between digital and analog formats anymore. As a matter of fact it’s never really one or the other since most recording and mix engineers are using a hybrid system of both formats. “D vs. A” is a dead argument these days since “D and A” is the reality. Now I love my analog boxes but they don’t make for automatic warmth.

The analog tag is misleading too. I’ve heard many cold, sterile mixes and recordings from mix engineers using the best analog consoles, tube Pultec EQ’s and properly setup 2″ tape machines. Consequently, I’ve heard many others and myself, hello, that mix gorgeous warmth completely in the digital domain. So lets remove the analog tag as a warm metaphor since bad practices can cause problems in any mix format. It’s in the head.

Warm from the start.

If you haven’t recorded your song yet, the best start for a warm mix is in your arrangement. The instruments and sounds you choose including the key and chord voicing have a direct impact on the amount of high-end in the finished mix. Higher key, higher notes = higher high-end harmonics, but just be aware of it. 90% of the time a key is considered for the singers range and their sweet-spot. Basically, if you record many layers of instruments in the same high octaves, you’ll end up with a lot of high-end energy. It’s not a bad thing if that’s the intention, but you may find difficulty mixing with competing sounds in the same super high octave and every other element needing space for those frequencies.

With instruments, the tone, timbre and chord voicing matter a bunch. A mistake made by many engineers/producers is to always look for an instrument sound, mic or EQ that “cuts” through the mix. Well, if they record all the sounds to cut through the mix, then nothing will cut through because you’ll end up with a bunch of high-end hash that you’ll be removing from the mix. Kind of backwards and definitely a pain in the butt. Generally, pick your instruments and chord voicing as if they were EQ choices for your final product.

Warm recording.

A simple rule for microphones if you have the option; if the sound you want to record is too bright use a warm mic. If a sound is too warm, use a bright mic. If it is a “softsynth” or VSTi choose the tone and timbre carefully. Do not add high-end EQ to the sound if it’s too muddy, simply cut the mud “a bit”, but under-EQ the record-side input to leave the deeper tweaking EQ for the mix.

Warm mixing.

As far as my mix EQ’s, my weapon of choice is the “Low Pass Filter” (LPF) This EQ filter is your best friend for getting things warm. I would get familiar with it if you’re not already. Many avoid this filter but it’s very good for putting warmth to your mix, but you need to use them gently and on the few individual tracks that need it. 6 to 3 db pole, or even less, and the right frequency.

Low-pass filtering is the most basic and simple tool for taking the harsh edge off rough tracks.

Like everything else, you need to use your ears. I’ll tell ya right now, I’ve used them on almost every channel when the instruments are all eq’d too bright. Yes, some people throw high boosted eq on everything. Go ahead an throw one on a super high-end crunchy track in your mix and turn the knobs. It will become immediately apparent. Be as gentle or as aggressive as needed. They’re very easy to use. The correct setting are in the ears. 3, 6 and 12 db pole filters can a good first defense before most others.

How to get big bass low end power

Low End Bass build up = weak bass. Take a kick drum and bass line for instance. The kick is typically a consistent quick low note stab over and over again, and it is a note btw. But the bass synth or bass guitar lows are always moving around because the notes change. E1 is deeper and fatter than G1, the lower the “note”, the more low-end. Right, it’s obvious, but a loose basic rule of thumb would be to keep your kik drum not as fat as the bass line for most intentions. Disclaimer: this depends on what you want to accomplish with your music since music rules are not meant to be, but lets go with the popular end of the music universe here. A flabby kick and a loose bass is a common problem.

Bass power is also dependent on tempo. Slow tempos give room to lower, therefore slower bass notes. The deeper the note, the longer it takes for the bass note to complete. By the same token, a very low note can run into itself in faster tempo songs with definition and power being reduced.

Ever wonder why the kick crum and bass drop out a bit or get a little louder in a few spots in your song? It’s a safe bet they are phase canceling and/or summing a bit, which also makes it a timing issue. If you add second bass lines, 808 subs and all kinds of low end carnage playing together, you’ll have to manipulate the arrangement and/or automate the mix more to pull bass elements in and out so they are not conflicting with each other. EQ is helpful but it won’t really do the job of gaining definition with too many bass elements. The more definition, the more bass power.

Keep the low end simple and give it room to breath, you’ll end up with way fatter bass and more powerful results. Or, understand how to make it complicated in a fat way. The best way to get that is in your writing and recording arrangements.

Cheers!  CJ

Too Much Recording Compression

After mixing a lot of home recorded material, the number one most difficult problem that I have the most trouble dealing with are over-compressed tracks. You would be surprised to know that many recording pro’s use little to no compression on most things when they record even for the biggest recording artists.

If you’re doing it just to do it, don’t do it. You simply don’t need it on the recording side. Save the dynamics control for the mix and know that over-compressed tracks cannot be uncompressed or reversed. Maybe the sound you’re compressing has already been compressed. Many cool productions were rendered limp because of record side compression. Lay it down raw my friends and give us mix engineers an aggressive dynamic foundation to shape with.

Let me add that of course flavor can be added with some compressors and limiters that have character without adding compression. Set your attacks to long and realeases to short and threshold gain to barely touching. But,… I also have to say that compression fx on the record side is cool when it’s the right call and the right box. Sure, go ahead, mash stuff with a compressor, It’s fun when it works.

But, my observation is that too much material is coming in with vocal, acoustic guitar and bass over-compressed. One more thing, there is rarely a time to compress drums on the record side unless you buss> then compress> to a different> track. I don’t want to take the fun out of experimenting, but get it as dynamically as you can on a separate track at least.
I get a lot of hurt tracks ;(

How to Prepare Your Audio Tracks for Mixing

99.9% of my mix work is with ProTools (in-the-box) and .1% on analog consoles. (with ProTools ) But It doesn’t matter what music program you use for writing and recording your music productions. Simply prepare the audio-files to be universal, useful on their 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. Hopefully you can give me your RAW un-processed audio tracks as they were recorded. Unless, you have tracks with specific sound design elements from or unrepeatable manipulations like delay throws. Simply record your sound design FX elements onto discrete audio tracks. If you really really need them on, then leave the super important one’s on. But separation is good for me. Definitely remove EQ, compressors, reverbs and set 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 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 unless you want stylized pumping effects and the sort.

* 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 element 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.

Ok, happy Mix Track Making!

Sass Jordan . Dusk Til’ Dawn

Play Sass Jordan 2 - what i need

 

sass-dusk-cover-alt-dkSass Jordan “Dusk Til’ Dawn” 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. That mostly involved not over-processing and a few other tricks to keep things intimate and gritty. Helping that in no small way are no click tracks, no auto-tune, no crazy edits.

They recorded it fast and true. It’s mostly one take performances from front to back. It’s a very honest rock record showing the soul, confidence and expertise of everyone involved. Especially of course Sass’s beautifully honest, powerful vocals and lyrics. Rock records used to be made this way when you had to be great to make them that way. http://www.sassjordan.com/

How To Become a Mixing Engineer

Is there a guide on How To Become A Mixing Engineer? Can becoming a professional mixing engineer be any fun? Where do the best mixing engineers come from? These are a few of the questions I’ve received on the subject.

First, is there a “how to become a mix engineer” guide ? No, I don’t think so. What I mean is that any book or audio education would be a beginning to the beginning and simply a very first step. Truth is, there are tons of materials to understand and it really never ends. Progress will keep you busy with that forever. Let me put it this way, your not gonna pop out of an audio school or a book with the competitive working knowledge you’ll need. It takes a long time.

Can becoming a mix engineer be fun ? If you like your fun with many tough lessons, a dog-eat-dog business model and a super long never-ending learning-curve, then yes )

Where do the best mix engineers come from ? They come from a place of serious persistence and luck. But they mostly come from working studios, “and” from being “ready” to be in the right place at the right time. They may even be so lucky as to have had a great mentor who leads them straight to the good habits and away from the career sucking mistakes.

I have a simple guide on how to become a mixing engineer: Get a Pro Tools system of any size or Apple’s Logic Pro X which sounds real solid to me, and mix a lot. Mix everything, friends, local artists, FOH for bands at live clubs will get you fast and mentally solid. That’s how i mainly broke in. Mix under any challenging circumstance and just do it. You can make an entire audio education from YouTube. Understand basic electronics, befriend professionals so they can show you things, sit in on as many mix sessions as you can and be the second engineer by truly helping. Set-up for A/B monitor listening and hear the difference between hundreds of different records…. All that and lots of tenacity will get you there.

As you may have already figured out, 99.9% of a good mix education is from the experience of doing it, and meeting the right people. If you have a chill, confident social style, it’s only a matter of time for you.

What about an audio education ala recording schools?

Recording schools can give a great all around education, but don’t show up to them without any experience. You’ll get twice the education when you show up to sound engineering schools with some initial experience. An audio education won’t make you good at mixing, but they’ll show you just about everything involved at least once. So get your recording mix system and hit it long before you show up to class. Simply start mixing now. You’ll only get good from doing it.

If The “Art of Mixing” is about one thing, It’s about making mistakes. You want all the opportunity to make all the classic mistakes, and many times over. Good luck – CJ