Master Your Mix Podcast

Pete Weiss: Working In Open-Concept Studios

Pete Weiss is a New England-based producer/engineer/mixer/musician. His unfussy, organic, "artist first" work has earned him a reputation as an outstanding producer who can adapt to many musical genres and is unafraid to ignore stylistic convention. Notable artists Weiss has worked with include Charlie Chesterman, Chris Brokaw, Peter Holsapple, Kustomized, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Doug Yule, Moe Tucker, The Upper Crust, Aimee Mann, Lee Ranaldo, Bell X1, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Two Dollar Pistols, Bow Thayer & Levon Helm, Hayley Thompson-King and many others.
In 1989 he co-founded Zippah Studio in Boston. In 2004, he built and opened Verdant Studio, an "open room" retreat-style studio with artist lodging in rural Vermont which he operated until late 2020, when he returned to Boston to concentrate on mixing and mastering at Jade Cow Music Post Production Services.
When not in the studio, Weiss fronts the instrumental band The Weisstronauts and is a member of the experimental pop collective known as Sool.  Since 2017, he has collaborated with eclectic vocalist/songwriter Hayley Thompson-King.  He released a solo album in 1996 and three albums while fronting the subversive Pete Weiss & the Rock Band from 1995-2000. He has scored four independent films, "Methods" (1998), "Metal" (2001), "Bad Gravity" (with Sool 2006), and "The Arcadian Ideal" (2007).
He is a Senior Contributor for Tape Op Magazine, writing reviews of audio equipment as well as conducting interviews with recording industry figures. Over the years he has served on many panels & workshops at Tape Op's and Potluck Audio's conferences. In the early 1990's Weiss authored two books on baseball, "Baseball's All Time Goats" and "Longshots!", both published by Adams Media.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Working with track limitations
Owning a retreat-style studio
Finding clients while working in the middle of nowhere
Attended sessions vs unattended sessions
Setting guidelines for clients
Working in an open-concept studio
The relationship between kick and bass guitar: how to get the low-end feeling balanced
How to track bass guitar
The keys to getting a great guitar tone
Making time for experimentation during a session
To learn more about Pete Weiss, visit: https://www.weissy.com/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!

Rafa Sardina: Calibrating Your Ears & Emotions for Mixing

Rafa Sardina is a Los Angeles based  18-Time Grammy and Latin Grammy winning producer/engineer and mixer. He has built an impressive list of clients over the years, from D’Angelo & The Vanguard, Elvis Costello And The Roots, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Placido Domingo, Camila Cabello, Miguel, Lady Gaga, Clare Fischer Big Band, Alejandro Sanz, Calle 13, Natalia Lafourcade, Harry Connick Jr., Michael Bublé, Arturo O’Farrill with The Afrocuban Jazz Big Band Orchestra & Chucho Valdes, Tim McGraw and many more.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Working as an intern to get into the industry
The importance of constantly learning
Diversifying your musical genres
Taking inspiration from multiple styles of music
Calibrating your ears and emotions for mixing
Using intuition to guide your mixes
What to do when you’re feeling stuck with your tracks
Battling self-doubt
Building naming systems for your sessions to keep organized and inspired
Working with Michael Jackson
Creating depth and width in a mix
Why you should start your mixes with a focus on the center channel
Using automation early in your process
Automating compressors to create movement throughout a song
Using multiple EQs on a single signal chain
Learning to hear the differences between different plugins/hardware
To learn more about Rafa Sardina, visit: https://rafasardina.com/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!

Thomas Avery: Composing Music for Film & TV

Thomas Avery is a producer, composer, mixer, engineer and musician currently working in Austin, Texas. Avery produces commercial compositions for clients such as CNN and AT&T, and works with musical artists like Sumilan & Tunewelders
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Writing music for CNN
Composing music to visuals
Creating energy in 3-second audio clips
Repurposing musical ideas
Dealing with writer’s block
Coping with rejection
Knowing when you’re done working on your music
Making mix revisions
Getting paid to compose
Collecting royalties for your music
How to become a professional composer
To learn more about Thomas Avery, visit: http://thomasaverymusic.com/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!

John Burke: Achieving a Perfect Vocal Sound

John Burke is an engineer based in northeast Ohio who has worked in multiple genres ranging from pop, rap, and metal. He also runs the website, perfectvocalsacademy.com where he helps people with learning how to record, edit, and mix their vocal tracks.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Letting your market choose you
Editing vocals
Timing vs tuning: Which one to fix first?
Autotune vs. Melodyne: Which is better?
Processing background vocals differently than lead vocals
The tools everyone should have for editing vocals
Should you remove breaths?
Fixing vocal plosives
Stretching vs nudging vocals
Removing background noises
Tips for recording clean vocal tracks
How to find the key of your song
When and where to use clip gain
Multiband compression vs. regular compression vs. dynamic EQ
John’s go-to vocal chain
To learn more about John Burke, visit: https://perfectvocalsacademy.com/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!

Steve Genewick: How to be Prepared for the Studio

Grammy nominated recording engineer Steve Genewick has thirty years of experience, both as a studio and live recording and mix engineer. He has had the pleasure of working at legendary recording studios around the world such as Capitol Studios, United Recording, Village Recorders in LA, Abbey Road Studios in London, and La Fabrique in France.
Steve has worked primarily out of Capitol Studios as a staff engineer since 1994. At Capitol Studios he has worked with countless artists such as Elton John, Bastille, and Trisha Yearwood. Steve was also amongst the first of studio mixers to begin mixing music in Dolby Atmos, working with artists such as Beck, Gregory Porter, LL Cool J and Nial Horan and on the popular video game Apex Legends. In 2017 he received the Pensado Award for Best Recording Engineer, and he was a part of the Universal Audio and Capitol Studios Team that won a TEC Award for the Capitol Chambers plugin at the 2020 NAMM Conference.
For the last 20 years, Steve has had the great honor of collaborating with 23 time Grammy award winning engineer/producer Al Schmitt, working with artists such as Diana Krall, Chris Botti, Gladys Knight, Neil Young, George Benson, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach and Paul McCartney. Steve has also joined Al for Mix With the Masters seminars for the past seven years in addition to their collaboration on their instructional film “The Art of Recording a Big Band”. 
When not working at Capitol, Steve works independently at numerous major recording studios in Los Angeles or at his home mixing studio. He has had the pleasure of working with the best in the business, and has always delivered to the highest of standards.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Working at Capitol Studios
Learning in school vs. real world experience
How to work your way up the ranks in a big studio
What makes a great assistant engineer?
Being adaptable
How to be prepared for studio sessions
Why the studio industry is actually the hospitality industry
Learning to speak to musicians in their language
Why engineering rock records isn’t different than working in any other genre
Working with the legendary Al Schmitt
Work/life balance
Being one of the first Atmos engineers
Remixing classic albums for Atmos
To learn more about Steve Genewick, visit: http://stevegenewick.com/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!

Matthew Weiss: Producing Vocals With Feeling

Born in Philadelphia, 1984; Matthew was raised by his mother, a doll sculptor, and his step-father, a jazz pianist. He studied clarinet, piano, drums, guitar and voice, but his favourite instrument was a Roland Groovebox 303 his step-father bought for him as a birthday gift.

 Matthew attended Sarah Lawrence College for Musical Composition and Theory, where, as a freshman, he became the head sound technician. His job required recording and rendering all the concerts held on campus. While Matthew loved writing music, he soon discovered he loved recording music even more.
 In 2005, Matthew left school to pursue his interests as a recording engineer. In 2007 he took up a job at Studio E in Philadelphia, where he recorded overdubs for the Grammy Nominated album “The Othello Syndrome” by Uri Caine. Matthew worked as an in house engineer until 2010 when he decided to begin freelancing. From that point his focus shifted from recording work to mixing.

Between 2010 to 2016 he worked with high profile clientele such as Ronnie Spector, Arrested Development, SisQo’, Sonny Digital, and Dizzee Rascal. In 2013, Matthew mixed the album “Rosso” by King Midas which won the Norwegian Spellemann Award for Best Rock Album: 2013.

Matthew moved to Los Angeles in 2016 where he partnered with Kanye West’s engineer Andrew Dawson running a commercial recording studio. A year later, Weiss became a technical consultant for the construction of a recording studio owned by multi-platinum recording artist Akon. Recognizing Matthew’s talent, Akon asked him to be his personal recordist and mixing engineer. In 2019, Matthew received a Platinum plaque for engineering “Comentale” by Ozuna and Akon.


Matthew has recorded and mixed four albums and hundreds of B-sides with Akon. He has also mixed for artists Swae Lee, Jeremih, Chris Brown, Tory Lanez, Nicky Minaj, Becky G, Anitta, Rick Ross, Farruko, and Ozuna.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Transitioning from live sound to in studio
How to stand out as a studio intern
Getting great vocals
Getting vocals to feel locked in rhythmically
Using Autotune
How to use headphone cues to help capture better performances
Setting up your room to hear accurate low-end
Working with pre-processed samples
Analyzing your processes and learning to simplify
To learn more about Matthew Weiss, visit: http://weiss-sound.com/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!

Mat Leffler-Schulman: Focusing On The Big Picture With Audio

Mat Leffler-Schulman is a mastering engineer based out of Baltimore, MD.
He's mastered countless records for an eclectic range of artists from Maine to Spain to Ukraine. Projects include Billboard #1 & Top 10 charting songs, GRAMMY® Award-winning artists, and many records with multi-million spins on Spotify.
Artists he's worked with include Jon Batiste, Beach House, Mon Laferte, will.i.am, Blondie, Gipsy Kings, The National Symphony Orchestra, Jackson Dean, Lesane, Future Islands, Waka Flocka Flame, Dan Deacon, Wye Oak, Lower Dens, and Ice Cube. 
 
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Using analog vs digital gear for mastering
How working with limitations will improve your audio skills
Mixing and mastering on headphones
The secret to mixes that translate
What to listen for with reference tracks
Battling imposter syndrome
Avoiding debt while starting a studio
Niching down your services and genres
Creating intake forms to help give you direction and to reduce revisions
Knowing when to take a minimalist approach with your work
Mastering software vs traditional DAWs
Mastering to specific levels: Does it matter how loud your masters are?
Do you need expensive monitors/cables to hear mixes properly?
To learn more about Mat Leffler-Schulman, visit: https://matlefflerschulman.com/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!

John Congleton: Making Records That Feel Authentic

John Congleton is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, engineer, mixer, writer and musician who has worked with artists such as St. Vincent, Wallows, Everything Everything, Bully, Angel Olsen, Future Islands, The Decemberists, Goldfrapp, Sharon Van Etten and many, many more.
In addition to his production work, Congleton has fronted the alternative rock band the Paper Chase, and writes music for a newer project entitled the Nighty Nite. He has also written music for various other projects, including MTV's Jackass, the Discovery Channel, Friday Night Lights, Evil Lives Here, and several Halloween sound effects/music CDs.
 
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Working with Steve Albini
Making recordings sound exactly how it sounds in the room
Getting sounds at the source vs. fixing/manipulating them in post
Using headphone mixes to help guide musicians to get the right performances
What to do when you can’t get the sound you’re after
Balancing the needs of a producer vs. the artist
Recording fat snare sounds
Reamping drums
Analog vs digital recording
Fighting the urge to be a control freak while recording vs keeping things simple
Getting punchy kick drums without relying on top-end
To learn more about John Congleton, visit: https://www.nextwavemanagement.com/john-congleton/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!

Frederic Archambault: Succeeding In The Music Business

Frederic Archambault is a Producer, Mixer, Songwriter, Musician and Engineer from Los Angeles, CA. He is best known for his work with Avenged Sevenfold lending his hand to production on their albums City Of Evil and Waking The Fallen. He has also worked with the likes of Atreyu, Deftones, Panic At The Disco. He produces most of his projects at his home studio in Los Angeles called Studio 5A.  
Most recently, Fred has completed production and mixing the music for the NBC TV Broadcast Last Call with Carson Daly. In the 7 years at Carson Daly he has worked on 100’s of artists from Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran, M-83 and Weezer to name a few.  In that span of time it is estimated that he has mixed over 1500 songs for network broadcast. At the 2015 Pensado Awards, Fred won two awards: Excellence In Live or Front Of House Sound and Outstanding Achievement in Sound for Visual Medium for Last Call with Carson Daly. 
Currently, Fred is the Manager for Audio Mastering operations for the Content Management Team at NBCUniversal. He oversees and supports a team responsible for global audio operations for all things TV and film.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Collecting hard vs. soft assets as an engineer: What they are and why you need them
The importance of consistency
Diversifying your skills
The future of immersive audio for music
Is audio fidelity really important?
How to set up a guitar to capture the perfect tone
Tuning tricks that ensure you have tight sounding tracks
Micing tips for guitars
Fred’s white noise trick for achieving perfect phase
Combining multiple amps
How to use a DI to help make editing easier
The importance of the headphone mix
Getting polished vocals
How to create awesome vocal stacks
Working on broadcast productions
Mixing live performances
To learn more about Frederic Archambault, visit: https://www.fredarchambault.com/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!

Taylor Larson: Creating energetic rock drums

Taylor Larson is a record producer, mixer, and audio engineer who has worked with artists such as Asking Alexandria, Periphery, From First to Last, I See Stars, Veil of Maya, Within Temptation, The Dangerous Summer, Conditions, and Sky Eats Airplane. He is also the guitarist of The Evening.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
Making sacrifices to work in audio
Using reference tracks to make you a better engineer
How to create energy in a mix
Recording drums that hit hard
The secret tip John Feldmann uses for recording drums that sound big
Breaking the “rules” of audio
Creating sustain for your drums
A simple trick for getting ghost notes to be clearly heard
Why dynamics aren’t always important
To learn more about Taylor Larson’s company, MixWave, visit: https://www.mixwave.net/
To learn more tips on how to improve your mixes, visit https://masteryourmix.com/
Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of the #1 Amazon bestselling book, The Mixing Mindset – The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Join the FREE MasterYourMix Facebook community: https://links.masteryourmix.com/community
To make sure that you don’t miss an episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Android.
Have your questions answered on the show. Send them to questions@masteryourmix.com
Thanks for listening! Please leave a rating and review on iTunes!