Adam Trice, better known around town as Red Sammy, recently published a book of poems and decided to create some music to accompany the literary project. He recorded 5 songs at a friend’s house. They were tracked wonderfully but he decided to seek an extra dimension for the mix.

I Stay In Bed

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Last month I produced a 3-song EP from E.Joseph and the Phantom Heart. Working with them was a joy. They were well rehearsed and were complete professionals. Their perseverance and motivation to make a great record will be evident when you listen below. Jason Martin came in to mix “The Ghosts Around You” and Ed & I mixed the rest of the record.

The Ghosts Around You

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A common question when planning for a record is how much to budget for mixing. (Check this out if you’re not sure what mixing is.) Unfortunately, there is no universal answer. Ta da! That was helpful, wasn’t it? Seriously though, my usual response is: “Double what you plan to spend tracking and expect to spend that mixing.” In my experience, it’s a formula that works for the majority of bands.

Some folks are surprised that mixing requires that much of an investment. After all, you spent all that time tracking to make sure you got just the right sound. Isn’t it now just a matter of twisting some pots and sliding some faders?

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Jesse, from the duo, Paragraphs (Domestic Wax Records) recently got in touch with me. He said he was just about done with his next EP. He had a great recording experience in San Diego at Black Box Studios, but thought he could get more feeling out of his mixes with a fresh ear. So we chatted a bit and Jesse chose Mobtown to mix the project. He was going for garage-meets-Fort-Apache and that was something I could get my head around.

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We frequently come across misconceptions about mixing and mastering. The two processes are often confused so I thought I’d take a moment to explain how we approach the two very different undertakings.

Once a band or artist is done tracking and overdubbing the parts of a song, an engineer will mix it. This is the time when all the levels of all the individual parts (instrumentals, vocals, etc) are adjusted up and down to find the perfect mix. Reverbs are added, where necessary. Vocals are compressed if they pop out at certain points. Bum notes are muted, if they distract.

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Frank from the Honest Mistakes recently dropped by the studio to mix their song “Sidekick” which was recently on a local compilation. The mix for the compilation was good, but they asked me to pull out more from the instruments and liven up the vocals and drums. We had a lot of fun with the track. Stellar song-writing, melodic harmonies, solid guitars and wonderful drums always leads to great songs and much fun. Here’s a sample of the mix:

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