Don't Play It Safe When Mixing

"If ten out of ten people like your mix, you're doing something wrong." That quote slapped me in the face when I heard it. Who said it? Dave Pensado. If you don't know who Dave is, he's a Grammy winning mix engineer and also runs Pensado's place (an amazing place for tutorials on mixing.) Short version: Dave knows what he is talking about. So what do this mean? How is it a bad thing if ten out of ten people like my mix?

It means you are probably playing it safe.

Posted by willsterling23 0 comments

Read More

Why You Don't Have To Worry About Competition

It's no secret anymore. We are in a new day and age for the recording industry. Gear is cheaper than it ever has been. You can mix in the box. Track limits are pretty much gone. We are in a digital age now.

What does this mean for the recording industry?

Well, quite simply, it means things are changing. One major change is that more and more people are able to get into the audio engineering field. I think this is good. (Some people don't.) It also means that musicians are less likely to have to go to a large studio and drop a ton of money on making a record.

So if you want to get into audio engineering, don't you have to worry about competing with a ton of other engineers?

Posted by willsterling23 0 comments

Read More

Why The World "Always" Should Not Be In Your Dictionary

If you want to make great music, you have to get creative. This means breaking the rules. Now, I know it's hard as audio guys to not follow certain rules, but today I want to encourage you to break the rules. Music is a creative art and by its very nature, subjective. This means there is no standard or set way of always doing something one way. We simply decide along the way what we like and what we don't like. It's completely personal and that's what makes it so great. I want to challenge you to approach recording or mixing the same way.

Don't go into your session with the mentality of always.

Posted by willsterling23 0 comments

Read More

Add Creativity to Your Mix

Posted by willsterling23 0 comments

Read More

10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days: Day Ten - Be Creative

It is officially the last day of the 10 Mixing Tips in 10 Days series. This has been a lot of fun and it's been great to get to share helpful information with all of you engineers out there.

Today I want to talk about being creative. More specifically, I want to talk about being you.
I want to talk about how you can bring something to the table that no one else can. I want to talk about how you can better your mixes by just being creative.

Posted by willsterling23 0 comments

Read More