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audio mixing

audio mixing

You’ve done all the hard work making great recordings, but you can’t seem to get the tracks over the line to feel finished. How do you know when a song is finished? Working on your own music can be hard and often leads to more questions and uncertainty.

This is where a specialist mixer is your best bet. Someone who is impartial and makes decisions that bring the best out in the music without bias or fear.

Drawing on 20 years of experience, Melbourne’s Ginger Studios’ founder James Lloyd-Wyatt’s primary focus has been harnessing and showcasing the best features in artists’ music. James’ primary tuition in mixing came from under the watchful eye of one of the greats, Michael Shipley (Known for recording and mixing Australian and international artists such as Alison Krauss, Maroon 5, Def Leppard, Joni Mitchell, and Greenday). Michael passed the secrets of his trade to James, who has taken those special skills and integrated them into a modern workflow.

Before mixing begins, James will engage with artists over the phone or email to understand the specific requirements for each project. James prefers to mix on a meticulously maintained 48-channel SSL Duality analogue console with full use of an extensive outboard collection and external effects processors, with every detail of your music accurately and confidently addressed through a pair of custom-designed and built Augspurger Tower Monitors.

Give your music its best chance to stand out with a personalised mix from a dedicated professional.

Contact us today, and let’s start bringing your musical dreams to life!

how does the audio mixing process work?

There are several areas of mixing that Ginger Studios can take care of for you:

Mix Assessment

It is especially important to know that what we will be mixing is ready for the process. I like to hear roughs or demos of songs before I begin so that we can discuss any potential hazards or areas for addressing before we commit time to mixing sessions. 

Mix prep and editing

Each song will go through a round of clean-up where I will make sure all of the annoying technical issues are prepared for, like fading all regions to avoid clicks and pops, adjusting any errant hits, with your permission and discussion about the creative direction and aesthetic you are trying to stick to I will adjust any tuning issues that I pick up as well in the most transparent way to avoid any “auto-tune” effect artefacts.

Mix Processing

I will lay out the multitrack across my console and utilise appropriate outboard effects to dial in an engaging listening experience. This is the most important creative stage for me as a mixer, where I spend the most time finessing compression, equalisation, saturation and, most importantly, automation. With the unique and flexible automation system of the SSL Duality, I can very precisely shift the focus of a listener to highlight areas of the mix that need attention at that moment. Then they can be tucked back neatly once the moment has passed to make way for the next feature; this process creates a dynamic and exciting listening experience.

Revisions

After I have mixed your material, I’d like you to listen to it and tell me what changes you’d like made to the mix. Things like “snare drum in the second chorus louder, bass lower, vocals more reverberant, less delay on the guitars” are tasks that I fulfil during the revision process. I offer one revision per song included in the project pricing; if we need to do more than one revision, I’ll quote for you before I do any extra work.

How Ginger Studios approaches mixing

Once all tracks have been submitted for a brief assessment I begin the mixing process by having a conversation about any ideas, outcomes or concerns you have for each song. Then I’ll spend a little time doing all of the clean-up editing and tuning work – only if necessary.

I like to spend about a day mixing per song, sometimes a mix happens faster, and sometimes it takes a little longer, but as I own the studio and don’t rent the space from someone else, I can take as long as I feel is necessary for the song to be at its best. After I have a first automated pass of the mix, I will send it to you, or if you are close by, you may come into the studio at the end of the day to give any initial feedback. Then I would ask that you take home the mixes to really listen to them carefully and then give me more feedback so that I can complete any revisions for each track you might have.

Once the revisions are done, with your approval, I will send the music to a mastering engineer of your choosing, or I’m happy to make a local Melbourne-based recommendation. Then, you’ll be ready to release your music into the world!