Mixing and Post-Production

[bbass75]

Janek,

I'll be going into the studio to record some of my own compositions soon and was thinking of tracking the entire album live, much like your first album (probably without the audience though). I was wondering what your experience was mixing Mystery to Me and how much of a role did you play in mixing/post production. What approach did you take when mixing? Thanks!

James

[janekbass]

I take a front row seat kind of role in every aspect of any production I'm in charge of. Be it my own music, or another artist, I want to make sure every attention to detail is followed.

I mixed Mystery To me in one day in a marathon session with my mix engineer Juan Pablo Alcaro. The designer (jonas Bostrom) sat in the studio while we mixed finishing the artwork for the album.

It was such a large undertaking that I have very little recollection of the minor details of the session. But as with any session I'm a part of i have a pretty good picture of what I want going into the situation, but also have the ability to be open minded to things that are going to come up during the recording that weren't initially in the pre production picture.

With a mix you have to understand that each instrument in any ensemble has it's place that works sonically in the mix. Finding those places for each instrument is the task when mixing. And it's also important to have a good chain of command established in recording a production. I have two engineers I use. One for recording and mixing, and one for mastering. They know each other really well and have mix and mastered dozens of productions together so it's a really strong sound and vibe that gets created when they work together.

I'm flying my band all the way to Argentina in January just to work with Juan Pablo as he has a studio there now. It's really important to me to keep a continuity in sound and to keep the team together no matter where they live in the world.

Easy,

Janek