Long Distance Mixing & Mastering

WHY SHOULD I CONSIDER LONG-DISTANCE MIXING?

Why restrict yourself to mixing engineers in your zip code? With digital recording being so prevalent these days, a lot of musicians are getting great sounding tracks in home studios. However most home recordings lack the polish of professionally mixed works. Letting a seasoned mixing engineer put the make-up on your tracks can really bring the project to life.

There are a number of reasons why long-distance mixing could be the right idea for your next project. First, long-distance mixing can save you a lot of time, and money. Traditionally you would be sitting with the mixing engineer during the session, and there are unavoidable interruptions with general client relations. These distractions can range from idle conversations to phone calls and even lunch breaks. All of these add up to more time and money on the clock and less time focused on the mixes at hand. Sometimes listening to your own material for 8 hours (and who knows how many times before the mix session) can add up to a lackluster mix too.

Second, a fresh pair of ears may bring something extra to the song you couldn't have imagined or thought of yourself. Not to mention a lot of artists get antsy in this traditional situation and are constantly asking the engineer to add this or that all the way through the mix. This can be problematic when the majority of mix engineers like to build the song from the ground up - one instrument at a time, while making small tweaks along the way. We all have our mix habits that we feel most comfortable with which make the process of mixing more time-savvy and the product more coherent. Therefore, constantly adding things to make the client happy can sometimes kill a mix if done too early in the process.

Long-distance mixing still includes all of the artists input, of course. We will send several revisions and post new mixes as we work. With good communication from the start, and with mp3's and free file transfer services on the web, we can upload different versions, or email them to clients for input, and then make the changes as required.

Having clients listen to mixes in their own environment can be beneficial to the process, and having no distractions once the clock has turned on gets you a lot more bang for your buck. In some ways nothing can compare to sitting in a perfectly tuned room with a console that looks like it belongs at nasa, listening to your songs on world class speakers while the mix engineer is diving into the mixes.

However, in the practical world we live in, long-distance mixing brings a cost effective alternative to this model. Your songs will still be brought to life by world class mix engineers, and massaged to your liking.

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?

Costs will differ from project to project, and are agreed upon before work has begun. A simple mix balance, and coloration may not take nearly as long as having to salvage and edit all the tracks before doing the mix. Some mixes may be 24 tracks, while others could have 100. We will work with just about any budget, and strive for total client satisfaction.

Sending rough mp3 mixes via email, or a cd via snail mail will give us the opportunity to hear the project, and get a little insight to what will be involved in the mixing process ahead of time. Payments can be made through paypal or by mail via check or money order.