Joseph Chudyk (Kane Brown, Joe Pug)

Working Out Of A Dolby Atmos Enabled Music Studio In Rochester, NY, Joseph Chudyk Recently Mixed The Atmos/Spatial Audio Versions For Kane Brown's Single One Mississippi And Mitchell Tenpenny's Midtown Diaries, Including The Hit Single Truth About You. Many Of Chudyk's Dolby Atmos Mixes Are Featured In Apple Music's Spatial Audio Playlists. Other Credits Include Kane Brown, Mitchell Tenpenny, Joe Pug, And The National Reserve.

Tell us about your current studio setup.

I'm currently using the brand new MacBook Pro M1 Pro. My desk is a minimalistic Herman Miller Scooter tiny desk.

ATC SCM100s are my main left and right monitors, with an ATC SCM25 as the center channel and an Avid MTRX Studio IO. I also have a Genelec-based Dolby Atmos setup in the same room.

Everything is wired with Accusound IX3 cable.

As for my main DAW, I mix in the latest version of Pro Tools, 100% in the box. After spending a few years using a hybrid setup of plugins and hardware, I moved ITB about a year and a half ago and haven't looked back.

I don't enjoy using the plugins that emulate hardware other than the CLA76 and Black Rooster's VLA-3A. They nailed those! There are so many unique and unforgettable plugins out there, and more and more come out each month.

Ones that get used in almost every mix? Eventide SplitEQ, Fabfilter Saturn2, Acustica Viridian2 comp and Ruby2, Soundtoys Sie-Q and Little AlterBoy, Wavesfactory Spectre, Mixland Rubber Band Compressor, Klevgrand Knorr or Korvpressor, Techivation T-De-Esser, Avid HEAT, and everything from Liquidsonics!

What is the 'secret' to creating such sonically rich immersive mixes?

There aren't any secrets anymore, haha. But I will say: stay simple! Think about the least amount of moves you need to get a sound to sit in the mix.

I don't use buss processing or sometimes called "food group processing." I treat each track as needed, create parallel processing tracks, and always think about what elements contribute to the song's sonics.

I never feel like I mixed myself into a corner with this technique. Some of my best mixes never even used an AUX or BUSS track!

How do you approach the mixing of a song?

I usually bring all the files into a blank session or open up a committed session if I get sent a Pro Tools session. I immediately organize and color-code everything and then start learning the song.

If instruments are multi-mic'ed, I'll start immediately deciding which mics to keep or make inactive.

Next, I'll balance the song with only volume and panning to get it sounding the best it possibly can without plugins. I'll practice automation moves, take notes on those, add Saturn2 to every single track and then commit all the tracks, including faders, so that all the faders end up being at zero.

This process will clip gain the tracks to where I feel helps the plugins see the proper level. Plus, automation is so much easier with all the faders at unity. I'm doing all of this on headphones, on my laptop, outside of the studio.

Then I'll move into the studio, turn on the ATCs and start "carving" away at the mix like an artist would for a sculpture. I never hyper-focus on one thing.

As far as an A/B test, I'll have the rough mix along with a few references in the session, and those are spilled out on a control surface so I can quickly solo between them with a button push rather than having to jump around the session or open up a plugin to AB the mix.

I'll take some listening breaks and pull up Tidal or Apple Music and listen to listen.

What advice do you have for aspiring mixers looking to get better at what they do?

Be a good person, make honest friends, care about the people around you, share your excitement with others, whether that is a new tech, tool, song, and so on.

Be passionate and learn everything you can, all the time. Don't focus on landing the gig; it'll happen naturally from all the other things above.

Be confident in what you are doing, and always try to be the best version of yourself.