Lu Diaz (Lauryn Hill, The Baha-Men, Mary J Blige)
Mix engineer and producer Lu Diaz has three Grammy wins and more than 50 Gold and Platinum albums to his name. He started his own record label at the age of eighteen, and since then has worked with stars such as Lauryn Hill, The Baha-Men, Mary J Blige, Beyoncé, P Diddy, 50 Cent, Toni Braxton, amongst countless others. Along with his brother, Hugo Diaz, he forms one half of The Diaz Brothers.
Tell us about your current studio setup.
My room is a pretty simple set-up. I have a custom desk that houses my Slate Control, Amphion amps, Prism and Apollo interfaces, and of course, my Macbook Pro and iMac. It was built on a floating floor and it is treated with various materials and finished with black, grey, and white fabric walls.
Having produced and mixed so many songs over the past few years, how do you stay fresh and excited about making music these days?
It's just a matter of enjoying what you do, and I still really enjoy mixing projects. But having my own private studio really helps because it gives me the freedom to work on projects when I am feeling my best and take the time to rest when I'm starting to feel burntout.
How do you typically approach a mix: what's your process for setting it up? How often are you making big editing decisions in your mixing?
My approach is pretty straightforward: I usually get all the music tracks in order from left to right starting with drums, then keys, and so on. Once I have a decent idea of all of the elements, I try to do a quick balanced mix and see how everything relates to each other.
Once I’m familiar with the song, I'll jump into mixing it.
As far as editing, it really varies from project to project. In most cases, I do a little bit of arrangement work, like drops and so forth. And in others, I’m just making everything sounds good and the arrangement stays as is.
It all really depends on the client’s needs and wants.
What's one piece of advice you can pass to aspiring mixers and producers looking to get better at their craft?
Take your time, don't overthink things, and take a nice long break before you print your final mixes for mastering.