“More important than anything is having a relatively decent listening environment that translates to the outside world. No room is perfect, but if you can dial in your listening environment and learn it, every step of making music gets easier. Obviously it’s very important for mixers, but just as important for producers and songwriters.

Even if it's not the final mix, a producer or songwriter might be pitching tracks to people, and the mix is the representation of the song. The better it sounds, the more it connects with the listener. Even in the track building stage for a producer/songwriter, really bad acoustics will affect all of your musical and arrangement choices.”

“If I've produced something, I usually wind up mixing it, and I really try to make all of the editing and production decisions before I start a proper mix. On the mix side, I hope to be able to focus on making it sound as good as it possibly can, as well as giving it appropriate dynamics and impact. That being said, I do at some point try to take a step back during the mix and think creatively about where a special effect or a mute or some event can happen to keep things interesting.

I set the sessions up in a consistent way so that I can find everything quickly. I've got a checklist for how to move through a typical song/session so that I don't forget a step and wind up working in circles.”

“My suggestion is to follow the law of attraction rather than promotion, it always brings more rewarding relationships and fosters greater creativity. But I get it, you can’t do that (attract good work) if no one has heard your work. So get your work heard!

How? Consistently create recordings and mixes that are unique and exciting to listen to, and align yourself with artists and producers who are more interested in working with you because you want to make something fresh, rather than something most likely to succeed. Find out what you have to offer that is distinctive and work hard to make it exceptional.”

“There’s a difference between what feels good and what feels right. So, it can be a ‘good mix’ but it just doesn’t hit right. The more I grew as a mixer, the less I cared about the technical aspect of a mix but focused more on getting the emotions right. I listen to the rough mix or demo and identify what touches me in the song and amplify that during mixing.

A great mix is when audience vibes with it. So my advice would be to listen to a LOT of music, analyze the mix and production, catch the vibes and implement them in your mix. Through tons of practice, your musical intuition will go on autopilot and the song will mix itself.”