Part of being a leader [link to "if there's not a leader, there will be" post] (and you are if you own a studio) is making a plan if there is not one. … If you know what he will consider a good day in the studio, then you can continuously strive to get there, or make him realize that its’ just too much to take on that day and start changing his expectations for the day.
Author Archives: Kevin Ward
Building Trust: Easing Tension in the studio
If you have to singers in your studio… one’s behind the glass trying to make magic happen and the other is in the studio with you verbally beating up the other singer, step in if you need to and call off the dogs. Not much good can come of one artist bashing another artists when you are trying to get a good performance. if tension gets high here’s a couple of things you can do to get things “back on track”
Building Trust: Pre-Roll can establish you as trustworthy
If you have rolled the song back 3 times now and the singer has missed his cue all three times, YOU need to ask yourself, “Is there something I can do to make them come in on time without roughing up their self-esteem?” … If this is the third time they’ve missed their cue, how do you think they are feeling about their basic ability to come in on time.
The End of the Faceless Mixer (Hopefully)
I really enjoy talking to you in the comments, int the email and in the “Mix Like a Pro” class. … It’s easy and you’d be helping me to put a name with a face…or a GRavatar .
Mixer’s Toolkit is at number 33 on Amazon
I just noticed that the book that I wrote with Nathan Adam is the 3 
3rd most popular book in the Sound Recording section at Amazon right now. We are right behind Zen and the art of Mixing … which is GREAT company to be in.
MixCoach Podcast 020 : Bringing On The Electric Guitars
On this Episode of the MixCoach Podcast, Kevin addresses the electric guitar and his typical signal chain. He talks about techniques for EQing and compressing electric guitars. Kevin touches on panning electric guitars to excite the mix in stereo.
Building Trust : Talking smack about your competitor
When you talk about how bad someone sings, how bad someone mixes or plays, you may think that you are making yourself look better, but what you’re doing is you’re showing your client how you are going to talk about them behind their back.
My first bad review
Since our book came out, I’ll have to be honest, I’ve been so humbled by your response to it. I was pretty happy in knowing that Pro Tools 9: The Mixer’s toolkit has helped people from all over the world.
I read the reviews occasionally. Today was one of those days. But today was different. I got a BAD review.
MixCoach Podcast 019 : How I process an Acoustic Guitar
On this episode of the MixCoach Podcast, Kevin addresses acoustic guitar, giving you his signal chain and approach to EQ and compression. He also talks about some production tips for acoustic guitar.
MixCoach Podcast 018 : The Two Best Ways To Compress Bass
On this episode of the MixCoach Podcast, Kevin discusses, the Nashville studio standards on bassists processing their instrument before tape. However, Kevin talks about how to process a bass when you don’t have access to great bass rigs before tape. He talks about his Compressor settings in-line, as well as with parallel compression.