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DOs and DON’Ts of working with a mixing/mastering engineer

 

Looking back at what I’ve learned from working hundreds of different producers along the years, I wrote a few quick DOs and DON’Ts for working with a mixing/mastering engineer.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, but considering these will mean way fewer headaches in my job.


DO:

• Know how your music should sound; words often fail here, so 1–3 reference songs from your favorite artists/labels is an excellent starting point. We all have those songs, so just spend a bit of time finding those that you think represent your style somewhat close. Remember, a good song does not necessarily equal a good-sounding song. It’s happened to me many times that I get to hear, “Yeah, actually, it doesn’t sound good, but I thought it’s just a good song”…and then we start all over again. This will cost you the price of two masters in the worst case.

• Prepare to express your wishes/criticism regarding the master; what to emphasize, what is too loud, what’s too buried in the mix/master etc Continue reading DOs and DON’Ts of working with a mixing/mastering engineer

Announcing music production tuition / “help service”

I’m launching a music production tuition / “help service”.

CONTACT: fanu@fanumusic.com
See an example of what I do: a beatmaking session video on Youtube.

What is that exactly?
I’m an electronic music production professional with 25+ years of electronic music production experience (Fanu / FatGyver) – I started around 1992 and have been at it since.
I’ve also founded a successful music mixing and mastering business with a wide international client base, which is now my day job that pays for my living (Mastering and Mixing by Fanu).
Also, I’m officially Ableton Certified, meaning I’m an Ableton pro. I mostly do tuition as one-to-one sessions in my home and do a few workshops per year in my area. I just made Skype work for that nicely, too.

Producers contact me with Qs relating to these three things on the regular, almost daily now, with Continue reading Announcing music production tuition / “help service”

[VIDEO] Ex Tempore Beatmaking Session #1

Ex tempore studio sesh #1 VIDEO is here!

I’ve been meaning to do these for a long time, and here, finally, is the first sesh.

I want to do one-hour sessions working on a beat in Ableton Live, mostly unprepared, just to see where it goes and to cover some of the techniques and plugins I use in my music production as well as mixing and mastering (see bottom of the post for a list of what’s included). Just doing whatever comes to mind and keeping it realistic!

The beat in this one sure isn’t trying to be *good music* Continue reading [VIDEO] Ex Tempore Beatmaking Session #1

New series: plugin recommendations

I’m going to start a new plugin nerdery series: Fanu’s plugin recommendations.
Because there’s a ton of dope plugins I use all the time, and I get asked a lot what I use.
So here’s the first one.
UAD LA3A and LA-2A – my favorite vocal compressors in mixing (I don’t use these on the master bus). I use these a lot to control the dynamic range of recorded vocals. When I get a vocal track Continue reading New series: plugin recommendations