MIXING

Hardly a NEVE or SSL.

Well, well, well. We have finally finished arranging and recording and are now, i am pleased to announce in the mixing phase! After a long week, which finally finished late last night (and after a slight distraction of a flat battery), we were able to sign off on all the parts. It has been amazing to hear already awesome songs move up a whole another level as they really come into their own with best suited arrangements. We have kind of been mixing as we go so a few of the songs already have a very solid base for me to work on and already sound really good. (Actually, i dont even know if i can make some of them any better).

I’m really keen to get cracking, though. I have nearly  all the plugins that i need, have the analog signal chains planned and am fully stocked on confectionary, soft drinks and all things unhealthy. (well, not quite) Anyway, im all set! Hopefully my macbook will last the distance. It already complains to me that i am driving it too hard, but thats what they are designed for isnt it? You dont buy a Macbook Pro to do word processing and email.

I have been looking at well known mix engineers (a profession that goes largely unnoticed to the average music listener) and seeing what gear they are using, different techniques they use and just getting cool insights into what and how they do things, before i prepare to mix our album. Michael Brauer is my current favourite. (Coldplay, John Mayer, The Rolling Stones, Was (Not Was), James Brown, Aerosmith, Jeff Buckley, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Ben Folds, Pet Shop Boys, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, MeatLoaf, Martha Wainwright, Pete Murray…the list goes on – Might be quicker to list who he HASNT mixed…) His use of compression is really cool. It is just even better that he mixes the type of bands that Cities is very influenced by. Dave Pensado, Jack Joseph Puig, Chris Lord-Alge, Manny Marroquin and Tony Maserati are also pretty awesome. Between these five guys, you would be very hard pressed to find an artist on the charts that they havent been involved in the mix process in. They take up a majority of the top 40 hits consistently.

Whilst i may not have the years of experience, expertise, finese and unlimited access to any plugin, hardware or extremely large NEVE and SSL console that these guys do, i feel adequately equipped to be able do all i need to make this album sound world class. I really do think that the album will sound amazing when you get to hear it.

And that shouldn’t be long! I dont think we are far off now people. A few weeks of mixing, then we will send it away to be mastered and then it is release time baby! Stay tuned for a confirmed release date and definately countless more blog posts!

Later.

Josh