2020 Reel
About @themixnerd
Scenario 1:
You’re a producer or Recording engineer and you wanna work with better and better bands while building your brand. Your arrangements are great, you get awesome performances, but when it comes to mixing and mastering you spend more time than you’d like, lose perspective, and/or you aren’t sure if the song’s going to translate well from one playback system to another. If this is happening you’re missing out on your potential to turn over projects faster and yield greater results which ultimately will keep you from getting the better paying projects you want and deserve.
Scenario 2:
You’re a local band or artist that just spent a month in the studio. You loved what you heard in the studio but when you got the mixes home you were less than thrilled and they don’t compare with what you’re listening to.
Both of these scenarios are extremely common. Sometimes a great tracking engineer/producer is also a home studio owner/mix engineer/mastering engineer/vocal coach/editor/one person band/maid/barista. That’s a lot of hats to wear.
If your mechanic was also a part-time bartender I’d expect you to ask why aren’t they good enough to make a living as just a mechanic, and if they weren’t splitting their time between two jobs would they be a better mechanic? What if your mechanic had nine other jobs? Would you trust them to rebuild your brake system or replace your transmission? Probably not.
I don’t split my time between mixing records and nine other jobs. So I mix quickly, and consistently. When I’m not mixing I’m reading or talking about mixing. That’s why I’m The Mix Nerd.
There’s no shame in doing everything you have to do to keep the lights on. But mixing and mastering can literally make or break your chance of building a brand, reaching an audience, standing out from the rest, and getting on the top streaming playlists.
This is the problem I want to solve for you. I know that hiring a dedicated mix engineer can seem scary. “Well, the producer wants to mix it.” “How can I trust someone else to craft our sound?” Or “Our drummer went to Full Sail and has a home studio.” That’s really great. And I have no doubt they get great results.
My job is to be unbiased, objective, and give each song what it needs. You want your songs to sound the best they can, for the money you can put into them, as soon as possible. You hope someone in your price range can give you the results you’re looking for. I can and I will.
— Meekha, Songwriter/Singer
@themixnerd has a wonderfully creative brain and is very skilled and professional in his work. He has been in the business for a while so definitely knows what he is doing. He will work with you and your vision, making it come to life. Apart from being incredibly talented, he is a delight to be around and super easy to work with
— Audrey Morgan, Songwriter/Singer
@themixnerd is my go to for mix/master. He seems to actually invest in a mix as if its his song which yields different results that i’ve had with other mixers. Balancing and doing something that is technically correct or shows up in meters to be comparatively good is useless to me and Ryan gets that too. He’s fearlessly chasing after whatever sounds right ”
— Mattew Heath
Producer/Songwriter, Lights Follow
Impressive Intuition
@themixnerd is an excellent engineer/ producer/ musician. I have worked with him on several projects and have always been impressed with his skill and intuition. I recommend him without hesitation
—Guy Strauss, Professional Drummer(Tender Idols, Tim Brantley, Noah Pine)
Some artists that I’ve worked with…
Risk Free Guarantee
If by the third revision(v4.0) you’re sure you won’t be releasing the song and want your deposit back I will be happy to give you a full refund. I’m so sure this won’t happen that I’ll take all the risk.
Mixing is possibly the most critical stage of music production. Of course I’d say that, I’m The Mix Nerd. But I take it very seriously. I am absolutely meticulous and focused on creating a three dimensional image with sound. Tall, deep, and wide. Through a series of thousands of good decisions I achieve a balance tone for each instrument that adds up to an overall balanced mix.
I’m striving for a particular aesthetic for each song or project. I want everything to have a place. I don’t want to paint with all of the colors. I want to paint with all of the colors that work together. I want there to be elements that are obvious and elements which are only noticed in headphones. I want the listener to stay interested and hear new things every time they hear the song. I want them to have a visceral and emotional experience.
My mix room is supremely quiet and accurate which allows me to get results that sound like a finished product before going to onto mastering.
Also, I’ve tailored my hardware and software specifically for mixing. I have tools at my disposal which most recording engineers simply can’t justify investing in.
I’ve mixed thousands of songs over the years and invested tens of thousands of hours into becoming a great mix engineer. All of my experience, passion, and drive goes into each mix, yet, it is still your mix. My livelihood and reputation depends on you being happy with the results.
Mastering is more than making your songs loud. It’s an art-form. It’s focusing with an objective ear on potential mistakes made by the mix engineer and correcting them. It’s making sure your song sounds as great as possible on every playback system. It’s also making sure your songs stand up to or out from your favorite recordings.
Mastering is also very technical in making sure your songs meet the demands of distributors, radio stations, and duplication plants.
Finally, this critical stage of production requires a keen ear, an honest playback system, a quiet and well constructed room, and software tools specifically designed for mastering. Mastering also ensures that each song is at an appropriate relative level to the rest of the record. The timing between songs plays a roll in the emotional experience of the listener.
Frequently Asked Questions
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For mastering: $50.
For mixing: More than a little and less than a lot.
I estimate how long I think a song or record will take me after hearing a rough mix or seeing a project file and multiply that by how much I’d like to be making per hour. Typically a song will take between 5 and 25 hours to mix. So somewhere between $250 and $600.
Get in touch and I’ll get you an estimate!
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You can send me consolidated wav files, labeled appropriately(Please don’t send me Audio 01, Audio 02, etc).
Or you can send me whole project folders.
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You can send me Logic Pro X, Garageband, Pro Tools, and Reaper sessions.
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You can use the form below to send me songs to be mastered. Please make sure there isn’t any clipping, or sound at the beginning or end of the file that you don’t want to be there in the final product.
Please label the song as: 01_Artist_Song.wav
In the field below you can tell me about what to use as a reference as well as anything else you’d like me to know about you, or the song.
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tl;dr:
Absolutely! You’ll get up to 3 revisions free within 30 days. I’m trying to win your business for life by getting you the mixes you want with minimal effort on your end.
Long answer:
For masters:
I’ll first send you two versions. A loud compressed version, and a more moderate version. If you want to make changes within 30 days I’m happy to make as many changes as necessary. Almost every time, one of those first two will be what you want.
For mixes:
v1
Often the first version I send you will be fairly early in the process to make sure I’m going in the right general direction. You don’t need to go crazy with notes on the first version. It’s just a sketch to make sure I don’t spend 5 hours driving the wrong way.
v2
The second version you will get will be a real first version. Please take the time to listen on at least three different playback devices. I recommend a car stereo, a phone, and a bluetooth speaker if you have one.
At this point you should send me all the notes you have. If you say the snare is too loud, or there’s too much reverb on the vocal I’m going to believe you. I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve learned that no matter how wrong I think someone is about something, it ALWAYS turns out they were right. So, please don’t be shy.
v3
The next version, is probably the one.
v4
I’m happy to do three revisions for free. That’s v4. After that I’ve had to initiate a $50 charge per revision. Why? Because it keeps me from going out of business by chasing unending revisions with the extremely rare client that doesn’t know what they want or how to communicate what they want, or keeps changing their mind every time they listen to the mix on a different stereo.
Seriously, don’t worry about it though. I’m a perfectionist, a workaholic, and a people pleaser. I’m very often far more critical than my clients. There have rarely been cases where I’ve had to do more than two revisions.
In the rare case that by the second revision we are nowhere near where you’d like the mix to be heading we may just have a case of I’m not the right engineer for your project. Which is totally fine. And I’m very happy to refer you to other super talented engineers.
If we’re doing several songs together I will likely be getting extremely close to what you want on the first version as I start to learn your tastes.
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Yes I do. Until we’ve settled on a mix or master there will be a slight and well placed voice that says “@themixnerd”. Once you’ve sent payment you’ll receive a new link in your email with your watermark free track.
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Until we have a final version I’ll send you high quality mp3’s. They are 320 kbps, variable bit rate, stereo mp3’s. They’ll fit nicely in your inbox as opposed to having to send them via wetransfer link.
Unless you specify you’d prefer no processing on these versions, I’ll apply very light compression in order to get the mixes close to a “mastered level” at -12 to -14 lufs.
Once we have a final version and we’ve taken care of payment I’ll send you a wetransfer link to a zip containing a 24 bit 44.1 khz wav(or aiff files if you specify) with no master buss processing, a high quality mp3, and honestly, anything else you could ask for. If the song is going to be on tv or in on a movie soundtrack I’m happy to send all appropriate stems at 24 bit/48khz.
In the case where I’m also mastering the song I’ll send everything mentioned above plus a mastered version of each(except the stems would only be the mastered version).
If you want the whole project file to keep as a back up or look at how I did something I’m happy to send that too. You paid for it.
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You can send payment via PayPal to info@themixnerd.com
Cash app: $themixnerd
Venmo: @themixnerd
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Yes I do. I keep three backups of every project. One at home in a safe, one at the studio, and one online. These backups include all the project files as well as the final bounces or masters.
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You can credit me as @themixnerd, or in some cases where the @ symbol doesn’t work you can just use themixnerd, all lower case.
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All of them. I have pretty much purchased every plugin or bundle on my wishlist. I own everything that I think I could ever want/need. from UAD, Waves, Soundtoys, Izotope, Bluecat, Softube, Valhalla, and Brainworks.
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I have a serious ethical issue with sharing anything that’s unreleased without the artist’s/writer’s consent. That includes but is not limited to any social media, or in person. I have tunes from artists I worked with 20 years ago that remain unreleased because of timing, branding, or any number of things. And I’m still keeping them under my hat even though it could have been a serious resume builder at any point.
I do wanna help you create hype/buzz during the mixing or mastering process by creating content around your songs such as How-to-mix vids, quick tips, “Check out the awesome tune I’m working on” etc. But, if you wanna keep stuff under wraps until it’s officially released, that’s something I totally get.
Or if you just don’t want your stuff to be showing up on my social media ever that’s completely understandable too.
After all, this falls under your copyrights.
Get a free test mix or master Say what?!
Yes, That's right!!
Yeah, I totally get it. The idea of hiring someone you’ve never met to mix your song is daunting. That’s why I will always do a free sample of what your mix and/or master might sound like if you decide to have me mix it. I want to make the mixing process as easy as possible for you.
A sample constitutes a section or two depending on the amount of tracks in the song. I can’t do a long second verse into a double chorus if you send me 120 tracks. I love mixing, but, I’m trying to keep the lights on too.
To send me a song just go through the same submission process below and indicate that you just want a test under “what are you looking for”. Also, let me know which section or sections you’d like to hear me work on. Please don’t skimp on the details though. It helps me get a better idea of how to best help you and it helps you get a better idea of what we can achieve. If you don’t love it, no problem. If it’s close and you want me to finish it we can do that too! Sounds good? I think so.