Miles Walker (@mixedbymiles) is a Grammy-winning, multi-platinum record selling sound engineer who has been a staple of the music industry ever since 2003. That year he graduated Berklee and began his career by moving to Tennessee to work with Music Row Records and quickly found a calling in pop music.
He found himself surrounded by the vibrant hip-hop R&B and pop scene and moved to Atlanta where he began to work at the famous Patchwerk Studios. Already music industry veterans like Bryan Michael Cox, David Banner and Leslie Brathwaite began to take notice, but soon he transitioned to another studio to work for Usher at Ush records.
By this point, his fate was sealed and countless massive artists and other industry professionals were inspired by his hard work including Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias, Rhianna, Katy Perry and Wiz Khalifa. In 2010 Miles won his first Grammy for Beyonce’s “I am… Sasha Fierce” and in the following years, he would win 2 more.
Lately, Miles has been generously offering some of his golden mixing wisdom to the people of Instagram and we here at Jony Studios have been incredibly inspired. From inside tips to realities of the music industry, Miles Walker has given us an insight into what it takes to be an award-winning sound engineer.
Here are some of our favourite #TuesdayTips, from the past few weeks in the words of Miles himself:
Project Preparation
“As a mix engineer, you have to honour whatever decisions the artist might have made before the record makes it to you. Mixing decisions start getting made early in the process—your job is to work with them, not against them.”
“Although file prep isn’t glamorous, and if we’re being honest, this is probably about 50% of the work of mixing. And it happens before you even lay a single finger on a fader.
For me, here are a couple of rules for file prep and some tips to make it easier for the entire crew:
I want the exact session that the rough mix came from:
This is so I can have all the choices from the mix they sent over. Many times I’ll get a rough mix and it won’t match the session. This is tough because I don’t know the decisions that were made to take something out. To me, stems limit creativity. That’s why I always want the session.
I want to meet you in the space where you were creative:
I don’t ever want a client to have to move their session over to PT or something else. I’m happy to do that. I’ll work that into my process–I never want someone to have to work theirs into mine.
Please send me the files zipped up from a service that DOES NOT require an account
If you’re going to send the files this way, then please send your mixer a zip via a link. My favourite is WeTransfer and I can’t tell you how much I love them. I’ve had problems with corruption with many other services, but not them.
It’s free, secure, and if you have a pro account you can send something up to 20gb. The best part is the fact that you get an email confirmation when I download it. You can see I’ve downloaded it, which means I’m about to start on it, which means that you can move to the most important step…
Communicate!
After you’ve sent everything over, be in communication with your engineer. Don’t just send a link and then go radio silent. After you pass along the files, follow up to make sure that it’s everything that's needed.
Delaying the start delays the finish. This saves everyone time, and time is money. We can fix small things quickly, so I can get back to mixing and you can get back to creating.
Keeping everyone happy
“Producers, mix engineers, recording engineers–we’re all stewards of the creative process. Meaning we help move that process along by filling crucial supporting roles to the artists. And if you believe your boy Plato, art is imitation. So at one point or another, each of us has been asked to utilize methods, techniques and styles from other artists.
For mixers, that most often comes in the form of a reference track. Artists will send you a list of tracks that they like something about. It could be the sound of a drum, the stereo separation or a track or something else.
It’s the same thing as asking a recording engineer to help your guitar sound like David Gilmour’s solo on Pink Floyd’s “Time” or maybe to get the bass tone that James Jamerson laid down on What’s Going On.
So when do those come in to play?
For me, I don’t even listen to them until I’ve gone through my first pass at the mix. When I’m building the essence of the song up, I am working with that specific performance. As I said, I’m picking the winners with the magic they created. And just like I don’t listen to an individual track when I’m setting up the session, I don’t listen to reference materials either. Even if I’m familiar with the song or the artist, I’ll try and keep it from influencing my first mix.
Now after that? Absolutely. We can definitely talk about reference tracks. But for me, I use them as a communication tool to help decode what the artist wants versus a template to try and copy.”
“Whenever I get the files for a mix, I do everything in my power to NOT listen to the files. I’ll usually have my amazing assistant @jumperatl set them up. It’s on purpose. I don’t want to hear the parts, I want to hear the song. Before I had the luxury of having an assistant, I would set them up myself (obviously.) But I would do it at the very end of the day when I’m burnt out.
Why?
Because by turning the process into something strictly mechanical, I’m able to tune it out (so to speak) & keep my ears fresh to hear the WHOLE song the next day. And that’s what I ultimately want to do. Hearing each part out of context could cloud my judgement as a mixer, & I think my judgement is one of the things people use me for.
When you as a mixer (or even as a listener) hear something the first time, you INSTANTLY react to it. "That’s a cool bass line, the vocal hook is good here, the drums lock in nicely"–you’re instantly making these notes, whether you want to or not. After my session is set up, I listen to the ruff mix. I make these mental notes, assigning a level of importance to each element–drums, vox, synth, etc.
And then I follow my most important rule–you have to pick one winner for each part. And like the Highlander, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. And the mix needs to reflect that.
That’s not to say there can’t be a different winner in each section of the song. And look, you can have runners up–they can share the podium. But there can only be one winner. And that’s what I think about when I’m listening to it the first time. Because that’s how fans listen to it–something hits them. And what hits me is what I’m going to mix. I want to pick the winners from the magic they made.
Of course, artists and producers can & will disagree. But one of the reasons you hire a mixer is because you’re too close to it. This outside perspective is valuable.”
Presentation
“You’ve put all this work into a mix, and it’s time to send it back. How do you present it?
Well, there are a couple of things that I’ve learned over the years. The most important thing is this: conveying your excitement about the work you did. Bottom line? If you can’t be excited about what you’re doing, nobody else is going to be. If you can show your excitement and point out what you did to highlight those moments to people will be more receptive. So how do you do that?
Three is the magic number.
Like we talked about earlier on, you have to pick a winner for each section of the song. This is similar. Pick your three favourite moments and then talk about what you did to highlight those. Part of mixing a track is changing what they have. And for artists, these are very personal things.
If you change just to change, it comes across as you messing it up. But if you tell them what you were excited about and what you did to highlight that excitement, they’ll understand that. You liked the drums so you lifted them up in the chorus. You thought that vocal melody was AMAZING so you made sure it stood out.
And they’ll agree, or disagree. But like I’ve said over and over, they come to us for an opinion. So be confident in what you chose. Because if you don’t believe in it, why should they?”
Finishing the mix isn’t the end of your day
“If you’re gonna start, you need to be committed. But that’s not enough. If you’re going to finish, you’re gonna need consistency. Keep growing, stay hungry, be focused, and outwork everyone else around you.”
“There’s always this perception that when you’re a musician or a creative, that’s all you’re doing. You’re writing music, making beats, mixing records. And while this is true, the part that you don’t see a lot (especially on social media) is just how much of the grind is spent on your business.
Taxes, bills, marketing, business planning, accounting are just as paramount as being good at your craft. I once saw an interview with a brewery owner who talked about how everyone thought he had the best job–dreaming up beers, tasting them and seeing them make it to stores and bars. He said that way over half of his job is chemistry and cleaning, and less than 10% was all the “glamorous” stuff.”
Conclusion
All these great mix tips and more can be found on Miles’ Instagram including some incredible mixing memes. Jonathan the owner of Jony Studios is a big fan of Miles and highly recommends him! You can work with Miles Walker on your project by filling out the contact form on his website here.
There are tons of great audio engineers in the music industry today, who are some of the mixing and mastering pros that inspire you in your music? Let us know in the comments below!
- By Erik Steiner
