Table of Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter 1 Island (Hip) Hopping 1
Chapter 2 Go West, Young Mullet 5
Influences and Inspirations: Starting in the South 8
Learning by Doing 10
The Cycle 13
Bromance 15
Niceness Matters 19
Making Decisions 22
Chapter 3 HardDrive 29
The Last Intersection before Commerce 33
The Salon 34
The HardDrive Ethos 36
Trust Is a Two-Way Street 39
The Engineer's Chair 42
In the Mix 43
What I Teach Assistants 46
Setting Expectations 47
Adjusting the HardDrive 50
Into the Lair, Number 70: Five Things that Inspire Me to Mix 54
Chapter 4 Breaking the Magician's Code 59
The Engineer as Magician 67
Making Artists Comfortable 68
Who You Are Is Part of the Process 73
The Random Element 75
Into the Lair, Number 72: Creating a Human Feel with Digital Tracks 80
Chapter 5 Home Plate 83
Learning to Mix 84
On to the Enterprise 87
The Mecca Theory 89
The Griot Theory 92
Having a Sound 94
Bringing the Assistant Along 97
Riding the Internet Tiger: The Thread to Pensado's Place 105
Into the Lair, Number 54: The Top 10 Mix Mistakes 106
Chapter 6 Don't Call It a Comeback! 113
Recovery 115
Pensado's Angels 117
We re Catching On! 122
If You Want to Do Something, Make It as Good as You Possibly Can 124
Bringing Audio to the World 128
It's Really Happening! 131
Shining a Light on the Profession 132
Into the Lair, Number 73: Creating Vintage Vocal Delay EFX Tricks 138
Chapter 7 Dave the Philosopher 141
The Golden Rectangle 145
Directing the Ear 146
Commercial Value and Van Gogh 147
Other Sources of Inspiration 149
What People Pay Me For 150
Who Wants to Listen to This Record? 152
Another Philosophy 155
Music with Purpose 157
Chapter 8 We're at the Place: Pensado's Place! 159
How It Begins 164
Tuesday Night; Wednesday Morning 167
Preparing for Airtime; Switching Hats 169
The Flow 170
We're Live! 171
Post Show Postmortem 179
Edit and Post 180
Chapter 9 Gifts from the Gods 183
Al Schmitt 184
Jack Joseph Puig 184
Justin Niebank 185
Manny Marroquin 185
Greg Wells 186
Chris Lord-Alge 186
TomElmhirst 186
Michael Brauer 187
Dylan Dresdow 188
Jaycen Joshua 188
Jimmy Douglass 190
Jason Suecof 190
Tony Maserati 190
Rodney Jerkins 191
Derek Ali 192
Summary 192
Afterword 195
Index 197
