Episode 101 - Jon Castelli
Show Notes
Live with Matt Rad - Episode 101
Sept 6, 2022
w/ Jon Castelli - Week 81
Show notes by Bradley Will
Jon:
I’ve been having attended mixes for the last few days, and I love it. I love the collaborative process of record making.
When everyone is in the room and agreeing on the outcome of moves and decisions, that’s a great feeling that you cannot get by sending stuff remotely.
Matt:
That’s why I can’t be a full-time mix engineer. I love being in the room with others and hanging out.
I love the energy in the room.
Jon:
On the other hand, I don’t do well being in the dark windowless studio all of the time. I sometimes struggle with the lack sense of life satisfaction that comes from being in that environment.
Matt:
Balance (in life) is an interesting thing. I think the best way to approach it is to ask yourself what is the diversity of experience that you’d like to have?
I think getting in the room and being with people is, right now, one of the most under appreciated things we can do. It’s so great to get back into the room with people.
Jon:
I struggle with what the idea of home means.
I need travel, and I like travel because I like to return home.
Matt:
I am nomadic currently because of a desire to push myself from a creative standpoint.
When I have a home base I’m good as a mixer/finisher role when I’m in a space that I know and am comfortable in.
However I don’t make as many interesting songs and ideas when I am this comfortable.
Just getting out of the comfort space allows me to react in a way that feels like I did when I was just learning.
Some of my favorite things were done when I didn’t know what I was doing and when I was uncomfortable.
Putting myself in a position where I have limited tools and don’t know the place well allows me to just go on instinct.
“If you’re not failing, you’re not taking enough risks.”
Pharrell is one of my favorite creative people of all time and a great example of this adage. I love that he is taking risks continually, even in moments when he’s not at the height of his popularity.
Q: What does an attended mix session feel like?
Jon:
The only rule is that guests have to fill up the water filter when it’s nearing depletion.
Guests can smoke weed, light candles, sit anywhere, make themselves comfortable and feel at ease.
I like having the guests watching me as I work, because it validates the moves I’m making as I’m making them.
Matt Beckley in the chat:
Involving the artist in the mix helps to reduce the amount of mix revisions.
Jon:
I like both attended sessions (for the reason that Matt Beckley mentioned) and sessions by yourself?
In an attended session it’s easier to walk the artist (and the producer) through the process.
They often feel like they need a technical understanding to describe what they want, but I get to reassure them that I actually prefer mix notes that convey a feeling, instead of a specific technical description of what they’d want to change.
A lot of the time the artists think the rough mix is the finished version and don’t understand that it will be mixed.
If there is an artist in the room (or within earshot) I do not want anybody on the team talking about specific frequencies during a mix. Doing so makes a division between the artist and the rest of the people in the room. Wait to mention 2kHz once they’re out of the room. I feel very strongly about this.
Rule No. 2 of a Gift Shop Session: Don’t use frequency talk around the artist during a session.
Q: What’s a tool that you with someone would build to help you mix and produce?
Jon:
Audiomovers with video capabilities and no latency.
A very stable audio/video transmission plugin from the DAW that allows people to be synced up and video with no lag.
According to people in the chat LANDR has these features, but may be laggy.
Matt:
I would like better integration between DAWs. I want to be able to write songs in Ableton and easily convey them to Pro Tools to cut vocals without the trouble of printing stems each time I switch.
Jon:
I want a tool that knows the curvature of all new crappy microphones, with an EQ that corrects all of the crummy sound that they impart on the record.
A microphone “un-modeler”.
The best part of my PMC speakers is that I can hear the horrible high-end frequencies that need to be notched-out.
