Master Your Mix Podcast

Rob Chiarappa is an award-winning producer, mixer, and songwriter based out of New Jersey.

Rob works out of the world-renowned Barber Shop Studios in Hopatcong, NJ as his home base but has relationships with studios in major cities around the globe to make records happen in most places.

Rob’s objective is to treat each project uniquely and work with artists to reach an end result that best represents their creative vision being as “hands on” or “hands off” as the artist is comfortable with.

The Story So Far, Hot Mulligan, Mom Jeans, Midtown

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Why small basement studios can yield better results
• The role of a producer
• Taking control of your own vision for your tracks
• Dissecting the gold in a demo
• Finding the “pocket” of a song
• Overcoming demo-itis
• Things to pay attention to to help produce your own songs
• Fulfilling the vision of the artists vs. your own
• Developing songs from the ground up
• Getting paid fairly for your services
• Should you take songwriting royalties?
• Why Metric AB is the best plugin of all time

Sean Moffitt is a 3 time Grammy winner, with over 70 billboard number 1’s over multiple genres. He has worked with Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett, Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll, Diplo, James Arthur, Lauren Daigle, Ben Rector, Lady A, Patrick Droney, Kane Brown, Kelsie Ballerina, Josh Groban, Ingrid Michelson, and many others.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Being a mixing-only engineer
• Building your portfolio
• Working from the rough mix
• Knowing when to leave something alone in a mix
• Balancing the low end in your mix
• Mixing like there’s no mastering
• What to look for in a mastering engineer
• Making mixes that have movement
• Creative approaches to panning
• Sean’s hybrid mix setup
• Working in an open-concept mixing room
• His unique listening environment that ensures his mixes translate.
• Doing the “car test”

Nick Rad is a highly sought-after mixing engineer who has worked with major artists such as Rachel Platten, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Hilary Duff, Nick Fradiani, MAX, Anberlin, and Skillet. Nick began his musical career in the late 90s as a signed and touring musician in the punk rock band Hangnail (Tooth and Nail Records). He later switched gears to take over drums in the pop-rock band Acceptance (Columbia Records).

While making records and touring for 7 years, his love of recording and production became his passion, which led him to where he is today. With a tasteful production sense, a highly tuned ear, and a strong midwestern work ethic, Nick delivers mixes that have made him a staple in the professional mixing scene.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Working with producers like Bill Stevenson, Stephen Egerton, Howard Benson, and Aaron Sprinkle
• Having an assembly-line approach to production
• Hiring help for your studio
• The value of editing
• How you don’t necessarily need to market your studio, as long as you do this one thing…
• Niching down your services
• Mixing vocals to fit in the mix
• Auditioning vocal chains
• Using sidechaining to help with your low-end
• How to prepare your mixes so they are optimized for deliverables

Mike Cervantes is a Grammy-nominated, Juno award-winning multi-platinum mastering engineer with over 30 Billboard #1 songs and 9 Dove Award wins.

At his studio The Foxboro, he has worked with select artists such as Kane Brown, Walker Hayes, Julia Michaels, Alan Walker, Lauren Daigle, Toby Mac, Flo Rida, Josh Ross, Brandon Lake, Mitchell Tenpenny, Russell Dickerson, Tyler Hubbard, Phil Wickham, Skillet, Lecrae, Yung Gravy, Avril Lavigne, Maverick City Music, Underoath, Misterwives, Against The Current, CeCe Winans, and many many more.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Taking the entrepreneurial journey
• Working for Scott Hull of Masterdisk
• Deciding to stop working at one of the biggest mastering studios
• Building your clientele
• Using social media to sell your services
• Why your gear doesn’t attract clients
• The benefits of switching from an analog to digital workflow
• Managing your time when you’re working on hundreds of projects
• Using Zapier to help streamline your business processes and save money
• Mastering fast
• Knowing the needs of your clients