EYAL LEVI: Protecting Your Gear from Lightning, Breaking Into the Music Industry, a Dååth Reunion

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Welcome to the Unstoppable Recording Machine Podcast, brought to you by Joey Sturgiss tones, creating unique audio tools for musicians and producers everywhere. Unleash your creativity with Joey Sturgis tones. Visit joey sturgis tones.com for more info. And now your hosts, Joey Sturgis, Joel Wanasek and Eyal

Speaker 2 (00:23):

Levi. Happy New Year everyone. Eyal Levi here I am in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is January the second and I'm here once again to do nail the mix. This time it's with Mr. Logan Mader. Joey Sturgis is also in Vegas with me and Logan Mader is going to be mixing the Gare track toxic garbage island. We're going to get to go over to the Hideout Studios, which we did nail the mix that last time, which is seriously one of the most gorgeous studios I've ever been in my entire fucking life. That place is incredible and I just got to say that in the day and age of studios going down the tubes, I guess the big studios going down the tubes, they're just holding the torch. They're one of the final torch bearers, and I wish them all the luck in the world, and I think that it's a beautiful facility and they're wonderful people and I hope they keep it going for years and years to come.

(01:24):

I'm stoked to be going there for a second time in a row. We have our own nail the mix facilities, so we actually have three of them, or Orlando, Michigan and Wisconsin. But me, I like to travel. I love going to other people's studios. I love traveling for work. It's just in my DNA, I think that it's my dad's fault. I was raised with travel with a dad who always traveled for work. I got to go with him a lot when I was a kid. And then I think something happened at that age where it just got hardwired into me that life and travel and work all go together. So I seek it out, and I'm really, really happy to say that over the next six months now, the mix will in other people's control rooms every time. So that is really, really cool. Also, I just want to take this moment to thank all of you guys because nail the mix and the URM Academy have grown to such epic proportions that I'm kind of beside myself.

(02:29):

Now let me give you guys a disclaimer, which is that when I do something, I go all the way and I'm in it to win it always. I don't do stuff. I have no hobbies. I've never understood what it's like to do something just for fun. I'm in it to win. And so of course when we started to nail the mix in the URM Academy, I had it in mind that it would get this big and 10 times bigger. And I know that five years from now, this is going to look like nothing. But for it to have happened this fast and for it to actually have happened at all, I have so much gratitude and love for you guys. And if it wasn't for your support, we wouldn't be able to do this. So I just want to thank all of you guys who listen, who subscribe, who support us, the interview only subscribe for one month.

(03:21):

Thank you. And keep letting us know what you want us to do. We always listen to what you guys want. We always try to take that into consideration. And here's to a successful and happy 2017 for all you guys. So couple more things. My first Dear Eyal episode went really, really well and lots of people suggested that Joey and Joel also get their own versions, which I think is a fantastic idea because hell, they're my partners and they're brilliant people and I love them and I love hearing what they have to say. And you guys love hearing what they have to say and they should talk more. So if you want to submit questions for them, just submit to the following email address al at M Academy, that's EYAL at M Academy. And just specify Dear Eyal, dear Joel, or Dear Joey, in the subject line and the questions we'll get to the appropriate place and the more detailed the better.

(04:32):

Okay, so let's move on to the first question. This one comes from Aristotle Mall. In an early podcast, I heard you mention a time when Lightning struck an area near your studio and it caused damage. Could you explain this story more and also talk about what preventative measures you can make to help stop damage to precious equipment from electrical surges? Absolutely. First of all, my original studio was struck by lightning twice, if you can believe that twice. Okay. First time I wasn't in the studio, I was on the phone and there was a basketball pole outside. It struck, and the way I know it struck is because the phone shocked me and there was a pink flash all around the house and it sounded like an explosion went off. It was huge.

(05:28):

It was terrible. Nothing you could do about that one, it just hit the house. Second time, I was recording this band, this Atlanta band. They were called Oregon, which I think is still one of the best band names ever. But we were amping. We had recorded the whole album and I was amping getting ready for the mix and it was storming like crazy outside, and we were finishing up, up and I was backing things up because we were done. And I guess that was the only time that I would have my backup drives hooked up to the computer. I always keep that stuff disconnected. And this was before the days of code 40 two.com, which by the way, if you are not subscribed to that, you should because it's $5 a month and it will auto back up your entire system. So do it. There's no reason why you shouldn't code 40 two.com.

(06:28):

I'm not getting paid to say that. Okay, so right as we're almost done backing up, I hear it storming once it gets to a hundred percent, I'm just going to unplug everything and shut it down. Boom, my monitors explode, my keyboard explodes, my computer explodes. Two compressors explode and my mouse explodes. Needless to say it sucked. Smoke started coming out of the computer, shit was done. Now, I was working on two bands at a time, and one of the bands was right there with me. We all just kind of jumped and screamed a little like bitches. And we were like, oh, fuck what happened? And obviously we couldn't turn the computer back on. And I was like, guys, I'm going to need to get this solved. We'll get together next week or the week after. And what ended up happening was I needed to get a new computer and new monitors and new everything.

(07:37):

Luckily, that band was super cool about it because they were there. So they saw what happened. They knew that I was getting ready to unplug everything. They knew I was finishing up. They knew that I was paying attention to the weather, and they saw everything explode. So they knew that I wasn't making it up. And I told them I would just rerecord the album for free. Once I got my gear back together and they were cool, we rerecorded it, it was what it was and sounded great for back then. This was 2005, I believe the other band who I was mixing, I lost all their files to because like I said, the backups were plugged into the computer at that time and everything exploded. I lost that and couldn't recover it. And I told them that I would record. I didn't record the originals, but I told them that I would not charge them anymore for the mix and that I would even rerecord them if they wanted to for free.

(08:36):

I did whatever I could to extend generosity their way, and they fired me and went back to my competition and fuck them. What can I say? Fuck them. I think they thought I was lying. And I guess it is kind of like a dog ate the homework story because when people say my studio was struck by lightning and it destroyed my computer and all that, nobody believes you. And the reason that I know that nobody believes you is because when I moved to Florida, which was the lightning capital of the United States, Orlando gets average of 19,000. Lightning strikes a year, 19,000 lightning strikes a year. Do you know what that means? 19,000 times a bolt of lightning hits the ground in Orlando, and there are houses that get hit sometimes and businesses. So in Orlando, the way that I did it was I unplugged everything.

(09:33):

There's storm season, which is basically April through late September, October, and at about 3:00 PM when the storms roll around, I would say break time guys and I will shut down everything and unplug and everything, even the internet, anything that was somehow connected electrically via copper to my recording studio got unplugged from the walls. You know why? Because I'm not going to fucking risk it again, not after what I went through. And guess what? My house in Florida did get struck by lightning. Once the septic tank got struck by lightning, luckily for some reason it didn't affect any more of the house. So you're asking me what you can do to prevent that stuff? Well, number one, I have a lightning tracker app and there's various lightning tracker apps that you can get on your phone. Let me take a look at my phone right now and see if I still have it.

(10:30):

Now that I don't live in Florida anymore, it's not such a big deal. So I have two things. I have my Radar Pro, which I highly recommend. It's an aviation radar. And so you can see what the weather patterns are. And I'm going to the app store right now. Let's see, because I know that it lists everything I used to have, so I'm just going to type it Lightning Tracker. Okay, lightning Tracker, there's a free version, and I would get that and then I would get the paid upgrades. Oh, lightning Finder, that's a good one. Lightning Finder. Get that one. And if there's paid upgrades, get them because they let you know how far away the lightning is. And that's crucial because if you're in the middle of a really, really good take and there's a storm bearing down on you, you at least know how much time you have.

(11:28):

And if the lightning is within 10 miles, you shut that shit down. If it's within 50 miles and the singer is doing a great job and you check on my radar app and you see that you still have an hour before the storm hits you, Hey, you're doing good. Finish the takes and shut down. But if it's within 10 miles and you know that you have five minutes or something, who knows how fast it's moving? Shut down. Unplug. Look, no surge Protector is going to save you from lightning, okay? I don't care what they tell you. I don't care what they say on the packaging. There's nothing that will protect against the lightning strike. The power of lightning is so far beyond what these little pieces of gear can protect against that it's not worth even fucking with. Just unplug your shit. Just do it.

(12:19):

Like I said in the last podcast, fuck it. Unplug your shit. You do not want to mess with this. And if your clients give you shit, just tell them the truth. Tell them that you're not going to risk losing all your gear and their record over one or two hours of work. And in Florida, when I was working there, the way that I handled this is that I just said that. Okay, so basically between three and five or 6:00 PM every day is when we take a break. So those of you who like to go work out, go work out, and those of you who like to take naps, that's nap time. Whatever, Skype time with your girlfriend, just that's when we stop working. So let's try to work earlier. Let's try to get together in the morning so by the time that storm time hits, we're ready for a break, then we'll resume in two or three hours, get another short session in for the night and we're good.

(13:11):

If the client pushes past that, you might need to politely tell 'em to go fuck themselves because again, do not risk your gear over this stuff. If you get hit by lightning, meaning your studio, first of all, you'll be lucky if it doesn't catch fire, but if it doesn't catch fire and all that happens is that you lose your gear, that's a horrible scenario. Trust me, you do not want to go through that. And that brings up one more thing. Insurance. Do you have insurance on your gear? And if your studio's in your house, will your homeowners cover it? So if you're making an income, will your homeowners cover it? You need to check that. Sometimes it won't. And I would highly, highly recommend getting insurance on all of your equipment. It's not that expensive. And in case of a natural disaster, you'll be happy that you had it.

(14:07):

Now, there is one more thing you could do if you are very, I guess, electrically inclined and know how to build things, I wouldn't do this, but this is what SKO had at his place. He had the electrician build Ace. It is like a big lever that you pull, and it basically cuts the mains off from the studio. So once you power down, you don't need to unplug everything. You would just flip the switch and it would break the connection to the mains. And if you have the money to invest in something like that, cool, go for it. But maybe that will illustrate to you how important this is, that one of the best producers in metal went ahead and got this contraption built so that he won't have to unplug every single time. He could just pull a lever on a submarine or something.

(15:00):

Okay, this question right here comes from Jake Roach. Dear Eyal, what would you recommend for breaking into an actual recording studio? And he said, actual, actual, as opposed to a fake recording studio. Let me provide some context. I currently record music out of my mom's basement, as shameful as that sounds. I've actually done decently well. I've made enough money fully treat the studio with 7 0 3 panels, buy some awesome gear, and take the lady out on a few dates when I have the time. Good for you, dude. I've been doing this for about five years now since I was 14, and I'm looking how I can break out of this place to record some real bands. I think my quality and social skills are there. I hustle my ass off. I mean, hell, I've gotten pretty far in my mom's basement still. I have no idea where to look to build a studio and what to do if I did build one.

(16:02):

Maybe my question lacks focus, but it's one I've not found an answer to in years. If you could help provide some direction on the next steps for an engineer, producer, job title mashup, I'd greatly appreciate it. Here's a link to my website to show you that it's not an absolutely horrible setup. All right, you guys can go check this out. Here's the URL Killing joke studios.wordpress.com. Thank you very much for your help. I hope to see this as a podcast episode very best, Jake Roach. All right, Jake. Well, first of all, you're 19 years old. There's absolutely nothing shameful about having a studio in your mom's basement. As a matter of fact, I had my first studio in my mom's basement until I was 30 years old. So there's that for some perspective. That's right, 30. So you're doing well. Also, I looked at your site for 19.

(16:58):

Pretty damn impressive dude. I mean, look, I can tell it's a basement studio and all that, but it looks pretty damn nice for all things considered. I mean, obviously you've taken good care to make sure that it's aesthetically pleasing. You have actual panels up, you seem to have multiple rooms, nice lighting. What can I say? Dude, you've done a good job. These are the right things. If you keep it up, maybe by the time you're 30 or earlier, you'll have real studio to your own name. That's not in your mom's basement, but I can just say that it looks like you're actually trying, and that's great. So now I'm a little bit confused about your question because you're kind of asking me two different things. On the one hand, you're asking me about building a studio, and then on the other hand, you're asking me about breaking into a studio.

(17:55):

And I don't mean breaking in criminally, but I mean working at somebody else's studio, breaking into the studio scene. And those are two completely different things. And let me tell you something, I do not recommend that you build a studio yet you are not at the level to do that. And so with everything that I said nicely about your current setup, I would say keep that setup and maximize it. But try to get gigs at other studios as an intern, as an engineer, and start working towards that. But keep your home base there because say that you work with bands who you meet through a bigger studio and all they can afford is to record drums at that studio, but then they want to do the guitars in the vocals with you and mix with you, Becky, your place. You want to keep that. So don't discount mom's basement, man, lots of great producers who are around nowadays started in mom's basement.

(18:56):

Keep that going until it doesn't make sense anymore. So let me ask you a few questions and answer them honestly. And this goes for any of you guys listening who are in this situation, which is number one, how good are you at editing? And I mean drums especially vocals especially meaning tuning and lining up takes, and then of course guitars and cleaning up guitars. How good are you at prepping sessions? How good are you at wrapping cables? Are you great at these things? Really, really answer. If you're not great at these things, I would highly suggest that you become great at these things. So we're going to put together a course for editing that's going to blow away everything that's ever been done for editing ever before. However, in the meantime, if you want to get good at editing, if you look at my Creative Live bootcamp, the one I did with monuments, there's some videos in there that I did with John Douglas that cover vocal drum and guitar editing, and you should at least be that good.

(20:13):

If you're that good, by the way, you will not struggle for work. You'll be in demand because not that many people are good at that. I don't know how many times I've said this, but if you want to be employed in audio the quickest way in our version of audio, like the rock world, the rock umbrella heavy stuff or stuff with real drums and with vocals, the quickest way to be employed besides just being a cool person, is to be a badass editor. Okay? Seriously. I personally don't enjoy editing or setting up sessions, but that is the shit that got me hired when I was at Audio Hammer the first couple years. That's all I did. You need to be great at that stuff. So here's another question. Do you have any problems with authority? Reason I'm asking that is because you're 19 now for five years, you've had your own studio and you've been doing things your way for better, for worse, learning your own tricks, getting your own habits together, good or bad.

(21:15):

I'm sure there's a little bit of both, and you've been the boss of your domain. However, if you're going to go work at somebody else's studio, you kind of need to leave all that shit behind and realize that you're working for them. So it doesn't matter what special trick you have for doing something one way or it doesn't matter what methods you developed. If dude says that he wants the drums edited 90% to the grid with an emphasis on hands, then you do it that way. If he says a hundred percent, no variations whatsoever, you do it a hundred percent. If he says he wants it to sway behind the beat on every single snare hit, you do it like that, you do whatever the hell they say, you deliver it the way they say. If they say that you're not going to touch anything for six months and you're just there to make coffee and shut the hell up, watch and learn, then that's what you do.

(22:16):

So do you have problems with authority? I hope not because when you go work at somebody else's studio, you are there to serve them. And I don't mean that you should demean yourself or anything like that, but just keep in mind that you are there to learn and to serve and to provide value. And once you do those things, eventually an opportunity will come up that you can take advantage of. So for instance, in the last podcast I talked about how I got the Black Dahlia murder drum recording gig, and it was because I had proven myself and the opportunity came up. Both those things aligned and I got the gig. That's what you need to do. So just keep that in mind. And the reason I say that also is because I've had a lot of intern types or wannabe engineer types who started with their own home studios come to me and I have a hard time with them sometimes because they want to do things their way or they're already looking for what they can skim off of me and then just bolt with.

(23:23):

And that's not how you should look at things. And believe me, you'll get sniffed out if that's how you approach it. So remember, you're in the customer service business. Second, third, do you have a car? Reason I ask that is because if you work for a producer, be prepared to be called in at three in the morning, six in the morning, be prepared to be running around town, running errands for the person or for the bands. Just be prepared. And so without a car, it will be really, really hard. That's a requirement for someone working for me is that they have a car as a studio intern, it wouldn't work otherwise because being a runner is a part of it. Even if you're not doing drink orders, what about Guitar Center? Who the hell knows what if you need to pick up the band from the airport, so many situations can come up.

(24:16):

You need a car. So have transportation. Alright, so here's what I want you to do since I know you have a car, right? Is write down all the studios within a 50 mile radius, okay? All of them that you can find. And then I want you to make a priority level for working at each. So what's your A list, your B list and your C list and start contacting them. And I want you to make it a multi-pronged attack, meaning I want you to research them on their websites. I want you to listen to what kind of bands they record. I want you to follow them on social media, and I want you to physically call them and email them. Not all the time, don't bombard them, but you call and ask if they're hiring or if they need interns. Ask for a studio tour if they're not.

(25:17):

And if you get a studio tour, you can ask about it there. Do whatever you can to be considered for it. If you go on the studio tour and it's a good vibe and they're just not hiring at that point in time or no intern spaces will at least you established something and you can try again in a month, but you need to be doing this with multiple studios. If there's 20 studios and you do this for all of them, I guarantee you you're going to get into one of 'em, right? Also, a couple other questions. Do you know anyone who works at these studios at all? Do you know anyone who's been a client at these studios? You say you've been recording some bands. Do these bands know these people? Just rack your brain. Who do you know that is connected to these people and what can you do to get them to introduce you?

(26:14):

Okay, so ask yourself that. And then finally, what other resources do you have near you? This could be anything. Is there a recording school near you that needs an intern or will let you rent their facilities on off hours for like 10 bucks an hour? What's around you? Is there a school of rock that you could work at that has a recording studio? I don't know what is around you Since you're 19, you're probably not going to get head engineer job at a $10 million place, but that doesn't mean that you can't get something somewhere and get on your road to that. So ask yourself all these questions. How good are you at editing? Do you have problems with authority? Do you have a car? Do you know all the students within a 50 mile radius? Which ones do you want to work at? Do you know anyone there? Who are their clients? Do you know anyone who's been a client there? What resources do you have near you? Ask yourself all that. Get serious about it and you will find yourself a studio job.

(27:26):

This next question is by Mr. Travis Roby. Yo, man, I love the podcast. Thanks Travis. I have some questions as well that I've been curious about. I was wondering how do you go about recording acoustic guitars? What's your process with recording and post-processing? Also, are there any tricks you would recommend? For example, if an acoustic guitar as an input jack, would you record both di and mic it out simultaneously? Thanks in advance, brother. I'll be looking forward to the next episode. All right, so I've tried all kinds of different things on acoustic, different mics, multiple mics, and I kind of like small diaphragm condensers like a KM 84. Sue me for that. I know I'm not alone. I forget which other podcast guests we had that also prefers those. But basically I point it to where the fretboard meets the body kind of coming in at a 45 degree angle, maybe like an inch or two off and go for it.

(28:31):

And the trick really is to make sure that the guitar player's not moving around and making a ton of noises. So that's actually the harder part. What I find is that in that angle, it really then becomes about, well, does this acoustic guitar actually sound good? Is the guy playing well? And one thing about acoustic guitar is that in some ways it's more difficult than electric guitar, so always do make sure that the player can actually play this shit. So anyways, yeah, I like a KM 84, about an inch or two away from where the fretboard meets the body. And a 45 degree ish angle, usually my API sound just fine. I will normally just put it into a stressor, typically around six to one with a fast dish attack, one or two with a medium-ish release, five or six, not a crazy amount of gain reduction, but just enough to where it kind of brings down the pick noise a little bit.

(29:37):

Because one of the things that I find annoying about recording acoustic guitars is pick noise. And sometimes, especially when you record a lot of metal dudes who primarily play electric and then they're switching over to acoustic for one song they're picking on acoustic hasn't been entirely worked out. Let's put it bluntly, like they're playing an instrument that they're not that used to playing. More often than not, it's not always the case, but in my experience, it's typically the case because I don't record very many folk artists or country artists or anything. I normally record hard rock heavy metal artists who play electric all the time, and it's a whole different beast. And so their pick technique might not be perfect. There's a lot of pick noise. I like the way the distress handles that very nicely. And then after that, I just do a little bit of light EQ if needed, get a little rid of a little bit of wwo, low mids, maybe add a little air, and that's it.

(30:41):

Literally, I don't do very much at all to acoustics. I feel like miking them up properly is 75% of the battle, at least in my experience. You have a really nice acoustic with brand new strings. You should be good to go. Now, one thing I will say is that if you are mixing acoustics in a very dense, heavy mix, you are going to need to filter a lot of those lows out. And why do you even need them? Typically in a heavy mix, the acoustic guitar is really just more of a texture than a main instrument anyways, so you may want to have a couple of different settings, meaning one setting for if the acoustic is playing by itself and another setting for if there's a lot of instrumentation around it, because you don't want a full frequency acoustic to try to compete with fast drums and heavy guitars, it just won't work very well.

(31:39):

So just remember what you're mixing and what the context is, and that should be it. If that's not working for you, then you probably have some source issues. Sorry to say. Next question is from Michael Daley. I'm new to nail the mix of the podcasts, but I've been really enjoying so far. Thank all three of you and Al specifically for starting this cool new segment. Well, you're welcome, Michael. Question is, will you ever make a new doth record? I get asked that a lot, and I'm not going to be able to give you a definitive answer because I don't know, but I'm going to go with probably not. And here's why. Have you ever seen the movie Pollock about Jackson Pollock? He's the artist who invented the whole paint splatter movement that I'm not very well versed in modern art, but that's what he did.

(32:39):

And in the movie about him, someone asked, how do you know when you're done with a painting? And his answer was, how do you know when you're done making love? And I thought that that was one of the best answers I've ever heard, and that's kind of how I felt after the final doth record, the self-titled, you got to Remember Avalanche Worms, the guitar album I did with Amal Worler and Sean Reiner and the self-titled Doth record were done the same year. And in lots of ways, they accomplished everything that I had ever wanted to really do with the band and with those guys. And with that whole scene, I didn't feel like I had more to say on the topic. I felt like past that I was going to start repeating myself. And it was time for bigger and better things. I mean, I think that we had a great run, toured the world, put out three albums worldwide, one on great tours.

(33:44):

The albums were great, played tons of great shows, we're in magazines, we're on MTV, did videos, played with our influences. We did the whole thing. It was fucking cool. But I kind of said what I needed to say in that genre, and I tried writing in the genre afterwards, and it just didn't feel right. It didn't feel like I had the same hate, I guess, to channel. I have just as much fire in me and just as much focus and just as much drive as I've ever had, if not more. But it's not towards the same stuff. And I totally understand if some guys are in their mid thirties and they have the same dream that they did as a teenager, more power to them. And if some guys still enjoy being in a band, more power to them. If some guys still love it, that's great to each his own.

(34:43):

But for me personally, I have an innate need to keep moving and keep conquering new mountains, I guess. And right now I'm doing M Academy and now the mix, I'm a part of JST and I'm also doing Metal beard club, and I'm pretty fucking fulfilled. I don't see a time when I will be going back to doth and the idea of jumping back in the van frankly stresses me the fuck out. So unless Slipknot wants doth to reunite, and we're going to go on tour in a bus and it's going to be amazing, and we get some killer budget to record a record, and I feel like I could do something great with it, that's the most important part, then maybe just maybe, but at this point in time, I'm not into it. But you'll be the first to know if I change my mind.

(35:43):

And the last question comes from John Gansler. Hey Al, my question for you is about timeframes. Once we get to a more professional level of mixing and start taking on clients or more clients, what is a good timeframe to reach for mixing a song, an EP or full album? I have heard some people say two hours, two days, or even a week to two weeks just for one song. What would be a good timeframe to strive for from beginning to complete for a song, EP, or album? Once we get to a more professional level, poorly recorded and a very well recorded scenario. So if you feel necessary to answer, and also who decides the deadline for a project? Would it be artist, engineer, producer, or label? Okay, so there's a lot of shades of gray here just so you know, because ultimately it comes down to who's paying who.

(36:38):

So are you getting paid by the artist? Are you getting paid by the label? If you're getting paid by the label, the label decides what the due date actually is. You're getting paid by the artist. They decide when it is. If you're working hourly or on a daily and you have a finite budget that defines the deadline. If you have a project coming up in three weeks and you can only work for three weeks, you define that. So it always depends, but it's a balancing act between what the budget is versus when they need to release. So I know some guys who can mix an entire album in a day or two, right? And do it great. Like my partner Joel Ack, he's amazing. I know some guys who take a month or six weeks to mix an album, and they're amazing too. Like Colin Richardson, right?

(37:43):

Or Randy Sleep. Are you going to say that Colin Richardson's not an incredible mixer or any less professional because he takes a while? No, of course not. But also, how many mixers do you know that get budgets like Colin Richardson? Now, I'm not going to tell you what he gets paid, but trust me, it is a whole hell of a lot more than most other people get paid to do this. So of course he can take the time. If you're getting paid 200 bucks a song or something like that, and you're taking a week to mix the song, you are making so far below minimum wage that it's not even funny. Why are you even doing this? So you need to look at the financial realities and also the artistic realities of what's going on with your mixing. For instance, say you get paid 200 a song to mix a 10 song album, two grand.

(38:38):

Okay? Some guys say they're under 21 live at home, two grand in one month. That's a whole hell of a lot. If you don't have real bills besides your phone or car insurance and don't pay rent, then you can stretch that out. Take the whole month to mix it if you need, but two grand to someone who's got kids and a mortgage and is in their thirties, that better be done in about a week or two weeks tops. But let's just say better be done in a week. So you need to ask yourself, where are you at? And then finally, what does your client expect? Right? Some clients know that it's going to take a month. Some clients expect it done within a week. Who are you working with? And so there's no set answer to this question. There really isn't. Everybody works at their own pace, but you need to understand at what point are you making money?

(39:39):

At what point are you losing money? And at what point are you making your clients happy? And at what point are you just stressing them out? And at what point are you rushing yourself and at what point are you just spending way too long on the same thing and not making any improvements, just making lateral moves? And you have to balance all of these, and I can't tell you what the answer is because it's different for everybody. But I got to say that the faster you work and the better you work, the more money you'll make, and the happier your clients will be. If you can figure out a way to get a song done a day or two songs done a day, and they sound just as good as the dude who takes a week or two, you'll get a lot of repeat work.

(40:23):

So I recommend you look out for our speed mixing course, which will be available in the next 90 days. It's going to be all about how to turn things around quickly with a mix so that you can maximize your profit. Do things, Joel Sek or Billy Decker style. Billy Decker will do like four songs a day, by the way. And you really need to work out a system so that you can work quickly. And this comes from who you delegate your other tasks to, your templates, to how well you know your tools, to how well everything is prepped in advance. It all goes into, and we're going to cover it all in the course, but basically what it comes down to is, I can't give you a finite answer on this or a definite answer because it always depends on the project. But in general, if you can keep the quality up, the faster the better. Alright, so that's been this installment of deer we are adding. Dear Joel and dear Joey's episodes to this. So if you want to submit your own questions, please write me an email at M Academy and either say, Dear Eyal, dear Joey, or Dear Joel in the subject line, and I'll see you next time. Thank you guys so much. Happy New Year. This episode of the

Speaker 1 (41:47):

Unstoppable Recording Machine Podcast is brought to you by Joey Sturgiss tones creating unique audio tools for musicians and producers everywhere. Unleash your creativity with Joey sturgiss tones. Visit joey sturgis tones.com for more info. To ask us questions, make suggestions and interact. Visit urm.academy/podcast and subscribe today. And subscribe today and subscribe.