Creative uses of MixDream STORIES M I L ES WA LKER — MIXING ENGINEER RIHANNA • SELENA GOMEZ • SEAN PAUL • JENNIFER LOPEZ www.mixedbymiles.com How did you first find out about SPL products? I was a long time user of the SPL transient designer. I long considered it the “cheat” button to great aggressive drum mixing. After that, when I was trying to develop my mix style and was looking at using summing mixers, I tried many products from many companies, but the MixDream 2384 was the hands down winner for what I was looking for. It was a very exhaustive search...but the combination of the sonics, connectivity, detail and punch, and even price point (for the many included options) made it hand over fist the best choice for the way I wanted to mix. You’ve recently added a third SPL Mix Dream to your studio. Can you tell us a little about how you are using them and what you enjoy about the product? Of course...Like I had said, Once finding the MixDream, I fell in love right away. After using it for about a year, the only thing I discovered I needed to make my mixes more complete was ANOTHER ONE! with that, I was able to separate all my music tracks though one, and then all my vocals for another. This gave me not only great sonics, but great separation to mix and patch and steam all the individual sounds, as well as create different stereo bus processing (I.E. Vocal Bus vs. Music Bus). Fast forward a few more years, and I’ve reached another milestone in my process where I wanted to add a THIRD unit to be able to handle drums differently. So now it’s Music, Drums, and Vocals. All with their own unit. This lets me really keep getting amazing separation and sound that I want, and great connectivity for individual, as well as, bus/group processing. Seems a bit over the top, but I love it.. Helps set my sounds up apart, so I’m all for it. I don’t have anything against “in the box” mixers, some of my favorite mix engineers work that way... But for me, and the sound I was looking to achieve, it was the best fit for sure. You recently moved your studio in with Silent Sound. What’s the relationship there and can you elaborate? What do you enjoy about being there? I had a great set up at my previous studio, but getting over to Silent Sound had been a long time career goal for me. Working there as a client in years past, I got a good relationship going with the studio owner, so we had always kicked around the idea. I look up to him in a lot of different respects, so just being around him and learning that way is also a huge plus for me. When it finally came together, it was even better than I hoped for. Everything from the design to the build out, to the sound of the room, it was all a cut above even my highest expectations. Having spent time there now, I’m fully adjusted to the sound of the room and can just concentrate on always giving my clients the best mixes I can do. That steady mindset has allowed me to keep raising my own bar on quality and creativity. Very happy and honored to have the chance to work there daily. Would you care to elaborate or discuss some recently completed projects? SPL and its sound is LITERALLY on every mix I do, so every mix or project I work on is directly influenced from that sound. I mix lots of styles of music, but recently I’ve done a good bit of pop and dance. That punchy and clear sound of the music and great stereo image on vocals I’m able to get from the MixDreams. Also, when mixing urban records, I’m always reaching for that transient designer to get the drums to really cut through as well.. So it’s all over the shop... I even use the vitalizer a lot of acoustic and bass guitars to give it some shine and help the melodies cut through a dense track. I’m all over the place with their gear and software. Most recently, you could hear that stuff on TI’s new album, Betty Who’s new album, m4sonic’s debut EP On Ultra records.. That’s on every song there. Also, Young Thug and Rich Gang’s “Lifestyle” record, some on the new Boyz II Men album, even the new singles from my comedy brothers, Ylvis on “mr toot”. Ha... It was on “What Does The Fox Say” as well! SPL might be comedy gold, but there’s nothing funny about the way it sounds ;-). Haha. I think I’ve gotta stop after that one... (Mic drop)... Goodnight! http://spl.info/en/products/summing-amps-mixers/mixdream/short-description.html