eMIXING & 5.1 Surround Sound
As an experienced team, His House-Innsbruck Studios has witnessed the making of countless global successes and continues to play host to many of the most talented musicians around the world. Our eMixing service gives you the opportunity to have your recording mixed by a top New York mix engineer at a price that might surprise you. It’s hard to get your music noticed amongst the oceans of sounds around and this may just add the fairy dust it needs. We also specialize mixing in 3.1 and 5.1 surround sound for music, TV and film.
Regardless of where you may reside (Taiwan, Rome, Berlin, Paris, London, Toronto, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Francisco), Source-Live enables instant world-wide access over the internet to your listening environment (studio control room, laptop and even your iPhone). We can email you the “Live link” or “iPhone app,” you can open your “Source-Live Gateway” web page or by streaming directly in QuickTime and you can start listening immediately. You will be able to hear the mix in “real-time” through your own familiar speaker environment.
How does this work?
You send us multitrack WAV audio files of the song or songs either by uploading them to our ftp site or by mail on a data DVD, and we wire you back the stereo master mixes completed to the level of your choice from the selection below. At the highest level it will involve broadcasting the mix live to your home or studio while in conversation with the engineer. We also suggest you send a Spotify playlist of reference material as a stylistic guide for the mix engineer – musical influences and songs you’d like your mixes to sit with.
What do I receive?
The mixes you receive for listening reference are ‘jiffy mastered’ 24-bit WAV files which means that they have gone through a basic maximising process so that they can be realistically compared to other records at similar volumes. Once the mix is approved an unprocessed 24-bit WAV file will be created for use in the final mastering process. As well as the final mix, you will also get instrumental and a capella versions for any other eventualities that might occur.
We’ll keep the mix sessions backed up for a year so that you can always come back to us for changes in the future if needs be.
Mix Levels
Our mixes are performed in stages and the level to which you take it is down to you and your budget. Stepping the cost makes certain you are liking the results as it evolves and also ensures you don’t waste money on something that might be flawed, for example, by the original recording. You can also combine the mix with our mastering services for best value.
Monitor Mix
This is a static balance with basic processing to give a rough idea of the direction the mix is going. It will have all the tone and energy of a mix but lack the dynamics and transitions that mark a finished record. It will come with an Engineer’s Report giving you their opinion on quality and potential. If you like this you can opt to upgrade to the next stage…
Master Mix
This is a dynamic mix that, to the engineer’s ears, is how the final record should be heard. Vocals will be refined and ridden to hold the listener’s attention. Instrumentation balances are automated to realise the dynamic intention and musical changes shaped to enhance the composition. With mixing such a subjective process there will undoubtedly be bits you’d like to change in which case you can opt for the next step…
Tweaked Master
If you like the Master Mix but want some changes made (such as bass up in chorus, hi-hat down in verse, etc) you can choose this next step and submit your tweak list to the engineer. At this stage the engineer will broadcast the mix directly to your Quicktime audio and via a concurrent Skype conversation you can work through the changes you want while hearing it live. This session lasts up to two-hours and at the end of it, the engineer will send you back the finished Tweaked Master. This process can be repeated until you are happy with the result (or run out of money!). Once you’re happy with the mix you can also opt for His House-Innsbruck Studios Mastering service at a discounted rate, see below.
We do urge you to start with the Monitor Mix option, because this will enable us to check that the track is in a fit state to mix. The Monitor Mix is returned with an Engineer’s Report that will tell you whether or not the recorded parts will scrub up OK in the mix and will come with some suggestions you might like to consider addressing before continuing with the process. These might include ideas relating to performance, structure, arrangement and any other ideas the mix engineer thinks might improve the final result.