#114: How to Maximise Productivity in Music Mixing: A Conversation with Brent Hendrich

Ever wondered how often should you take breaks when mixing music? How can I be more productive in music production?  Dive into EP 114 of the Inside The Mix podcast where we delve deep into the world of maximising music mixing productivity and organisation, and get insights from a seasoned mix engineer.

Are you ready to master the art of music mixing? Our guest, Brent Hendrich, a seasoned mix engineer with two decades of experience in the heart of the music world, Nashville, is here to share a wealth of insights. With stories of personal triumphs and challenges from his journey to freelance mixing, Brent illustrates the importance of having the courage to follow your passion, and the significance of a solid support system.

We dive into the mechanics of the mixing process, discussing file management, and the importance of a simple yet reliable backup system. Brent and I exchange our experiences, tools, and tips, exploring the balance between work and rest for maximum productivity. We emphasise creating a mix template, customizing key commands, and labelling tracks for effective workflow. Here's an episode where you'll learn how the right organisation can make a world of difference in your mixing journey.

We then turn our gaze towards the future, exploring how AI can potentially revolutionise productivity and organisation in music. We discuss common misconceptions, like the belief that great records require a lot of gear, and delve into how AI could impact platforms like Riverside. Finally, tune in to our candid chat on how Brent gets a mix done within a day. Join us in this engaging conversation with Brent Hendrich and get a real glimpse into the world of professional mixing.

Click here, to follow Brent Hendrich: https://brenthendrich.com/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, Mark Matthews.

Speaker 2: 0:06

Hello and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician, producer and mix and mastering engineer. You've come to the right place if you want to know more about your favorite synth music artists, music engineering and production, songwriting and the music industry. I've been writing, producing, mixing and mastering music for over 15 years and I want to share what I've learned with you. Hello, folks, and welcome back to the Inside the Mix podcast. If you are a new listener, please do hit that follow button and if you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you hit subscribe and that notification bell. And to all returning listeners, a big welcome back.

Speaker 2: 0:43

So this is another Inside the Mix podcast interview episode and I'm joined by mix engineer Brent Hendrick from Nashville, who has over 20 years of experience in the Nashville music industry. It's a very, very interesting episode, specifically for those who want to get more involved with the organization and routine of being a mix engineer a professional mix engineer. So in this episode we look at the story behind Brent's journey as a mix engineer, what struggles he may have come across along the way and also successes as well over the last 20 years. Then we look at setting the stage, what has been crucial to the organization and ensuring success and smooth flow of mixing. Then we look at tools of the trade so in the ever-evolving world of music production, there are countless tools, folks and software designed to aid organization and we look at tools or practices that can streamline and keep a session tidy. We look at the balancing act as well, so that's not necessarily working non-stop, and how we can strike a balance between taking breaks to refresh our ears. We look at collaboration and communication and discuss another layer of organization and management, and then we have a quick look ahead at what we predict is going to be the next big thing in organization and mixing in general in the music industry, and we chat about AI and then we finish by debunking some myths and misconceptions around organization and productivity in the music industry.

Speaker 2: 2:06

So, folks, you're going to love this episode. There's loads to take away that you can then impart into your own workflows and then crack on as a mix engineer and producer. So let's dive into this episode. Hello folks, and in this episode I'm very excited to welcome our guest today, brent Hendritch. Brent is an award-winning mix engineer with over 20 years of experience in the Nashville music industry, with a passion for creating captivating and impactful mixes and a talent for aligning each mix with the artistic vision of collaborators, brent has established himself as a go-to professional across all genres, most notably pop. Brent, thanks for joining me today and how are you?

Speaker 1: 2:46

I am very well. I'm still on Los Angeles time. I just got back yesterday, so I'm still adapting, but I'm feeling pretty good, considering it's seven in the morning in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2: 2:59

So what time is it where you are at the moment? Because you're in Nashville right now it's 9am. I always say to people I appreciate when I talk to individuals across the Atlantic and specifically down in Australia and New Zealand as well, and I've got them talking to someone later in Singapore and it's going to be 3am for them. So yeah, I know I do appreciate. Everyone works to my schedule rather than a morning person, I'm most productive in the morning.

Speaker 2: 3:33

That's kind of a nice segue, actually, because this episode is going to be focusing on productivity, organization etc. So I think it'd be quite cool just to kick off with then this question. This is kind of like the behind-the-glass question. So your bio-sites as I mentioned that you're a mix engineer with over 20 years of experience as a working professional in Nashville in the Nashville music industry what is your memory of your journey? Can you share maybe a memory of your journey with our audience and maybe a struggle or some struggles that you've encountered along the way?

Speaker 1: 4:01

Sure, yeah, it has been a long journey and parts of it I've, I think, blocked out and forgotten about. But I can kind of do like a real quick origin story, just for anyone who hasn't heard that before. I was passionate about making records in high school, you know, when I was 15 or 16, that's kind of when the bug really bit me. I was in a band, we went into a studio it was early days of Pro Tools and I just was like this is super cool, you can record these ideas on a computer and then burn them on a CD and in plan the next day for your friends at school. And I was just enamored by that. And so shortly thereafter I saved up and bought, you know, a computer which at the time wasn't that much it was very expensive, but you weren't getting much processing power back then and just a simple interface in this program called Cakewalk Pro Audio 9, and set up a little studio in my bedroom in the late 90s so it was kind of the early days of home studios and it would record all the bands in high school. And just the more I did it, the more I fell in love with it, the more hungry I became and the more I wanted to learn about making records. And so, you know, I was just.

Speaker 1: 5:06

I grew up in East Tennessee, which is just like five hours from Nashville, and there was an audio school here in Nashville called SAE that had just opened just a nine month audio school. So it just made sense for me to kind of ride out of high school 18, move here to Nashville and start going to school there. And it was nice because it was just nine months. It was just learning like signal flow and the basics, the things that kind of you need to know, and nothing more. And then after that graduated there, when I was 19, started doing internships here in Nashville with a few different people. One was with a composer doing television or music for television, for network television, and then the other was producing primarily like rock records in the Christian and gospel music space, and so, yeah, I did that for a few years and then I think it was around 23 is when I decided to go, you know, become a freelance producer, engineer, mixer, and been doing that for the past, you know, 20 years professionally I guess, here in Nashville, and just a few years ago kind of transitioned even to become more of a specialist which is mixing only, I kind of started kind of giving up all the production work and deciding that mixing is what I enjoy the most, what I'm best at. That's all I want to be doing now. And so I've been kind of transitioning into hey, I'm a I'm a mixer in the pop space and that's what I do now. So that's that's kind of the quickest version I can give you of the past 20 some years. And so, yeah, there were, you know, there were ups and downs.

Speaker 1: 6:35

I'm trying to think of some memories, you know, I mean some of the struggles along the way. I think this is pretty common for a lot of people who just trying to figure out where the works gonna come from. You know it's time to pay, pay rent, how am I gonna do that? You know works kind of slow right now, and so you've just got to start kind of getting that hustle mentality and knocking, knocking on doors, trying to figure out where works gonna come from. And so it was a lot of you know, chasing after you know bands and artists trying to build relationships and get work there, or you know connecting with you know writers or publishers or just basically anyone that was, you know, recording music. That you know, do you need an editor? Do you need? You know, I was just wearing like a lot of hats and kind of a jack of all trades back then and saying yes to anything that would that would pay, just so, you know, can make ends meet. So I know that that was a big struggle for me, just being, you know, in my early 20s kind of here on my own in Nashville and and I think that's something a lot of people deal with and it's it's never easy, but it is one of those things I tell people. You know, you just got to stick with it and it's something that's gonna get easier over time and that work will start to compound and the few clients that you, you know, hustle to get, you know you take really great care of them and then hopefully they'll stick around and when they need something else then they'll come back to you again and then that just starts to kind of grow over time and that makes it a little bit easier. So, you know, that's one of the challenges.

Speaker 1: 8:00

I think another one that comes to mind is just knowing that a mix or something that you attract that you've just recorded like isn't right, but not knowing why it's not right. You know, that was something that I remember sitting. This would have been, just, you know, maybe when I was about 20 years old, sitting in the car listening to, like mixed version I think it was like 27 of this song that I was working on, you know, and this was like before even sending it to the artist or anything you know, just being obsessed with it being perfect. And you know, I think when you're early on in your career it's sometimes hard to know. You know, like your gut tells you it's not right, but you're not for sure what it is. You know, and so that was really frustrating for me is just knowing that this, that it wasn't as good as it could be, but not knowing how to get there.

Speaker 1: 8:45

You know, and it was, it was a lot of just like try and things, hoping that like one of those things would, would make it work, and so that's something that just over time as well, starts to, I think, get a little bit better and with experience and also just improving monitoring and room acoustics and in all of those things you know, it gets a little bit easier as well.

Speaker 1: 9:06

So I guess what I'm saying is you just got to. If you really want this, you got to play the long game and you got to. You know it's. It's that that initial journey, the beginning of that journey, is never really going to be easy, unless for some reason, you're in a band and you wrote some song and it blew up and all of a sudden you're just you know, the hot new thing. But that's usually not the case for most people, and so I think the people that really like stick around with are the ones that have what I say like you can't have a plan B in this industry. You kind of you just have to want it so bad that you're just going to find a way to make it work.

Speaker 2: 10:51

Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there, really really cool stuff. So you mentioned that, like you started with the high school and I've started to a number of professional mix engineers, audio engineers and producers and I've also listened to other podcasts as well and that sort of story of you were really interested in it. And then you started recording your friends, bands, et cetera. And I love that you mentioned cakewalk as well, because I remember using cakewalk years ago and I had this old Hewlett Packard laptop and I was getting this sort of quarter inch oh it was such a bodge job plug in my guitar. I didn't even have an audio interface.

Speaker 2: 11:21

I was recording my guitar straight into my laptop. So I remember doing that, yeah, and then moving to Nashville and you did the the academia route as well and it's interesting, you meant about internships and the freelancing side of things then. So you then you decided to go freelancing. When did you know that you wanted to go? What was the catalyst for you going all in as a freelance sort of mix engineer?

Speaker 1: 11:42

Well, you know, the second internship that I was doing actually kind of turned into more of an assistant position. There was some pay there. He decided that he was going to move to California play in a band with some members of I think it was that band, pod, if anyone remembers POD, oh, yes, a couple of those members like went off and did their own band.

Speaker 1: 12:01

So he was like, joined that band as as like the guitar player, and so it's like, okay, well, I can either, you know, start to work underneath a third person now or it's time to make that move. And after a few years of doing the intern and the assisting thing, I just felt like I knew enough to be dangerous, and it was just that time. You know, I've always been a bit of like I don't know a control freaking, knowing what I want, and I think it just made sense. It's like I want to work on, like, my own projects, I want to make those like final calls as to you know, what kind of instrumentation we're going to put on this song or how it's going to be mixed. And so I was just ready to kind of like be the boss, you know, and it was a little bit scary, obviously, making that move, knowing that, okay, I got to get health insurance and, like I said, pay, pay for my apartment and and have food and all those kinds of things. But it just, you know, at some point you just kind of have to make that move and it's, you know, it can be painful for a few months, and then it starts to get a little bit better. I mean, it was even painful for me a couple years ago to say that I'm no longer a producer, because I've been producing for so long and enjoyed that as well. But you know, when you know where you want to go, you just you kind of need to just make that move and and sometimes it's nice to have some people in your court that can kind of cheer you on.

Speaker 1: 13:19

I know that when I made the transition to the mixing full time, that was very helpful, was just having people's. You know, and I think your clients just kind of let you know too. It's like when they keep hiring you to mix their records. Okay, maybe that's what I am, you know, and so, yeah, it's, it's. It's never easy to make that first step, but but I think you really, you really got to. Time is time is short, you know, and you got to. If you want to, if you want to get there, you just got to start sooner than later.

Speaker 2: 13:43

Yeah, totally, totally agree with that, and you kind of want to when you know. You know you got to go all in. You know, and you never know. I think I had this conversation, probably about this time last year, with an artist and it was. It was surrounding the fact that, like you, you don't want to. Just you never know when that break could be. It could just be around the corner. And I know what you said earlier about how, like you, got to play the long game because it's not going to all happen straight away and you never know. It's a lot of people do sort of give up for want to bet a better way of putting it, just when they're at that point whereby they could turn that corner and potentially just it could all, as you mentioned there about compounding and you're treating your clients well and they're coming back, et cetera. Really interesting stuff. And I love that you mentioned POD as well, that song Alive by POD. Yeah, man, I binged that song back in the mid-nurse.

Speaker 1: 14:30

Chris Ford Allergy really, yeah, I remember loving that next when it first came out.

Speaker 2: 14:34

Yeah, absolutely Banger of a song. Yeah, I remember that. I'm probably going to go listen to it now. After this episode, I'm going to go on a nostalgia trip. Yeah, excellent man. So yeah, having worked on a range of projects then throughout your career, how crucial has organization been in ensuring the success and smooth flow of your mixes? Can you recall a particular project, maybe, where your organization skills proved to be I hate to use the term, but a game changer?

Speaker 1: 15:00

Yeah, I mean that question kind of makes me start thinking about like on the mix side of things. At least. I mean, if you're talking like tracking sessions and things, I think having like multiples of things nearby and all those kinds of things are helpful. But on the mixing side of things, the backup process is the thing that comes to mind. For me that's really crucial, and can I mean like if for some reason, you're working on a song and you're mixing it and you have hard drive failure? I have a lot less of that than I did 10 or 15 years ago. Drives seem to be a lot better. But if you don't have that mix that you've spent whatever 10 hours working on backed up, then it's going to be pretty embarrassing for you to let the client know that you've got to start all over again, especially if you're on a time crunch and those kind of things. So I think in the mixing world, backing up is one of those things that it's a simple thing to do but that can really save the day. Just having and also just having multiple versions. I do a lot of save as. So for some reason I'm on mix eight and they say actually I like mix two, but I want the vocal a little bit louder, knowing that I have a save. As from mix two I can just open up that, bring the vocal up, re export and it's done, as opposed to like if I just kept saving the same file over and over, I couldn't instantly recall the project file at mix two. So I think just file management is a big thing. For me, it's just always knowing where everything's at, labeling things properly, having real time backups going on at the end of every day. Those probably are the biggest things that I do in my world that are very easy, that anyone can do, and I can maybe talk about just my backup process really quick because it's very simple, very cheap and it helps me sleep at night the two things that I love.

Speaker 1: 16:55

There's an app called Chronosync Express I think it's like 30 or $40 in the app store that just allows me to put in, plug in a hard drive and just it looks for anything that's working, new files that have been created on my audio drive and it just puts, pulls them over and puts them on that drive. So that's kind of like my onsite backup and I try to do that. Maybe it's not every day, maybe it's a few times a week. It doesn't take but a second. You just have to actually make sure to do that. And then I'm the big fan of back plays, which is a great application that runs in the background and at 10 pm Every night it just looks for any new files on all of my drives on my audio computer and it uploads that to the cloud.

Speaker 1: 17:34

So that's what I would call my off-site backup, and that's the one that really helps me sleep at night, knowing that at the end of Every day All my files or somewhere else. So if my house were to burn down or a tornado hit or something like that, then I could still. You know, they're gonna mail me a drive the very next day and in a few days I'll have my audio drive back and can be working again if I need to. So I think between those two applications For onsite and off-site, that makes a huge difference. That change out drives every year, so just to keep them fresh as well. But, um, yeah, I think, I think, just yeah. Having a good backup plan is gonna. You know, that ensures that your client never knows. You know, if you do have an issue, you don't even have to say anything because you got it ready to go and can jump right before you left off again. So that's the first thing comes to mind for me.

Speaker 2: 18:26

Yeah, and I think it's incredibly important because I think I've had my fingers burnt with regards to backups, and it wasn't necessarily From the client's perspective, it was. It was my own, really, because this was using Reaper and it doesn't automatically Create backups for you. This is not actually backing up to the cloud, etc. But just in the actual DAW itself and, yeah, and creating backups of what you're doing and then it suddenly dies. So I think creating backups are you say, off-site in the cloud is incredibly important, as is actually in the DAW itself. So this is an interesting question actually, and this is a bit of a tangent, but so you've, you've got the backups. How long are you storing a client's project for it? Do you have like a set length?

Speaker 1: 19:02

I forever once it's complete, forever. I store, I store, store all their mixed versions, all their masters and all their stems on the cloud and I Can go back from 15 years ago. If someone randomly hits me up like hey, I'm still doing music, they want like an instrumental to use on some TV show, it's like I can look like a hero because just in a matter of minutes I'm sending them a download link for that, and so I really recommend like printing all those versions, all those stems, anything you can possibly think of. For me it's like, once they've signed off on the mix, I print the main mix, the TV, the instrumental and the acapella, those four, and then I do stems now as well, because I have a very streamlined way to do that, because they're always Gonna come back at some point saying, oh, for our live show we need the stems, you know. So it's just nice to do it do everything when you have that drive connected. Those plugins are currently working on that OS. It's just best to always print as many versions as you possibly can as early on, put those on a cloud somewhere and then just keep them there forever, because you never know it's. It's so much easier.

Speaker 1: 20:06

I used to make the mistake of someone hitting me up and saying, hey, that thing we did four years ago, can you, can I get the stems for that? Well, I wasn't printing stems back then, you know. So I've got to. You know, get the drive, maybe get some type of adapter to even get the drive to work on this. You know New computer and then it's like a version of you know Q-Base from Fort Versions ago and you know, and it's just there's so many nightmares and takes so much time. It's just so much easier to just do it right when you finish the song and once they've signed off on the final mix. So, just over the years, learned the hard way and and that's why I love these podcasts I can share all my mistakes and and encourage people to do things the right way so they don't have to feel the pain that I've felt. And so, yeah, that's. I don't know if that answers your question. I've kind of gone off on a tangent myself, probably, but uh yeah, yeah, it does and it makes total sense.

Speaker 2: 20:56

And I think I've done that with my own personal sort of projects, because I there's one song that I'm releasing, because I've released my music as well, as well as mix other people stuff, and I'm releasing it.

Speaker 2: 21:06

But I started about two years ago and I should have finished it then, but I let it drag on and on and I did exactly what you've had there which, which you've mentioned, which is slightly different sort of scenario, but it was. I opened logic with the DW DAW I was using at the time and some of the plugins I no longer have because I no longer use them, so I should have finished it at the time. So, yeah, I know exactly what you mean and it's just easier, isn't it, if you just do it all at once and just get it done. Yes, yeah, and it and what you know, what you mentioned there about from the client's perspective is important, I think, as well, in that you were able to just do it quickly. Yeah, it's sort of like it can be done so quick rather than, like you mentioned, you're having to dig around in old files, etc, which, yeah, is only gonna help that sort of referral process and your name, etc.

Speaker 2: 21:49

Which I think it's incredibly important for the audience listening if they want to get into Mix another customer service is a big part of my world.

Speaker 1: 21:56

I want things to be, you know, quick, I want to be responsive. It just, you know, it's just the pro thing to do. I mean you want to stand out. You want Someone who's worked with five other mixers in the past and then work with you and be like, wow, this is an experience unlike all the others. This is now my mixer, because it was.

Speaker 1: 22:15

There was zero friction along the way. Everything was Just always, you know, just ready to go. I mean, you know, for example, I was in LA all last week and someone was like, hey, I need the stems for this and and I was thinking, oh man, I'm got, I don't haven't gotten to that yet. But then I was like, no, I actually I did. They're already online. And I was able to send that link out while I was traveling. You know, I didn't even have to remote into my computer to try and do it while I was out of town. And and so, yeah, as soon as you can print those versions, really just do it, upload them and Upload them to service to that you're gonna keep forever.

Speaker 1: 22:46

I use this application or this cloud storage company called media fire, which, if they were to like Jump on something. Today I probably wouldn't use that, but I got on it like forever ago, at least 15 years ago and it's just where everything's at and I've just stuck with it because it's all there and it would be a pain to you know whatever takes 700 gigs worth of Clients content and move it somewhere else, but it actually works out. It's a pretty good Application because you can just do it like a download link and allows them to stream wave files in the browser and all that. So it's it's not so bad. It's a good price. I like it better than Dropbox, but, um, yeah, just you know, when you start storing stuff somewhere, just think of it as it like your eternal Cloud storage drive that you're just gonna keep everything on, because I can't imagine having to switch to some other service. So once you do decide on a service, make sure you get it right too. I keep it information.

Speaker 2: 23:38

I think it's kind of like doing your due diligence, isn't it? In terms of your research, yeah, making sure you're picking one because you know you're gonna be using it for a while and, as you mentioned, it is Changing to something else is tricky. I'm going through this process now. It's once again. It's slightly tenuous, but I use MailChimp for the podcast and I email in the podcast mailing list and I want to move to a another Platform now, but I'm so entrenched in MailChimp and I've got these automation setup it's gonna be so hard for me to move.

Speaker 2: 24:07

So the audience listening definitely do your due diligence and I think that's fantastic, fantastic advice. So you mentioned a few sort of sentences ago about streamlining the process. So and you've mentioned some tools so far so you mentioned just then about media fire, you've mentioned the Kronos and also backblaze as well. In the ever-changing world this is where I was going of music production. There are countless tools you've mentioned, if you're ready, and software designed to aid our organization. So what tools or practices do you personally swear by to keep your sessions tidy and streamlined?

Speaker 1: 24:38

Yeah, I mean the good news is it's not a lot of like third-party applications that you have to buy, it's a lot of it's just stuff that's built into your DAW or built into your operating system. I think we can start with file structure. I mean, for me I have just a standalone audio drive and that's all that that drive is used for, and when you open that drive it's all. The folders are the, the bands or the artists, that basically the client's name, and then in that folder you have a different folder for each song. And then I have a folder that's called mixes and a folder that's called masters and then in those two folders, or the songs folders, in those folders, you know, in the mixes, in the master's, are stored in those folders. And it's just always for years of just done at that same way. So I always know exactly what to expect. So I think just getting like some type of creating some type of formula, some type of process and just sticking with it, I think is just kind of speeds. You know the day to day kind of stuff up. So I just think starting there and just keeping things properly Labeled and course. We already talked about backup and doing lots of save as is once you're in your DAW, whatever that is. And so then, yeah, with there you have all the mixed version, you have all the masters, you have all the Project files, all the different save as versions of that and it's just all nice and tidy and clean right there and then that's kind of the stuff that can be uploaded to the cloud. You know all of that goes to back plays. Just some of that goes to media fire, which is the mixes in the master's. So that's kind of like on the OS side of things on, you know, in the DAW Mix template. I know people talk about mixed templates all the time, but it is one of the biggest things in my world. That makes makes me more efficient, because I'm in version 20, something of my mixed template and it's just, it's been refined and refined over many years and I just know where everything's at and know when the rough mix is going to be. I know where the reference mix is going to be. I know where everything's getting routed. I know that it's going to be vocals and BGVs, then keys, then acoustic and elect. I just, I just know the colors and the folders and it's all. Just, every song is essentially the same. So it's not like I'm looking like where's that acoustic guitar. I know it's going to be like under the keys and above the electrics always, and like this color of a folder, you know. So I think just just doing that is something that anyone can do. It doesn't cost any money and it can take. It can save you hours a week and that's that's a lot of time for me, and it's also then you know, if you eventually get to place where you have an assistant or someone, come along, you can kind of have this formula that they can follow as well, and just. I think structure is a good thing, and so that's that's huge for me having my, my mixed template and then kind of going along with that.

Speaker 1: 27:27

I mentioned previously that I'm a Cubase user. I've been in Cubase, started new window and then switched to Cubase and then in the Steinberg world for my entire career, basically, and just learning key commands is huge. Customizing your own key commands is a big thing in my world. I've had a lot of the same key commands for for a long, long time, and then creating macros with some of those key commands is huge for me, especially when it comes to exporting stem mixes. And then taking all those key commands and then putting them on to my 32 button stream deck is really nice to like the stuff that I don't use quite as much so I'm not having to remember, like what is that crazy key command to make it do that one thing. I can just press the button and it does it. So that's been A biggie for me as well.

Speaker 1: 28:16

I'm trying to think, yeah, just making sure that your tracks are labeled properly is a big thing. You know, if things are a little weird when I get them from the client, I want to take the time to actually give it a better name than just sometimes you know, elect, chorus, electric guitar. I may actually like go, oh, that's an Ebo or something in a right Ebo guitar. So I actually know, like when I'm like where's that Ebo guitar? It's not I'm not looking this like not the chorus guitar, it's like the Ebo guitar or something. So Just getting more specific with track names can be helpful as well. There's a few things that come to mind.

Speaker 2: 28:47

Some great stuff. I think false folder structures massive and I'm glad you mentioned that because I'm very much like that as well. I regularly review my folder structure as well. I don't go in and change everything, but it's I totally with you there in terms of just making organization just makes your life so much easier. And what you mentioned about the mixed template as well, because at the beginning of the year I did a podcast episode on the process of creating a basic mixed template and logic and why it's so important because, as you mentioned, that can save, save you so much time. And also with I find with songwriting as well, and I did another podcast episode on this and having a template for if you're an artist who's writing music, so you can just dive straight in, you've got your instruments there and you can start writing and then it just does save so much time. And the stream deck I need to look at. I've seen so many people mentioned stream deck. I need to look at that myself.

Speaker 1: 29:35

It's been procrastinating yeah, you can get a used one at a pretty good price. I bought it. I used one for, I think, 150 US dollars and it's, it's another. I'm always just looking for things to just make the this, just streamline things a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 29:49

You know it, for me it's all about efficiency and you know, when the work piles up and you gotta move through stuff, you just, you know, having consistency.

Speaker 1: 29:57

It's like it's almost like coming up with a plan and just sticking with it and you just start to kind of it becomes like you're, you know, flying an airplane or something, because everything's always here and these buttons are always here, and it's almost like you've you turn your like studio into something more than just some DAW that works. It becomes all like encompassing it, or I don't know if that makes any sense, but just knowing you know everything, the button, everything's in its own right little place. That's just me. I'm like kind of OCD in a way, I guess, which comes in handy when it comes time to mix. But Just, yeah, just finding, finding a process that works for you and then just sticking with it, and then, yeah, I think, I think it'll just you'll never be going. How do I make that happen, or where's where's that file that you always know where everything's going to be and just makes for a smooth process.

Speaker 2: 31:12

Yeah, totally agree with that and with you 100% that anything I'm always like that. I'm always refining my workflow because, as you mentioned there, you want to make it streamlined as possible. Just make it easy. Which kind of moves on next it moves on nicely to the to the next question. So we mentioned about being productive, about streamlining our workflow, but that doesn't necessarily mean sort of working nonstop. So this is particularly I think this is a really good question for the audience as well, and you mentioned earlier about iteration 27th of a mix, and I have I've had many conversations with people about how many mixes they go through in the iterations. How do you strike a balance between taking breaks to refresh your ears and ensuring that you remain productive and meet a deadline?

Speaker 1: 31:53

Yeah, I've gotten a lot better with this as I've gotten older and wiser. I think breaks are essential for me. I take a lot of breaks and I think that if you Take some breaks, you can actually get through a mix quicker than if you don't. The reason that I like breaks isn't even as much about resting my ears as it is about like resetting my perspective. That's that's why I take breaks, because you can just step away from a mix for just 20 or 30 minutes and come back to it and so many things will be revealed to you that Were not when you were, you know way in the weeds of a two hour you know kind of session that you were doing, you know earlier on that mix. So I mean you can, you can be way in the weeds. You can step away 20 minutes, go and whatever go for a run or go for a walk or you know whatever that you know whatever. Listen to a podcast for a second. I know a very good one that you can listen to this one right here now, and, yes, and that's going to be, that's going to be your reset. And then you're going to come back and you're like, oh my gosh, the bass was 3 dB too loud or that vocal is way too wet on the verses, or you know those kind of big picture things that move the needle a lot. Those are the things that are going to stick out. And so you know, I'm a big fan of, you know, work an hour, work two hours, take a break, work a few hours, take a break, work few hours, take a break. And working from home studio does help with that. I can Start first thing in the morning when everything super fresh, and then Maybe going to run and then, while I'm cool and down for my run, like work for a little while longer, and then you know, take a shower and get ready for the day and then work on and come back. And so you're almost looking for like Opportunities to create these breaks and you're still, whatever gonna be mixing this song for eight or 10 hours or whatever it takes to get that really great mix one. But it's just kind of you're kind of breaking it up a little. Maybe it's even over two days. If you have that luxury and I just think that every time you have that new, fresh reset, fresh perspective, that it's going to Kind of get you where you need to go quicker. You know, because when you're in the weeds you're you're not thinking, you're not noticing some of the big things, and it's just you're like Let me turn that up to 10th of a DB hero, let me like fine tune this automation right here, and it's like well, that that's all important. But, like I said, taking those breaks allows you to like realize that something is way off tonally or you know something's way too loud or way too quiet, and so that's why I encourage everyone just to take breaks. It's also, like you said, good for the ears, to just to kind of rest those as well.

Speaker 1: 34:32

And I, you know, when I was in my 20s I worked.

Speaker 1: 34:36

My hours were a lot different.

Speaker 1: 34:37

I worked way more hours and just you know night, morning and you know weekends, all that.

Speaker 1: 34:44

But now that I have a wife and a couple kids and all that, it does a good job of also like kind of creating some like hard stops, you know, at the end of each day.

Speaker 1: 34:52

So I'm pretty much now just working more of like the 830 in the morning till 5 pm, and then, if I need to, occasionally in the evening or on the weekend if things really start to pile up. But you know, most of my projects, the there's not like these hard deadlines and I usually stay on top of things or where nothing gets to To backed up, and so it kind of works. I really like having that balance. I mean, hanging out with my family is another like just great way to kind of recharge me and and those kind of things like do something for me as well, that kind of when I come back. I think having just that limited time and knowing this is like your day and this is all you've got, you almost make make more of it than if you just have this wide open schedule. I think it's a lot easier to go off and do things and get distracted and and I kind of enjoy having Having a set structure now it works, works well for me.

Speaker 2: 35:47

I agree with that. It's it's echo something that I heard I don't know if I heard this on a podcast recently, I may have what seen it on something on TV, but it was all to do about organization. So you mentioned there about, like, if you have a Block of times you mentioned that 830 to 5, or even if you have an hour, if you block out, if you, if you know you have an hour to do something, you're probably going to be more productive rather than if it's just open-ended. So if you know you have to, you've got five hours to finish a mix and that's it, and you've got five hours to work with, whereas if you don't have that sort of Deadline, as it were, for one of a better way of putting it, you can just go on and on.

Speaker 2: 36:22

So I Like the idea of having those hard stops, as you say. That's probably a better way of putting it, rather than a deadline like a hard stop and Knowing when to take a break, as I think it's quite easy to get into the or fall into the trap of just Working constantly and mixing into the evening, and I mean some people are productive into the early hours. I personally wouldn't do it, but some, some people are. So I think having those hard stops is really important. So it kind of, in a way, it moves on a bit onto the next question, which is kind of like looking ahead. As the industry changes and the demands of artists and mix engineers grow, how do you envision the future of organization and productivity in music production? Are there any sort of tools or trends that you've seen that you are excited about, or something that you're thinking about trying in the industry.

Speaker 1: 37:09

Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing comes to mind for me is probably like the use of AI as kind of a personal assistant. I don't think we're far off from having, you know, ai be able to Integrate with our DAWs. To where I can just, you know, get to a point where it, you know it's like the files are in this folder go and it sees those files, it pulls them into your template, it does all the routing you know, could clean up things, could tune things, could vocal align things. I think that's all like not too far off, basically using AI to do all the non creative tasks. That's what I'm really excited about. Then, to where I can just, while I'm sleeping, you know it's prepped, my mix, I wake up, it's all ready to go, I mix and then it does, you know, prints all the versions, prints all the stems, all of that on the kind of all the front end stuff and all the back end stuff. That's not fun as a mixer. That's what I really I'm looking forward to.

Speaker 1: 38:08

I don't like the idea of AI starting to also, you know, mix records, kind of like it is in the world of mastering. That's a little scarier, but I think mixing is a lot safer still for a while than mastering is, but uh, yes, that's kind of the first thing comes to mind is just is Is offloading some of that stuff that I don't want to be doing, and then that allows me to spend more time Doing other things outside of the studio as well. Or I like the idea of just a mix getting prepped while I'm asleep. That's that sounds really nice and not paying like anything for a small fee, whatever this application cost. But I think that that's something that's going to be, you know, here fairly soon.

Speaker 2: 38:50

Yes, I'm excited to see that sort of a client uploads their files and then it's uploaded, as you say, overnight, and then you in the morning you open up your door and it's already color coded, labeled, grouped, top, detailed, etc. That would be very nice. But, as you say that, I think that's where it's kind of those repetitive tasks, isn't it the ones that, the way you would, usually you would get someone to do, an assistant engineer or someone to do it for you. But I think, yeah, I think it needs to stop there rather than go into the actual yeah, the mix and side of things, as you mentioned. Even vocal lining would be quite nice, though, because I found that absolutely. I think that that would be good if you could have something coming and do that.

Speaker 1: 39:27

Oh yeah, I think that'll be pretty doable.

Speaker 2: 39:31

Yeah, yeah, it's probably been done right now. What I've noticed is, with having to doing the podcast Um over the last year, I've I've managed to claw back so much time from these repetitive tasks purely down to AI, which is incredible because I think there was that sort of as soon as chat, gpt and brought generative AI to the forefront of of Society for one of a better way of putting it you had all these companies clamouring to have AI bolted on to their application and their service and it's only riverside, for example, the platform I'm using right now. In the last year They'll love me for saying this if you listen in the last year, the amount of Um AI sort of based adaptations they've made to this platform is incredible. It does so much for me now compared to when I started the podcast. So I I'm totally with you there and I had a feeling that's where the the the question would go, and yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:23

It'd be interesting to see where we are in five years.

Speaker 1: 40:25

I know it's gonna be a lot different. I think it's moving so fast um, 100% definitely.

Speaker 2: 40:32

What are your thoughts on? Um? I think this is a way off on a tangent now. So have you heard any music that's been created by AI, sort of someone saying right or um, perform this song in the style of someone.

Speaker 1: 40:43

What are your thoughts on that? Uh, yeah, I haven't really thought about it too much. I have, I think, maybe heard a little bit of that. Um, uh, you're talking about like, where you kind of like put singing a vocal and then it all of a sudden turns it to like Drake or something along those lines.

Speaker 2: 40:58

Yeah, yeah yeah, it's kind of like a deep thing.

Speaker 1: 41:01

Yeah, yeah, it is. I guess. Um, yeah, I don't really have any strong feelings about it. I mean, I think it's bound to happen. You know, as far as the uh, the legal side of it, you know it.

Speaker 1: 41:14

Um, oh yeah, yeah I, I don't know how, it's not really how someone like drake or taylor, swift would feel, you know, knowing that some hot new single with their voice is not actually their voice? Um, yeah, I don't know it's. It's gonna be a little messy for a while, but, um, but yeah, I don't know too much about that world, I just know that it's happening and, uh, it's something that I'm sure we're gonna be dealing with more and more. I haven't actually mixed any uh any AI tracks as far as I know right now, but, but I have explored some with the uh the new. This is somewhat um Related, but the the new waves online, online mastering, that's all through AI, um, similar to lander, but I think it's goes a little deeper and I've had some decent results with that Um for six dollars a master, I think if there's times especially if people maybe do stuff for, like sync world or like a lot music library kind of, where you need a lot of stuff mastered but you can't afford, you know, uh, whatever, it is, a hundred, two hundred dollars and more for for an actual Person to master, you know, I think it's a good way to go.

Speaker 1: 42:25

You can upload references and it will analyze the reference and it's kind of the same stuff that you can do with ozone, but, um, maybe there's even a little bit more um, you know computation happening in the background than even ozone. So I think we're going to see more of that kind of stuff. I think it's going to be harder for AI to take 70 tracks and make them all sound really Music and create together, so, but it doesn't mean that it can't ever happen.

Speaker 2: 42:52

That's for sure, yeah, it's um the waves. One's interesting because it's been on my list of things to try out, as has, I know, slate digital. I've got one as well virtue.

Speaker 2: 43:01

Okay, yeah, yeah, I was um looking because I've got the slate digital stuff and I was looking at it yesterday and, um, I haven't tried that either, um, to see what that sounds like. But be, I might go through the process of doing an ab. Maybe I'll release a video on it and then get people's opinions on which. Which one was about that. Actually, thinking off the top of my head, that'll probably be quite a good episode.

Speaker 1: 43:19

Yeah, I think if you had like a real person master song and then upload the same thing to a few of the online things and do like a blind, blind listening. I mean it might hurt the mastering engineer if there's doesn't.

Speaker 2: 43:33

Isn't the one that's picked?

Speaker 1: 43:34

but I think that would be pretty interesting to do something along those lines.

Speaker 2: 43:38

Yeah, go back to what you said about the, the AI and taylor, swift and drake I was thinking of, as you were mentioning it then, off the top of my head, it would be interesting where record labels go with it and whether or not they would, whether they could literally own the sound of someone's voice.

Speaker 2: 43:51

And then if that individual was to no longer be part of that label but they owned their voice whether they could just then because AI is only going to get better, it's only going to improve with machine learning and and, um, big data and stuff Whether or not they'll then just be able to say, well, okay, well, you can leave the label, we're going to use your voice and we're going to continue release. But then again, I'm totally spitballing now, but then they would need the name and et cetera. It'd be very interesting to see where it goes. Very interesting you could go. I mean, that's a whole podcast series in itself. With AI, it is yeah, and the creative industry definitely yeah, interesting stuff. We're coming towards the end now, brent. I've got one last question. I think this is quite an interesting one. Have you encountered any sort of myths or misconceptions around sort of organization and productivity in your workflow, in mixing, let's say?

Speaker 1: 44:42

Yeah, a couple of things come to mind. One is you know that you need a lot of gear to make great records. I always try to encourage new producers and engineers. You know you don't really need all that much and it's cheaper than it's ever been to actually do really, really great work. You don't need to go out and get all of the. You know 1176s and the LA2As and then you know the U47.

Speaker 1: 45:07

I mean, there's a ton of gear and it's easy to get distracted by that and if you don't love what you're doing, say, oh, it's just because I don't have this piece of outboard gear. That's not the way you need to think. You know you have the tools that you need to make great music and so I think for aspiring mixers I say you could almost do great work with just the stock plugins in your DAW. The things that you need to be focusing on more are you're monitoring. That is a place that I feel like you can do some, you know investing, as well as the acoustics of your room. I mean, focus more on those two things and don't get all plug-in crazy or you know hardware crazy and just kind of like really focus more on like learning how compression works and what different ones sound like, and doing A-B's and just do a lot of critical listening, and that's going to go a lot further than just buying one thing and realizing that that doesn't fix a problem and buying something else and trying to fix this problem that doesn't even exist. So that's one thing.

Speaker 1: 46:09

Another maybe is just that the longer you mix something, the better the mix is going to be. That's not always the case either. You know there's this thing, the point of diminishing return, and you got to know like and this is something that takes an experience knowing when something is ready to be sent off for the artist and the producer to review that. So I tell most people I think the sweet spot is like eight to 12 hours, and if you're like messing with something for three days straight, you may have gone a little too far and started sucking the life out of all the content that you've been given. So you know, just kind of be aware of that and know that the longer you spend doesn't mean the better it's going to get. And I encourage most people to.

Speaker 1: 46:58

This is just a formula that works well. I think just to. If you're going to start a mix, start it that morning tell the producer or the artist whoever the client is that you know the following day at noon you're going to deliver mix one like kind of then that sets a deadline for you and you know that they're going to be expecting that, and so work on it that entire day, you know, get it to where you feel like it's at least 80 or 90% done, and then the next morning you can, kind of on fresh years, finalize some things, print that mix one, deliver it by lunchtime to that client and that does a couple of things that ensures that you don't live with it too long and that you don't just destroy it. I know that that's easier said than done for maybe someone getting started who isn't maybe for sure if it's quite ready to send out, but I think that's a good goal to work towards and that formula works really well for me.

Speaker 2: 47:50

So those are a couple of myths, I think that come to mind and they're great ones as well because they've been mentioned on the podcast before, which is fantastic because it kind of compounds the message that we've put out previously, which is great, which is about the plug-in and the idea of a silver bullet that's going to sort of fix your mixing. And I've said it before and I think I did an episode with another producer and I said about monitoring and you need to as best you can because, I appreciate it, not everyone's got the perfect environment, but if you're monitoring in a poor environment, then it's a filter, isn't it? It's going to act as a filter on whatever you're hearing and it's going to impact on that and also learning the fundamentals and what you said there about plugins, and not just thinking I need to own all these plugins to make my mixing better. It's like stock plugins are incredible these days, Really really good. I use Logic primarily, and Reaper as well, but I know many people that use Cubase and the stock stuff is fantastic.

Speaker 2: 48:45

So, audience, don't feel like you need to go out and buy the next best thing. I know we're being advertised All this stuff like all the time. I would routinely see it, but that's retargeting advertising, isn't it. And time equals success is another big one as well. I've mentioned that before on the podcast, so it's great to hear that also in that just because you spend a lot of time on something doesn't mean that it's going to reap the rewards that it should Diminishing returns and everything. So fantastic stuff, Brent, Excellent stuff, Love it. Thank you for spending the time with me today. I appreciate we're approaching the end of the episode now. Where can our audience sort of find you online? Where's the best place for them to go if they want to learn more about what you do or even work?

Speaker 1: 49:26

Yeah, there's two spots. I spend the most time on Instagram at Brent Hendritch B-R-E-N-T-H-E-N-D-R-I-C-H, and I post about three times a week there Quite a bit of rills, some mixed tips and things like that. So if you want to kind of keep up with me on a weekly basis, that's the best place. Dm me, say hey, we'll start talking about whatever you want. And then I also have my website, brenthendritchcom. I try to update that on a regular basis. That's a good place to go more for hearing other episodes or other podcasts. I've been on articles, listening to a lot of my work. That's kind of where you want to go for any of those kinds of things, and there's a great form on there that you can just put in your info, and that's a great way to get a hold of me as well. So, yeah, that's probably the two best places to find me.

Speaker 2: 50:11

Fantastic stuff Audience. Those links will be in the episode description, so do go and follow Brent on Instagram and also check out the website as well. It's been a pleasure, brent, and you've got the rest of your day to enjoy now. I do Getting up nice and early, it's been great talking to you. Thank you, Mark.