Mixing Like a Man Possessed

I have been mixing like a man possessed lately. So many good projects on my plate. If yours is one of them, sorry, its probably gonna be a little slow going. I always try to give 110% of my ability to every mix, big or small, which means lately my turnaround time is a bit slower, but hopefully its worth it. In this business i'm expected to hit a home run every time i step up to the plate to mix a song, and well, being that i mix on a flat fee basis and guarantee my work, i have the luxury of spending as much time on a mix as i need to so that it comes out right. You know, if you just book a recording studio and go mix your song, your always looking at the clock, your always balancing money spent against how much more fine tuning you want to do to the mix. That forces you to make gut reaction decisions which you often find out later where wrong or your left thinking "if i had only spent another $100 of studio time". I always hated having to mix that way for clients when i was coming up in the world. You NEVER wanna be asked as a mixer "how much longer is this gonna take". So, i built my own studio and play by my own rules now. Now, for all my cleints, i mix until i'm done mixing, which is always the way i've mixed for major labels. then if we need to make mix revisions, we make them, and its all covered in the flat rate. So, enough talk, I have clients waiting for mixes, and I'm in the middle of a super hot pop song right now. gotta get back to work.
Ken

"""" Quotes """"

I must feel like writing tonight. Actually, i was just checking over my site, and started reading my "famous quotes" on the home page (if you click the "next quote" button, it'll scroll thru about 60 of them randomly). I hand picked all of them for specific reasons, and they all mean quite a bit to me. Some inspire me, some keep me grounded, a few remind me to work hard and stay focused and many of them remind me why i love music. I am exceptionally fortunate to have acheived the things i have, so it might surprise you to learn that I am looking at 2005 as a "career building" year. Honestly. 2004 was an incredible year for me, no doubt about it, but i'm using this year to really try to branch out even more. Just you wait and see what i've got brewing. Suffice it to say that I am far from content with my current place in the music industry. I want more and i'm going to get it. simple as that.
One of my favorite quotes from my list is from Michelangelo ........ "i saw the angel in the marble and carved until i set him free"

Isnt that what we're all trying to do here? First a vision of a song pops into your head, maybe a few words, a phrase, a verse and off you go. From that moment of inspiration on, your trying to unlock your idea, carve it out until it sounds like a finished song. I often do alot of carving while i mix. Some chisellling here and there, a couple whacks with a sledgehammer, and alot of fine brush strokes until everything sounds just right, whatever "right" sounds like. Look a the clock, time to go do some more carving before the night's over.
-Ken

Scratch Magazine Article Posted

Hello all,

I recently wrote an article on Logic Audio for Scratch Magazine. If ya'll wanna read it, follow the web address below.
Enjoy!
-Ken

http://www.scratchmagazine.com/thelab/0705.logic-audio/index.html

actually, its only the first 3 paragraphs, you'll have to buy the magazine to read it all, but I thought you might want a preview.

Logic... Dot ... Dot... Dot ...

So the new Pro Tools HD Accel 3 system is (other than semi frequent crashes) a wonderful system to mix on. Its not without its quirks and drawbacks (i know, cry me a river), but nothing thats not completely work-aroundable (is that a word?). Even though i use all the pro Tools plugins and hardware, I often mix with Logic Audio as a front end, and Logic is my main production and creating platform. Anyone reading this blog frquently knows of my love hate relationship with Logic and Apple. I learned some super helpful top secret Logic tips today from an enigmatic angel of the Apple underworld. The mysterious voice on the other end of the phone, code named "Pin Point", divulged some information to me not found in any manual. I'd tell you, but then i'd have to ki..... lets just say i can't tell you, but it really helped me with a few things, and restored some of my faith in Apple and Logic. I still however must hold to my mantra that at the cost of $199.00 per tech support call for Logic Audio (no thats not a typo), Logic is doing a grave disservice to its longstanding customers as well as anyone thinking of switching to a very expensive piece of software which is basically not supported by the company selling it (well, unless your rich, then i guess tech support isn't out of reach). On principle alone i refuse to pay that much for tech support. On the other hand i've found Digidesign tech support to be excellent, though its a bit pricey, and historically, i've never been a fan of Digi, but i gotta call em like i see 'em. "Pin Point" definitely reedemed Logic for me, but then one person veiled in secrecy cannot help an entire industry.
Thank you again to "Pin Point" for the Logic advice, you've been a big help, whoever you are.
-Ken

Cookout Concert

i went to a very cool cookout today. A good friend had a nice Sunday cookout, backyard bar-b-que. Hot dogs, hamburgers, chips soda (no beer for me, i had to come back to the studio and mix later, oh yeah, and i had to drive, there was that too). So, the coolest part of the cookout was that my friend invited a couple touring musicians to come play. We all ended up piling into the living room and listening to two guys play a bunch of their original songs, kind of in a VH1 Storytellers fashion. It was actually really cool. before i proceed, check Syd and Todd out....

www.SydBand.com
www.ToddMartinMusic.com

So it seems Syd and Todd are touring the country right now, mostly playing clubs at night, but they are doing this thing where if you are somewhere close to their tour route, and want them to come play at your house, (for a price, a reasonable one) they'll come play. So there we all were, in the living room, soaking in some good original acoustic music. A very nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Of course its now 5am Monday morning and I've been mixing all night, which for me is a really nice way to spend an evening.
Ken

Pro Tools HD Upgrade

Wow, I just upgraded my mixing rig to the Pro Tools HD Accel 3 rig, with a crapload of my favorite plug in's. I was mixing on a monsterous Pro Tools TDM system, which i loved, (i actually still have it and use it), but this one is even better. I think my favorite plug in's so far are the URS "Fulltec" (like a Pultec on steroids) and the Sony Oxford stuff. I got the super sweet Oxford GML option, all the dynamics, inflators, etc..... and the Oxford reverb i swear sounds better than a Lexicon 960, and its so versatile. One of the best digital reverbs i've ever heard as a plugin or outboard. I also have the full WAVES Platinum bundle, which has more than everything you'd ever want to mix with. The Waves De-esser shines, along with their supertap delays, and the mastering stuff. The thing about Waves, they make really good solid stuff, not the best, but stuff a mixer like me really should not be living without. I'm pretty impressed with the software package that came with the Accel 3 System to begin with, though i gotta say, any system that costs more than a good car should come with plenty of bells and whistles.
Anyway, its Saturday night, I just finished up a super hot R&B mix, and its time to go out for dinner and a movie and pretend to have a social life again for a night. Maybe Batman Begins. We'll see.
Ken

And Many More......

June 13. My birthday. Took the day off today if you dont count mixing til 6am, sleeping in, having fun all night then starting another mix at 1am. Its almost like taking a day off. kind of. I am now 35 years old. How the heck did THAT happen. I think it was last year that i was 16, growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, playing soccer, dreading high school. Then i climbed into this time machine and ended up here. Well, here isn't so bad i guess. The trip has been fun and rewarding, and making music for a living still feels very fresh and exciting. I love this job and this life. Its pretty all-consuming, but subconciously, thats probably just how i want it. Now back to the music. Happy Birthday to me!
-Ken

Check out indieTunes!!!

Hello all. A little over a year ago i set out on a great quest to build an internet home for independent artists who wanted to sell their digitally downloadable music (MP3's), and not just give it away (though you can do that too). I wanted to build the independent alternative to itunes, someplace where people can buy an artists music using their credit card or paypal and not worry about web security, etc... I could go on and on, but instead, go check it out yourself, trust me, you'll like it....

www.indieTunes.com

A Basic membership is free, and if you want to be able to sell your music on the site, i charge a small membership fee of $9.99 a month, but here's the best part. indieTunes pays you back 100% of the profit from every sale. yes, after bank transaction fees (visa/MC/PayPal), you keep everything. So, on a $9.99 digital album sale, indieTunes pays you back $9.39!!! Compare that with itunes which pays you $6.50. So basically if you can sell one album or a dozen singles a month, you break even, if your pushing alot of product your earn ALOT more through indieTunes. Check it out. I'm proud of it and what it offers to independent musicians. Also, we're constantly upgrading the site. within days, there will be a ton of extra functionality. its all being tested now. stay tuned!!
-Ken

Minor redemption for Logic

(if this post confuses you, read the previous post) So, not being one to give up on something, I decided to call Logic tech support one more time and see if i could get a person on the phone with a hint of a soul. The previous Logic phone tech's definitely had ice running through their veins. This time success, kind of. Just as this new Logic tech was telling me i didnt qualify for this type of phone support, I had to pull out all of my aces and lay 'em down. Yep, hit him with both barrels. First i told him how many Mac's and how many copies of Logic 7 i owned (at $1,000 a pop), then i gave him a very short list of credits i had used Logic for, then i hit him with the closer "i just wrote a glowing article about Logic in this month's Scratch Magazine, you might think that would get me some tech help when my system is making horrible noises". Alas. SUCCESS!!! This commenced a lengthy and somewhat helpful tech call. A for effort from the tech, maybe a B- for problem solving, but he definitely helped. My appreciation goes out to him, thank you!

I still cannot now recommend Logic in good concience. As i said, if i didn't play all of my big aces, that call would have quickly ended, and I would have spent the next eternity working around stupid problems. OR, i could have paid the $199.00 per problem, in which case that call would have cost me $600, and only one problem was fixed. In contrast, Digidesign support and Customer Service have (yes believe it or not), been exceptionally helpful, and it didnt cost me an extra cent. Back to work for me.
-Ken

Scratch that!! Logic Audio DID let me down!

OK, I really try to be a positive person all the time, however, the time has come to vent a little bit. I wrote an article in the new edition of Scratch Magazine on how i used Logic Audio software to create music for Kanye West's College Dropout album. I'd say i hooked Apple up on the review. Further, I've been an Apple customer for about 17 years now. I wish there was an alternative.
For the longest time, Apple was a company who cared about their customers and supported their customers well. Those days are long gone. I just bought my THIRD full copy of Logic Audio 7 (yes i run 3 systems here), i had a problem with Logic and called tech support. this is what they said........

Tech Support will only help you with the install of your software, if you want any further support (like finding out why the software isnt working properly) APPLE CHARGES $199.00 PER TECH SUPPORT ISSUE!!!!!!! No, thats NOT a typo. Every time you need tech support, its gonna cost you $199.00 EACH TIME.

Has anyone used Logic Audio lately? I had the luxury of learning the software on the job over the course of three albums working with a Logic guru. Logic has a very steep learning curve. Yes its powerful, at a price. So, my new recommendation for people considering switching to Logic Audio is this. If you love getting raped by a company that charges $1,000 for a product and then gives virtually no support, then Logic Audio is for you!!!! If however, you are not this type of person, you might look elseware for a software solution. Digidesign charges by the minute for tech support, doesnt charge for hold time, and puts a limit on the maximum cost of each call. Its still expensive, but i can live with that. You have a 5 minute question, it costs you $15. big deal. a five second Logic question costs you $199. Thanks Apple, I'm feeling the love.
-Ken

Worldwide Baby

Good evening (yes 2:45am feels like evening to me, ok, maybe late evening, but this is prime time for me). So, i took stock of my current indie projects and i was so struck by the diversity of projects and countries that i had to write about it. Here are the countries I'm either currently mixing projects from, or have just finished mixing projects from. United States, Canada, Columbia, Israel, South Africa, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Cayman Islands, Japan, Wales, Germany, and Norway. No joke!!! This is all either current or finished within the last month.
I really love doing international work. It allows my ears to be pulled into so many musical directions and catch influences from all over the world, which always seems to keep things very fresh and very inspired even when i'm mixing seven daze a week. And honestly, all that diversity seems to cross from one genre to the next. I feel like the combination of influences and styles makes me a better all around mixer in every style.
Throughout my career my blessing and my curse has always been that i didn't want to get pigeonholed into one style of music. Now alot of people look at my credits and go "Oh he's a hip hop mixer, i wonder if he can mix anything else". It's easy to get caught up on the hip hop credits because i've got some big ones, and i truly love mixing hip hop. But if you look beyond that, you'll find i've worked on successfully charting artists in so many diverse genre's. Here's a sampling.........

Tarkan (Turkish pop star), Fey (latin pop star), Dawn Penn, Bounty Killa, Beenie Man, Mad Lion, Steely and Clevie, Shaggy, Coco Tea (all major Raggae artists and producers), CeCe, BeBe, and Vicki Wynans (Gospel - all separately) Peter Rauhofer, Jellybean Benitez, Razor n Guido, Johnny Vicious (Dance producers and remixers), David Byrne (from the Talking Heads, yeah, he'd let a "hip hop mixer" record and mix his record.....riiiiiiiight), and then there's the major pop artists...Boyzone, Robyn, Pink, Mariah Carey, Anastacia, M2M, Jody Watley, Simply Red, Nick Lachey, Baha Men and many more. On the rock side we have Soul Asylum, Lenny Kravitz, Beastie Boys, Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park), Trans Siberian Orchestra, Savatage, Maroon 5, David Byrne, and a slew of amazing indie rockers most of you haven't heard of........ I've even worked with Jazz greats George Benson and Michael Brecker to name a few, as well as timeless legends like Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross.

OK. anyone who actually made it thru that list and is still reading, i think you get the point. To me its all just music and i love it all. All you international folks, keep the music coming my way, I get new inspiration every day. And now, I must leave you and go mix another song from my Japanese project. I dont understant the lyrics, but its still loads of fun.
-Ken

$20K Dream Studio Suggestions

Hello all. OK, so i need suggestions. I'm writing this article on putting together the most amazing studio possible on a budget of $20,000. I'd love suggestions of your "must have" gear, or your favorite cornerstone pieces. And of course, why you suggest it. List price would be helpful too if you know it. Come on now, give me your suggestions. I don't really know much about the really good budget gear out there. gimme your thoughts.
Thanks in advance!
-Ken

Scratch Magazine and the Logic of Audio

Welcome back. Has anybody seen the new issue of "Scratch" magazine. the one with Timbaland menacingly gracing the cover. OK class, turn your books to page 102. Today's reading assignment is the article written by some guy named Ken Lewis about some album called "The College Dropout", and somehow he tied it in with Logic Audio. I'll give a gold star to anyone who can tell me who the mystery artist that Kanye sampled was. there's a BIG hint in the article.

So anyway. Check it out. let me know whatcha think. Its the first time i've been "published" as a print writer, but there will be many more to come. I'm currently writing another piece for Scratch where i'll be reviewing the new SSL AWS900 mixing console (ok, so i've already checked out the console, holy crap! it even makes your breakfast for you), and I'm also working on a piece for www.BeatTalk.com on basically putting together a super studio for $20,000. Stay tuned, hopefully they'll both be fun and informative pieces!
-Ken

I'm a Blogger Baby

I'm a Blogger baby. OK. So not quite as cool as sayin "I'm a hustla baby", but then i sling mixes not rocks. So, my super cool webmaster Kristen set me up with my own little BLOG. (a link to her stellar web services is on my home page at the bottom). thank you so much Kristen.

So, i'll be attempting to post on a very regular basis now, seeing as i missed the entire month of May (it was a busy month to say the least). Anyway, Tune in. i'll be round much more often.
-Ken

Make that 16

Common's new album "Be" sold 190,000 copies its first week to debut #1 on the Hip Hop / R&B Albums Charts (#2 on the Top 200) making this my sixteenth #1 album, and soon to be 35th plaque shining my walls. I currently have three records in the Top 20 of that chart, #1 - Common "Be", #10 - Memphis Bleek "534" (they didn't credit my work on "Oh Baby"), and #17 - The Game "Documentary". Life is G.O.O.D.

I worked on two songs for Common's album, "Faithful" and "Chi City". For Chi City, I performed all of the music as per Kanye's direction, and Kanye did the beat and scratches. Check it out, I'm pretty proud of it (and nope, they didn't credit me for ANY of my work on "Chi City", argh..)
- Ken

Coming Right Up

Up coming releases I've been working on include Kanye West "Late Registration" (featuring guest artists Maroon 5, Jamie Foxx, and Brandy), CeCe Wynans new album, Nick Lachey's new album, Jeannie B on Atlantic, Rhymefest on J Records, Governor on Atlantic, Wade O Brown on Groove United Records, Cuban Link on M.O.B. Records, Joe Budden on Def Jam Records, Cassidy on Full Surface Records, AJA on Money Train/Ruff Ryders, and a ton of great indie releases. What a great year. I'm rockin a serious studio tan, I need sunshine.
-Ken