Greetings!
A little over a month ago I had the chance to fly to LA and attend a meeting and seminar with audio mixing legend Chris Lord Alge. It was an incredible experience.
I flew into LAX on Monday morning to have some time to hang out in LA to take in the sites and meet up with some friends before the CLA meetup on Tuesday.
I had brunch by myself on Melrose, and then headed to hang out with my college roomate, and longtime friend Brad Murphree. We played catchup on the last few years, and headed into the Hollywood hills to hike about 4 miles up to the Hollywood sign. We talked about life, audio gear, and great memories. Here's a pic at the top...
Afterward we met up with another MTSU grad and all around swell guy - Adam McCants - for some Thai food in North Hollywood.
I stayed at Brad's place Monday night, and got up early for the Tuesday session.
On tuesday morning I met 14 other audio engineers and CLA at his studio in Tarzana, CA. After meeting Chris and the other engineers, we dove right in to a mix. From about 9am-1pm, Chris mixed a rock band's song from start to finish, answering questions as he mixed.
We discussed his EQ, Compression, and SSL automation philosophies. Chris was very open and forthcoming. He had no secrets he kept from us. And why would he?! Even with all of his gear and techniques, none of us has his ears, brain, or sensibilities. That's the beauty in the art of mixing songs...even with the same gear, no two mixers will do it the same.
MWTM (www.mixwiththemasters.com) did an amazing job hosting the event. Around 1pm, we took a break for a sushi lunch at the studio provided by MWTM.
After lunch, we went back to the control room, and Chris mixed another song - this time a Carrie Underwood single. This time the questions, and the answers, were even more in depth. Chris showed us each of his reverb settings, soloed out reverbs, delays, eq and compression settings, and showed some of his more advanced techniques of using the SSL 4000 console routing and automation.
The discussions between the other 14 experienced engineers, Chris, and myself were amazingly informed, technical, artistic, and fun. We all shared information about gear, plugins, techniques, and mixing mindsets.
At about 7pm, we wrapped up the mixing portion of the day, and headed to dinner together. MWTM and Chris hosted us at one of his favorite local wine bars/resturaunts, hidden away in a beautiful stucco building. Over pizza, pasta, and wine, we all reflected on the day, and got to know eachother on a more personal level.
At about 11pm, full of wine and spinning from the amount of information and good vibes the day had held, I hailed an Uber to head to the airport. I had just enough time to get through security and hop on the red-eye home to IAH.
The whole time in LA was incredible. Big thanks to Victor with Mix with the Masters for putting together a great event...and for all that he's doing with helping train the next generation of engineers by giving them access to training from the best of the best.
Hope to get to another MWTM event soon!
-Ty