Live Q&A with Ken Lewis
MORE INFO & CHAPTERIZING IN THE DROP DOWN
Join Ken Lewis, who has credits on 100 Gold & Platinum records and 28+ years experience in the major label music industry. In his free live broadcasts, he answers a wide range of questions on music production, mixing, career development, demonstrates some cool techniques, shares insights and offers practical advice.

This episode covers:
0:00 - Intro
6:09 - 100th Gold Record Announcement
10:27 - Sprint Mix "Company" by Leyla Blue
23:39 - Who is your favorite mix engineer? And if you haven’t been able to speak to them, what would be a question that you would ask?
24:44 - What is the average maintenance cost to run your SSL?
25:58 - What was your most difficult mix that charted?
28:15 - What is the big reverb sound on “Company” ?
30:18 - What’s a tip for balancing the vocals to the instrumentals?
31:39 - Do you think someone close to their 40’s with a family and responsibilities can start mixing and make a seamless transition into a career?
33:36 - How does a person like me get to the next level when my city doesn’t have a huge community or market to compete with artist from major cities?
35:39 - How does your mood in the moment affect the mix you’re working on?
36:29 - How you you go about negotiating and collecting royalties for mixing?
37:42 - Who’s the most inspiring producer for you these days? Who would you call the best of all time?
38:27 - How do you know which artists to develop?
42:16 - Debut of “Not Ready To Go” by Harlor
45:30 - Listen Loop Challenge
52:40 - Ken’s Hot 100 Gold and Platinum List
54:48 - Marcus Manderson, Mixing Night Man of Mystery - Free SFX Libraries
59:15 - Breakdown of Leyla Blue’s “Fuck Yourself”

59:24 - Video muted by YouTube even though Ken had the rights to use the content
1:06:43 - Sound restored - breakdown continues
1:11:06 - Have you ever added samples to a producer’s beat to beef it up?
1:12:02 - Will you show us your mix buss chain?
1:12:18 - What high frequency on the vocals did you boost on the Pultec?
1:13:04 - How do you get those big drums on Fun.’s “We are Young”; big and reverb-y but not washed out?
1:15:04 - Was it the the difference between master and publishing? If publishing is 100% of the pie, is the master royalty a separate 100% of the pie?
1:17:49 - How do you balance working on stuff you know that’s going to make money and stuff you love, but not be profitable?
1:19:36 - What outboard are you using besides that SSL?
1:20:43 - Filter Frequency Ear Training
1:36:53 - UAD Apollo X8 Giveaway
1:39:00 - Ken has a few timely updates
1:41:33 - Mix Breakdown of Leyla Blue’s song “Company”
1:51:38 - How do you deal with painful frequencies (1-4K)?
1:52:23 - Do you worry about mono compatibility when using the HAAS effect?
1:53:04 - Compression first, EQ second?
1:53:49 - Ken asks - what should the last Sprint Mix of the night be?
1:54:37 - Closing Thoughts, Thank You’s
1:56:53 - Ken chooses which song to Sprint Mix
and he summarizes what Sprint Mixing is
2:01:23 - Sprint Mix:“Hypemane” by Aka Vonny
2:11:31 - Outro
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Resources:

Mixing Night Audio:
https://mixingnightaudio.com/

Ken's Mixing Website:
https://kenlewis.com/

Join the Mixing Night Discord Channel:
https://discord.gg/tTQUEKX
https://iproducemusic.com/