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In this year’s first episode of #HorrorStories, Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer and owner of Nashville-based mastering powerhouse The Hit Lab, Nathan Dantzler (Niall Horan, Teddy Swims, Kelsea Ballerini) speaks about the time when a record he was working on was sabotaged by an A&R manager.

#HorrorStories is a series where the world’s biggest producers, songwriters, and engineers unveil the most outlandish blunders of their careers — providing a much-needed reminder that even the greats make mistakes.

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TRANSCRIPT

That whole weekend I remember going home and just being so defeated because I thought we had made this beautiful piece of art, I thought it was amazing, and then it just wasn’t resonating.

Years ago when I was producing, there’s this band signed to record label that was about to get dropped. I knew the president of the label and so I told him, let me produce an album for this band, cheap. He gave us the green light and so then through the course of the next few months of making this album, every day the A& R would come to the studio and he would ask us to burn him a CD.

And then he was going to keep updating the president of the label. So we’re almost finished with this album. We’re super proud of it. We’re really pumped about this album and then I get a call from the president of the label that says, we’re pulling the plug. We’re not going to do the album and we’re all devastated.

We can’t figure out what’s going on. So then finally, I get a call from the president and he’s like, listen, man, can we get in the studio and maybe just see if we can salvage this thing? And so. he says, pull up this song. We pull it up. He’s like, huh, go to the next song. So we go to the next song, same thing, same thing.

And I said, can you play me what you’ve been listening to? And the A& R guy sabotaged the album and gave him day one tracking roughs and told him those were the, he never sent the president anything until the very end. And then he sent him our day one and so then I burned a new CD to the president of the album finished and he’s like, no tweaks, completely done.

Then it went on and sold a bunch of copies. And that was a emotional rollercoaster.
In this episode of #TilYouMakeIt, we are joined by the music producer, recording engineer and mixer known for his Grammy-winning and multi-platinum-selling work with iconic acts like Peter Frampton, Dire Straits and Taylor Swift. In this conversation, Chuck reflects on how he approached re-mixing the famous Dire Straits record’ Brother in Arms’ to 5.1 and the moment he learned of it’s Grammy-winning success.

#TilYouMakeIt chronicles stand-out moments from the careers of the world’s most esteemed producers, mixers and engineers.

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TRANSCRIPT

A record like that, it’s, um, so historic, right? Everybody knows it. And when it came out, it basically launched the CD.

Mark Knopfler asked me to come over and do a remix of the very famous Dire Straits album, Brothers in Arms in 5. 1. I mean, I literally, when I would work. I would have that record playing in the CD player and I just go back and forth, listen to that a bit and see if my stuff was as good. So that’s how much it meant to me.

So I wanted to respect that, make that record as good as that record was, but make it as good as my memory was of it. So it was like having to match the original recording and then make it something else, right? So, you know sort of expanded it. I think it came out really good You know, I mean it got a Grammy, anytime you can get a Grammy that’s something, you know. That was one of them for me.

And of course, yeah, it’s like very important. The awards show happens in the winter, and I was snow skiing in Colorado, and a bunch of us had been skiing, and we were all in the hot tub, you know, hanging out when I got the news. So, I was kind of the celebrity in that hot tub.
In this episode of #Goosebumps, we are back at Blackbird Studios to speak with the studios’ former operations manager and resident drum tech, Paul Simmons, as he reflects on the moment he first listened to side one of 2112 by Rush – a “life-changing moment” that he will never forget.

#Goosebumps is where we ask some of the best producers, engineers and artists about the musical moments that make the hairs stand up on the back of their neck.

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TRANSCRIPT

Now anytime I hear that intro, you know, the keyboard thing, I know what’s coming.

As far as goosebump moment for music was when I put headphones on and put 2112 by Rush on for the first time, reading along the lyrics with vinyl and I have to listen to the whole side.

In fact, I didn’t even know they had it chopped into pieces on the radio. You’d hear it start on the radio and then they’d cut it off. No! You know. You have to play the whole thing.

A lot of Rush Goosebumps, but that’s the one that pops into my mind. 2112. That was a life changer
In this episode of #DreamCollabs, Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer and owner of Nashville-based mastering powerhouse The Hit Lab, Nathan Dantzler (Niall Horan, Teddy Swims, Kelsea Ballerini), shares his thoughts on the transcendent power of music and the records that have defined culture throughout the decades.

We all have #DreamCollabs is where we ask who would your dream collaboration be with? Living or dead, money and travel are no object. And what would you do?

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TRANSCRIPT

One of my favorite things in art and culture and in music are those pivotal moments where something comes out and it changes everything.

In the early 90s you had hair metal was everywhere and then Nirvana came out and it just tidal wave all the hair bands were done, right? And I think that we saw that with the Beatles and we saw that to an extent with Billie Eilish and we’ve seen that with whatever.

For me the dream is to be a part of one of those records. To be part of a record that changes culture.

Something that we had our little bitty part in affects the world in such a way that it’s never the same after that. For me, that’s the goal.
In today’s episode of #MixTricks, we join the five-time Grammy Award-winning mixer, engineer and producer F. Reid Shippen (Kenny Chesney, Ingrid Michaelson, Gloria Gaynor) at Nashville’s Infrasonic Studio as he shares advice on how to stay motivated when working on a challenging mix.

Sometimes finding success means stripping everything back, turning off one of his tried and tested vocal chains and starting from scratch – and working away until he finds the magic in the mix. As Reid puts it, “It’s in there somewhere!”

#MixTricks is where the very best mixers, engineers, producers, and musicians let us in on some of the best secrets, tips and tricks they’ve picked up on their way to the top.

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TRANSCRIPT

I’m Reed. We’re at Infrasonic Nashville Studios. My Mix Trick. is not giving up.

Sometimes you’re fighting with something in a mix, and a lot of times, for me, it can be the vocal. It’s really easy to just be like, this just isn’t a great vocal. Because you know what? A lot of times, it isn’t a great vocal. When people are like, can you make me sound like John Mayer? The answer is, no, because you’re not John Mayer.

That’s the way it works, right? Um, but, not giving up is the key. And what I learned is that you just keep screwing with it until you find whatever the magic is. And sometimes that’s running it through a guitar pedal and blending that in. Sometimes it’s… pieces of outboard, or removing all the outboard, or taking all the assumptions that you make, you know, like, I have a vocal chain, I have this, turn it all off, right?

Start from scratch. Put the dumbest factory plug in on it, like, whatever. Just keep going until it’s great. Because it’s there, it’s in there somewhere, it’ll fit in there somewhere, but the key is to just not give up until you get there.
For the Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer and owner of the Nashville-based mastering powerhouse The Hit Lab, Nathan Dantzer (Niall Horan, Teddy Swims, Kelsea Ballerini), trusting your first instincts and leaning into what excites you without letting doubt creep in will always lead to better results. At times this might mean stepping away from personal music taste to instead give the song what it needs and take it where it wants to go.

#MixTricks is where the very best mixers, engineers, producers, and musicians let us in on some of the best secrets tips and tricks they’ve picked up on their way to the top. With LISTENTO from Audiomovers you can stream uncompressed multichannel audio to and from any DAW. Ready to go in five minutes. Just send a link.

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TRANSCRIPT

My name is Nathan Dantzler and my mix trick would be to trust what you feel and lean into it.

Oftentimes people try to explore every single option, but their first instinct was the right one and so if you can get to a point where you trust your first instinct inherently and don’t let doubt creep in, you’ll do better work.

I can only make records sound the way that I feel excited about them. That’s just what we try to do. Just whatever excites me and whatever feels right and I mean, it’s putting your finger to the wind and understanding like, what does this song want? Where does this want to go?

And sometimes disregarding your own taste for that, but ultimately your taste is still in there and what you enjoy. Don’t second guess yourself too much. There’s power in momentum.
In this first episode of #Goosebumps, five-time Grammy Award-winning mixer, engineer, and producer F. Reid Shippen (Kenny Chesney, Ingrid Michaelson, Gloria Gaynor) recalls the various spine-tingling moments that have adorned his career so far.

From pushing up the fader as Steven Tyler’s perfect vocals cascaded through the monitors, filling the room with ‘Janie’s Got a Gun’, to his fulfilling his childhood dreams while working on Star Wars with the London Symphony Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, these are the moments that gave Reid #Goosebumps.

#Goosebumps is where we ask some of the best producers, engineers and artists about the musical moments that make the hairs stand up on the back of their neck.

With LISTENTO from Audiomovers you can stream uncompressed multichannel audio to and from any DAW. Ready to go in five minutes. Just send a link.

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TRANSCRIPT

You know what’s always kind of a goosebump moment is when you’re out in public, you’re in Target, or in a restaurant, and you hear something and you’re like, this song sounds familiar, I wonder like who this is, and you realize like, oh, I did that. That’s a trick. Like, that’s pretty cool.

I mean, there’s a bunch of them. I got to work with Steven Tyler. I’m mixing the song and I push up the fader and it’s him singing. It was Janie’s Got A Gun, actually. And you’re just like, oh, okay. That’s why he’s Steven Tyler. Like, it’s perfect. It’s perfect. Stuff like that gives me goosebumps.

One of the things that I do every once in a while is stuff for Disney. As a kid born in the late 70s, Star Wars is a big part of my life. And there have been one or two times where part of the show was, uh, the London Symphony Orchestra in Abbey Road playing the Star Wars theme.

And, like, that is just… It’s as good as it gets. Takes you back to when you were like, five years old, six years old, seeing this movie for the first time.

Like, that’s always goosebumps.
Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling mix engineer Jeff Braun (Jason Aldean, Elle King, Nelly) takes us behind the scenes on #TheMakingOf the mix of Jason Aldean’s 6x platinum-certified single ‘You Make It Easy’.

What started out as a one-off opportunity for Jeff from Michael Knox, the music publishing executive, multi-platinum producer and President of Peermusic Nashville, has now evolved into four Jason Aldean albums, multiple number-one hits, and a level of confidence and credibility that has helped establish Jeff Braun as one of the most sought-after mixing engineers in mainstream country music industry.

#TheMakingOf is where producers, engineers and mixers lift the hood on their biggest hits, taking us behind the stems within the original sessions.

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TRANSCIPT

My first number one was Jason Aldean, ‘You Make It Easy’. That was a big deal. That was a big song and it was a big song for Jason as an artist. I think it’s four times platinum now.

I’ve been mixing a lot for Peer, a publisher in town, but I’ve been doing like sync side stuff for them. Michael Knox, I think heard stuff and then he just gave me a shot on one and he was like, ‘Hey, just take a stab at it’. And then he was like, ‘okay, this is, this is cool. Can you do another one?’ There’s another one.

And then I think he was still unsure, like, are you just getting lucky, or do we have something here? And then I think he sent, like, two more. I did two more and then he was like, ‘OK, you’ve got the record. Let’s do this whole thing together’. And then that was five or six years ago or something like that. I think that brought some credibility, because he’s like an A list artist.

So it just brought confidence in other people sending stuff, where it’s like, Oh, okay, yeah, he kind of does stuff with everybody. Like, yeah, we’ll send him this and see how it goes.

And that was like my first real break into the mainstream country scene. And it was like, alright, here we go.
In this first episode of #OffTheRecord, we are joined by Chuck Ainlay, the music producer, recording engineer and mixer known for his Grammy-winning and multi-platinum-selling work with iconic acts like Peter Frampton, Dire Straits and Taylor Swift.

In this conversation, Chuck reveals how a personal recommendation from Nashville steel player Paul Franklin helped him land the dream gig of working with Dire Straits.

From what at first seemed like a rocky start, Chuck would go on to build a deep and productive creative partnership and friendship with Mark Knopfler, with the two working together across multiple solo projects over the years. This is the moment where it all began.

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TRANSCRIPT

They were like the biggest band in the world at the time. I mean, they had had the biggest album ever. They had had the biggest tour ever. And this was like the next album. So pretty intense for me.

I was working on a record here in Nashville. It was behind schedule and I get a phone call. I pick up the phone and it’s, this guy’s got like this really extravagant English accent. But I thought it was a friend kind of playing a prank on me, you know? And I said, listen, I’m too busy now, you’ll have to call back later. And hung up.

I get home that evening and my wife goes, um, did Dire Straits management call you? And I was like, oh no, are you kidding me? Fortunately they called back the next day and off I went to London. Mark had been in Nashville and made a record with Paul Franklin, who’s widely considered the best steel player ever.

He had said, well, if we’re going to put Dire Straits back together, I want Paul involved in this record. So he basically went to Paul and he said, you know, who’s great in Nashville? And Paul said, we should get Chuck. That’s why I always say the musicians are your best friends, so you have to be very kind to them when you’re making records.
For the Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum-selling mix engineer Jeff Braun (Jason Aldean, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll), his role as a mixer is defined by simply ‘sweetening’ the intention and hard work of the artist and producer, rather than injecting his own sonic stamp onto the project.

In this episode of #TilYouMakeIt, Jeff Braun speaks on the various ways he approaches mixing and why adapting his creative process to suit each project is a crucial step in maximizing and doing justice to the sound and style of the song.

#TilYouMakeIt chronicles stand-out moments from the careers of the world’s most esteemed producers, mixers, and engineers.

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TRANSCRIPT

I don’t want to put my sonic stamp on everything because then everything sounds like me, not the artist. I want it to sound like what the producer and the artist worked so hard for. I just want to sweeten that.

I’d rather not have like a signature sound because my whole thing is I’m trying to improve upon what I was given. The production process and the producer should kind of have that on the tracks and then I want to come in and elevate that five percent, ten percent, just get it across the finish line.

If the session comes to me as stems, that’s kind of one process because then I can use everything how I want to use it. I can set the session up how I want to set it up. I can do the routing, I can do the subgroups, I can do anything kind of how I want it.

If it comes in as a session, I’m working out of the producer session and there are certain times where I can’t unbuild it and put it into something that I want to work in because it changes sonically too much, so I want to work where they left off and if that’s crazy routing, if that’s something that I don’t normally do, I just have to adapt and make that work.

I’ve got almost every plug-in there is and if it’s something that is new I’ll just get it, you kind of have to because you have to start where the producer left off.

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