The Epic Mix

I was working very late at the studio on Friday night, adding musical parts and additional recordings to an already dense track slated for our album, ahead of a scheduled mix date the following Saturday morning. 

“Brothers In Arms”, our second single prior to the album launch, was a song I had written several years ago over an orchestral trailer track I had recorded for Immediate Music in Prague, primarily composed by Aleksandar Dimitrijevic. As the case with some other Globus material, the orchestral tracks serve as a basis for an epic rock arrangement and new music and lyrics.

The original orchestral material had been mixed by my long time mixing engineer and collaborating producer Greg Townley. So I was excited to work with Greg again on “Brothers” as it graduated from trailer track to full on rock song. I visited Greg in his new studio in Pasadena, CA, but I was a bit apprehensive, thinking  - how are we going to wrangle all of these tracks (over 100) in Pro Tools to make something more favorable than the bombast and chaos I had in my draft mix?

We started from scratch, working on Gregg Bissonette’s drums, Ariel Mann’s guitars and Kfir Melamed’s bass. After getting an aggressive sounding and solid rhythm section locked in, Townley found a way to mix in the orchestra, choir and synths and still retain the hugeness of sound that I had envisioned. My nervousness was then further put to bed when Greg finished work on Ryan Hanifl’s bold lead vocals.

It all came together so epically! After a 9 hour day, and turning the mix way up on the big party speakers in the studio, I was reminded how important it is to work with a world class mixer who shares my love and passion for big, dramatic music - and who can make sense of a mix that has everything, including an abundance of kitchen sinks, in it!