The Modern Musician Show with Colin Thomson

026: Take Your Mixing, Mastering, and Marketing to the Next Level with Mark Sommerville

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Mark Sommerville is an audio engineer, music producer, and sound designer currently based in Los Angeles, CA. He works with a wide variety of artists and composers around the world, providing high-quality mixing, mastering, and sound design for visual media. Mark is the co-creator and current owner of The Wave Shop. As an entrepreneur, Mark has been self-employed as a producer/engineer ever since graduating from college. Today he still is active in the music and audio world, but also has broadened his interests to filmmaking as a writer and creative producer for The Zach King Team.

 

Key Take Aways:
  • Finish projects. You learn more from releasing several things that are less than perfect than you do from taking forever to perfect one track
  • Perfectionism has it's place. But you've got to get something out there, to show what you can do, even if you think it's not your absolute best. You have to have something to show people 
  • If you give people free advice and education on a subject, a lot of times it will come back to you, because people will think of you when they have a project that you would be good for
  • You have to continually be marketing yourself. If you spend 100% of your time on your current project, you'll run out of work fast
  • It's really important that musicians be continually seeking out shows in their area. If you don't play live, you can't really expect record labels or anyone to be interested in you
  • Don't underestimate the power of building up your social media. Once you have a dedicated, sizable following, there are nearly unlimited ways to monetize it
  • Streaming, and probably song sales, will never be your bread and butter the way it used to be. Get used to it, and understand that there are now so many more ways to make a living that there wasn't before. Don't whine about your streaming payouts, but be one of the musicians who figures out the new music industry
  • When mixing, don't overlook the basics. If it sounds good, leave it alone. You don't always need 9 plugins. Keep it simple if you can
  • When people are listening to your music, they can usually only listen to about 3 aspects. So identify on the 3 things that you want listeners to hear, and focus on those
  • Use reverb sparingly. Strive for "tight" mixes (unless the song really calls for it)
  • Don't think you can just "fix it in the mix." Getting it right in the studio, at the recording stage, will make the whole finished product sound better
  • When you mix something to fix it, you end up with a different and worse sounding song, than when you mix it to take it to the next level
  • The easiest mixes are the songs that have been arranged well
  • While it's sometimes necessary to mix and master your own music, it's extremely valuable to get a pro

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    Learn more about Mark Sommerville:

    WaveShopAudio.com

    FaceBook

    Twitter: @TheWaveShop

    YouTube

     

    If you would like to be considered for featured artist, email music submissions [email protected]

     

    Shownotes: modernmusician.co/026

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    The Modern Musician Show with Colin ThomsonBy Colin Thomson interviews musicians and entertainers like Bryan Callen and Bobby Owsinski , to get advice on what musicians should be doing today. Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin, and Justin Timberlake should also come on the show, as well as Taylor Swift, Justin