What if your mix engineer secretly backed up every session in triplicate just so your grandkids could remix your demo in 2085?

In this episode, I’m joined by my brother from another podcast, Matt Boudreau - veteran mixer, Atmos trailblazer, and the host of Working Class Audio. Matt’s credits include immersive mixes for Green Day, Alanis Morissette, and the theme for Real Time with Bill Maher, plus stereo magic on artists like Deafheaven.

We kick things off recapping our AES Long Beach hang - complete with acai bowl addiction, barefoot sandbox airport vibes, and panels on everything from Japanese air-traffic AI to studio fire insurance. Matt shares how a late-night HBO downmix request accidentally birthed his simultaneous stereo/Atmos workflow, and why he now mixes midrange balance on tiny single-cone speakers before touching highs or lows.

We dive into the art of collaboration: why you should wait 48 hours before sending mix notes, how to handle clients who keep salting the same sandwich, and the spreadsheet revision system that’s saving everyone’s sanity.

Matt drops hard-earned wisdom on trusting your gut with red-flag clients, charging retrieval fees for 20-year-old sessions, and why “if it doesn’t exist in three places, it doesn’t exist.” We geek out over plugins (Gullfoss, Sonible Smart EQ, the return of Echo Farm), archiving nightmares, and why AI is great for laundry but still can’t feel heartbreak like a human. Whether you’re mixing in a bedroom or a living-room Atmos rig, this chat is pure gold for anyone who wants their tracks to outlive the hard drive.

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