Mockup Magic Recap

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the 5 day Mixing and Mastering workshop for Marching Arts Mockups!

We had 5 days of amazing discussions, training, community, and growth. 

I was joined by Fred Emory Smith as we broke down our 7 step process for making a better Marching Mockup.

We really wanted to focus on creating an easy to follow workflow for anyone to follow along - whether you already had some experience in mixing or if you were starting from scratch. 

It was really amazing to see how much the participants engaged during the trainings as well as seeing everyone rock out the daily assignments. 

Part of the vision for the week-long workshop was to create an environment where everyone could immerse themselves in this process and experience tangible results every single day.

While the mixing process involves a lot of subjectivity with what each person enjoys, our goal was to outline the objective processes and workflows so that everyone could find the sound they wanted within their mix.

Here are examples of some of the amazing insights workshop members shared with us:

• It was somewhat of a lightbulb/"oh duh" to realize you don't (or sometimes shouldn't) apply all of the techniques to all of the tracks, all the time. Becoming more light-handed and careful with how I used effects or strategies was great. Learning how panning impacts the elements of the mix (and even deeper depending on if the instruments are acoustic or not) was a big takeaway. Seeing the "sweet spots" for EQs, compressors, reverbs, etc., on each family of instruments was also great info.
• I was already extremely comfortable with most aspects except mastering. I feel like I got a bit better with compression and makeup gain specifically for pre recorded tracks/stems. And really breaking down what the essentials of a mastering chain for me was huge!
• Automation - I never saw this as something I could use to manage some micro-phrasing that I would normally tell my students to do beyond what's on the page Panning - I used to just use this for the spread effect, but I never spent a lot of time carving out specific spaces for things before. EQ - I've always lacked confidence about my subtractive only method of EQ, but now after seeing that's EXACTLY what you recommend, I have a lot more confidence about it! Compression - I didn't really know what to listen for when adjusting attack, release, and knee, but now it makes a lot more sense! Reverb - I knew nothing, lol. I've only ever created a reverb send with 100% wet, and balance my bus faders based on distance. I never knew I could tailor the EQ, the tail, the types of rooms/halls/plates, and I had NEVER thought to solo the reverb track to listen to what kind of space I was creating! Mastering - I didn't know anything about LUFS, or what to look for when analyzing mastering EQ presets, but now I feel way better about all of that!
• The insights I received from the workshop really consisted of learning from peers of a like-minded status and visualizing/hearing their approach. It made me contemplate the way I do things, and I learned things that I wasn’t even expecting to (such as the Panning video Eric did). I probably learned more from being a part of this group than I have in the last 10 years that I’ve been doing this.

We're excited for how well the workshop went, but also looking forward to upgrading the experience the next time we offer it!

This all sounds cool! Where can I sign up for the workshop?

The current plan is that we will offer this workshop as only a live experience. Even though we have an amazing library of examples and trainings that would make an amazing on demand mini course, the "MAGIC" came in the way of the community, participation, engagement, and the immersive environment. 

Be on the lookout for Mockup Magic ver. 2.0 in the future! 

Join the waitlist below: