Andrew Scheps talks with Russell Cottier about mixing in the box
Mixing legend Andrew Scheps is known for working with artists at a high level and most people would agree that Andrew knows what he's doing behind a mixing desk but Andrew is now discussed so much due to his switch to 'in the box' mixing.
Naturally, we were very keen to talk with Andrew to find out about the reasons for his change of direction so when we received a call from Megan at Monnow Valley Studios asking is we'd be interested to meet Andrew at the studio and hopefully record a feature how could we get there any faster?!
This is just a short segment of the full interview with Andrew but as many people these days really don't have the time to sit through a long video interview, even as exciting as this one (!), we decided to cut out some key topics, such as mixing techniques, so that people can cut right to the subject of interest. Scroll down for the link to the main Andrew Scheps page with all of the video links.
Sitting behind a mixing desk where you can almost close your eyes, immerse yourself, instinctively reaching to make changes really fast using your ears and not your eyes (eyes are dominant and do affect the way you react) is for many the ideal situation. However, for some people, the problem is that these days aside from the issues of buying lot's of analogue gear and having the space for it, revisions requested by the artist and management etc mean that many people have to get back to a mix to make umpteen tweaks can only be done in the box.
Also, once you have built your career to the stage that you have 'become a brand', you become much more in-demand and the amount of mixing work that you will attract means that some work will have to be turned down because you can't switch between mixes instantly etc.
This has both empowered engineers, now able to have sophisticated mixing possibilities for a small outlay but it also assumes that the engineer is able to stay focused and not be taken off on tangents spending huge amounts of time making pointless tweaks! Andrew Scheps is one of the most impressive mix engineers and his ability to switch from mixing desks to in the box has been successful for him - we hope that the short video here covers your questions and that you go on to watch the rest of the hour long interview!
Please watch the video that we shot with him at Monnow Valley Studios in the Summer 2016.
To watch the full interview with Andrew Scheps please follow this link
Read the whole in-depth interview in Resolution magazine - October 2016 issue!
To take a look at the higher Resolution photo gallery click here
Special thanks to Russell Cottier for asking the questions and to everyone at Monnow Valley Studios for making us so welcome and for helping in setting this up - and for giving up their studio time! Many thanks to Andrew Scheps for taking the time too!