Live Audio Remix & Mastering Engineer

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Live Audio Remix & Mastering Engineer Role

  • This position is a 2-3 hour weekly commitment and is staffed by self-directed volunteer sign-ups via the project's Smartsheet. For access and instructions, contact the Production Director.
  • Remix assignments will be approved by the Production Director, and will be supervised by the primary/capture engineer, who are responsible for overseeing final mix quality prior to publishing. Remix engineers will need to move quickly to keep our production cycle moving at pace, and should be aware that the supervisor may at some point need to take back control of the forward progress.
  • As a remix engineer at KDHX, you will be expected to make a minimum 2 hour weekly commitment to remix engineering on KDHX audio sessions, for which KDHX staff will provide 30-60 minutes of weekly training and review time. This time will need to be requested in advance of the studio appointment, specifying the type of input needed. The process explanation below should help guide you to appropriate training asks. Ideally, the input is handled by the primary/capture engineer, so please request the input directly from that person with adequate notice, and scheduling options.
  • If you request a content review of a mix in progress, please be sure to prepare the ProTools session(s) for the meeting, in order to make the most of the trainer's time. Be sure that you are at a stage in the mix that is actually ready for review, or instead, request the time as more of a check-in on a puzzling aspect, identifying if its a problem with data, EQ, compression, or whatever.

DO NOT provide mix bounces for review - most reviews will be conducted with the ProTools session open, and capable of soloing and muting tracks. Mix drafts may be bounced to the bounced files folder and offloaded for outside listening, but the root of the session folder is reserved for final or near final mixes only.

The KDHX ReMix Process

First step on these projects (almost always) is reviewing the audio in comparison with the videography - what songs were shot, and from what point in the set should the audio setup and remix begin. This can happen via messaging a video team member, or finding the video data and reviewing on your own. If any song titles are stated by the performer, they should go into marker's titles in the ProTools session and into the notes field of the session's row in Smartsheet.

Next step is reviewing chorus vocals for what is being said repetitively - those words should be used as a start point for labeling and subsequent searches for the published title.

All of this forward motion assumes that the song is original. If the artist states that it was written by someone else, this should also be immediately noted in the smartsheet notes field, and should stop forward motion with regard to video production.

We will not publish to Youtube or SoundCloud any performance for which the performer was not the composer, nor any song that is not within the public domain.

Live Remix Engineers should work the project in this prioritized order:

1. Full session draft bounce created /copied to server for video team - provide a board/matrix style mix for them to build the timeline of synced video footage. Simultaneously, become conscious of what songs were shot and song titling needs, indicators of original, cover, writer or title as mentioned or sung.

2. Songs needed for video project are identified re: potential use (not covers or in the PD), and good/adequately shot footage - these get mixed first and ASAP. Songs with allowed use are ideally mixed in groups of 2 or 3 in order to post a soundcloud playlist of audio

3. Songs getting airplay on KDHX (learned thru *Spinitron search) are identified as next to be mixed. These will be mixed for and provided to the DJs who are already spinning the songs, and can include covers and non PD songs. Being that airplay is the only potential use for these songs, these are the lowest priority.

  • Spinitron user profile (email): production@kdhx.org with the pw: KDHXproduction88.1

Login at https://spinitron.com/m/site/login and choose Reports

Publishing Process

At this stage, the process looks the same as standard in-studio or Stage content preparation guide found in the Live Engineer's training WIKI.

Go here and use this guide to complete the process: [|Live Engineer's WIKI] 

Mix Studio Training Points

  • setup of X-USB as interface to ProTools for playback
  • scene selection, tools, screens and general function
  • signal routing and topology, channel selection, LR, and monitoring control
  • use of Mackie Big Knob, headphones, Focal and Adam monitor speakers, and the Sub