How To Find The Right Online Mixing Engineer For Your Project?

Imagine you have been writing and producing your songs for hours and managed to record in a recording studio. Now what? Your songs need to be mixed and mastered!

You could mix the song by yourself but you need a lot of experience, analog equipment and good studio acoustics to get in the ball park of a professional mix.

It doesn’t make much sense to rush things and to release a track with mediocre audio quality after spending much time and energy while recording. Another option is to hire a professional mixing engineer with experience, album credits and equipment.

Nowadays a lot of music is produced via the internet. With strict deadlines time is limited and artists can’t spend days in the studio along with the engineer. You can find suitable engineers and mixing services online world wide. With Skype, Email and other services its easy to work together and a lot of time is saved over attended sessions. 
Why are professional mixed songs so important? 
A professional mix can make a huge difference to the overall feeling and quality of a song. This is especially With all the music out there you only have one chance to impress.

You could have a great song which might be a hit, but without the right mix you won’t get the attention the track deserves. An experienced engineer knows how to work out key elements of a song so it attracts the listener and sticks out of the masses.

Many artists, bands and producers are facing this challenge multiple times during their career in the music industry.
How do you find a professional mix engineer online?

Often the budget is a bit limited and the internet is crowded with offers which sound too good to be true. Another problem is to find a mixer who can deliver a professional sound quality and who has experience in making a project a success.

A first step is to look at the rates of specific engineers and online mixing studios:

As a general rule: Professional mixing engineer’s rates start from $200 (for smaller 15 track mixes) per song up to $700 per song. Simple vocal mixes could be a bit cheaper around $120.

Anything below really shouldn’t be considered if you are looking for quality mixes. Stay away from too cheap offers! You will be probably better off mixing the song yourself.
Every engineer has to built up his studio and equipment. Usually these are high costs and you certainly don’t want to get your tracks mixed by a guy on his laptop and a pair of headphones. Always remember that you will get what you pay for. 
Have a look at the credits or discography:
Another point to check are the credits or the discography: Usually every mixer has credits listed on Discogs, Allcredits or even Wikipedia.
If you can’t find any credits there it usually means that the person hasn’t mixed much yet or hasn’t participated in any noticeable projects. Those platforms feature most independent and major releases including the personal being involved. 
Lastly you should check the equipment of the engineer or online mix studio you might choose. Professional services mostly have their gear listed on their website. Make sure they at least use high end studio monitors and a bit of analog outboard gear. Monitoring and acoustics are important so your songs translate well on other playback devices.

If there is no equipment listed you should ask yourself why! Its a good idea to get in touch with the studio and ask for an equipment list if necessary.
All those points are easy to check and should help you finding a suitable studio for your next project or single.
 

Manuel Roessler is an international mixing engineer based in Germany. His credits include Talib Kweli, Saigon, Havoc, Cashis and many more Pop, Rock and Hip Hop artists around the world. He has been nominated for various album of the year awards and much more. You can follow him on Twitter @manuelaudioeng and have a chat about equipment and the music business in general.