Eric Stenman is an LA-based producer, mixer, and engineer whose four-decade credit list runs from Deftones, Thrice, and Weezer to Daniel Caesar's Grammy-nominated Freudian and every AWOLNATION album since 2011's Megalithic Symphony. A decade running Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles gave way to overseeing AWOLNATION's own Malibu studio, where Stenman has helped engineer some of alternative rock's biggest, guitar-built (and famously bass-guitar-free) low end. Most recently, he's stepped from behind the board into the band itself, co-founding the metallic-hardcore project The Barbarians of California with longtime collaborator Aaron Bruno.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

• Why "I'll fix it in the mix" usually means more work later, not less
• How Eric commits to compression and tone while tracking, instead of capturing it flat and safe
• What changes once you start picturing the finished mix while you're recording
• Why more experience means fewer decisions get pushed down the road
• How this mindset shift cuts down on retracking and rebuilding sounds from scratch
• How treating a song as a whole (instead of piece by piece) keeps a mix from falling apart
• Why he avoids soloing individual tracks during a mix
• How stepping away from a mix for a week changes what you hear when you come back
• How he decides a mix is done, even when a client keeps sending notes
• How Eric fills low end without ever touching a real bass guitar
• What "translating" actually means across car speakers, earbuds, and Bluetooth speakers

To learn more about Eric Stenman, visit: https://ericstenman.com/

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