Mixing session Holger Schwedt

Mixing session from Holger Schwedt (Wednesday, 8 December , 2021)

This evening the students of Sound Education Nederland were provided with an online mixing session by Holger Schwedt.

Holger has been active as a mixer/producer since 1982 and has worked in many studios including the the Wisseloord Studio in Hilversum.  From the late 1990s to 2005, he worked as chief engineer and manager in John Ewbank‘s Down Under Studios in Hilversum. In 2006 he started the Shamrock Studios in Baarn. Due to its undisturbed and leafy location, the complex is frequently used for international writing camps by publishing and recording companies such as Universal Music, Sony ATV,  and Warner. He has contributed to hundreds of hit listings. Acts such as Bløf, Di-rect, VanVelzen, Anouk, Postmen, Lionel Richie, Nick & Simon, Gers Pardoel, Krystl, Go Back To The Zoo, Miss Montreal, Gerard Joling and Niels Destadsbader have successfully used Schwedt’s services.

During the session he mixed the song Being Alone At Christmas from Miss Montreal (a song that he originally also mixed).

In many regards this was a very interesting session but left most of the students with more questions than answers (i think). He started the mix from scratch (all faders down) with the drums and bass. He explained that it is important to start mixing the most important/energetic part of of the song. He stressed the importantness of getting the phase (polarity) between the different tracks correct. Otherwise you will never get a great (drum) sound even with EQ. Next, he continued with the lead vocal which, for him, is the most important part of the song. Any other track should support the vocals. If the band would sound better than the lead vocal, he would even ‘downgrade’ the band to ensure the vocals always would be the best sounding part. From there he continued with the backing vocals, percussion, guitars, and keyboards.

After three hours he had a first version of the complete mix that according to him was already better than the mix he did in 2009. Comparing the old and new mix, I agreed. He explained that this is not only due to improved studio equipment but, more importantly, having 10 years of additional experience.

The interesting thing about his approach is that he puts large emphasis on compression and distortion. On almost every track and mixbus he puts one or more compressors (including the the SSL compressor). In addition, a certain amount of distortion is added to each track. He explains that this is the only way to put sufficient energy in a song and much more important than EQ. In fact, during the 3 hour mixing session he only used EQ once on the reverb!! This is basically in large contrast with many other mixing engineers (and what we are thought at Sound Education Nederland) who use (a lot of) EQ before starting to compress.

I have no doubt that with his 40 years of experience he knows what he is doing and talking about but yet I see this as an alternative approach to a mix. I will, however, give it a try on one of my next songs.

An other interesting aspect that became clear is that he adds new tracks to the mix very quickly (in seconds). He just pushes the fader up “unitl his hand stops” and then he has the right level. “You have to do it on ‘feeling’ and not try to think too much about it”, he explained. However, if you ever made a mix then you know how difficult this is. Most of the time he only listens to very small fragments of the song while mixing.

He also did put the Weiss limiter/compressor, and EQ from Softube on the master bus to get some idea of the sound once it is mastered.  Weiss Engineering is a main player in the mastering field. During mixing he used the SSL UC1 EQ and buss compressor on virtually every channel to improve workflow. I had a quick look at this device. Many very positive reviews and experiences but it does not follow track selection on the DAW and therefore is a no go for me. Moreover, I would be afraid to get the same audio performance issues I experienced with the Softube Console 1 Fader.

Finally, he also emphasized the importantness of acoustics. He adviced: “If you could work for 8 hours on a mix in a non-optimal mixing room, then I would spend 6 hours on trying to improve the acoustics“. Surprisingly (for me), he advices to use Sonarworks for non-optimal mixing rooms (home studios) to correct the room acoustics. Interesting. Bad acoustics is also one reason to advice against (too much) EQ in home studios since you are probably correcting bad room acoustics instead of improving the mix. A headphone may help in such case.

Did I learn something from this mixing session. Yes, as it shows a different approach and philosophy towards mixing. On the other hand it was not really hands on in the sense of tips and tricks, and it will take a while (40 years) before I will be able to match his skills.

Thanks, Holger.