Show Notes
Dave McNair is a mastering engineer, producer, and recording engineer with over four decades in the music industry and more than 900 credits spanning rock, blues, country, pop, and world music. Originally from Corpus Christi, Texas, he came up through the working-studio world of New York City, including a stint at The Hit Factory, before spending years producing and engineering in Los Angeles and Austin. He's now based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he operates Dave McNair Mastering from a studio in his own home, monitored on a high-end audiophile playback system. What sets McNair apart is the breadth of his pre-mastering career. He toured as a drummer with indie/alt-country band The Silos, engineered and mixed landmark sessions with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Cyndi Lauper, and produced artists like Buddy Guy and Kelly Willis in the Austin music scene. That lived-in understanding of how records are made from the ground up, tracking, arranging, mixing, deeply informs his mastering philosophy. His approach emphasizes what he calls "mastering with mixing in mind," treating the bass and vocals as the true anchors of any record. McNair's audiophile background is equally distinctive. He spent time working the sales floor at high-end audio retailers Innovative Audio and Sound By Singer in NYC, and that world of critical listening hardware never left him, he credits it with transforming his approach to monitoring and sound judgment. His 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical) for Bokanté's History represents recent recognition, but his catalog, which includes David Bowie's The Next Day, Shovels & Rope's Little Seeds, and mixed credits on SRV's In Step, reflects decades of work at the highest level.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: The moment he realized a mentor's "amazing room sound" was actually a tiny dead room and a heavily compressed mic Why losing head-to-head comparisons to another engineer became one of his biggest learning tools What changed in his approach after sitting in on a session with one of the most respected mixers in the business The exact moment Dave knew he needed to change direction, and what tipped him off Why he didn't tell any of his old clients he was getting into mastering until he felt ready How 20 years of sitting in on other people's mastering sessions became the foundation for his new career Why he says the chasing and reinventing never really stops, even now
To learn more about Dave McNair, visit: https://www.davemcnairmastering.com/
Looking for 1-on-1 feedback and training to help you create pro-quality mixes? Check out my coaching program Amplitude and apply to join: https://masteryourmix.com/amplitude/
Want additional help with your music productions? For tips on how to improve your mixes, visit: https://masteryourmix.com/ Download your FREE copy of the Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: https://masteryourmix.com/blueprint/
Get your copy of my Amazon #1 bestselling books: The Recording Mindset: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Pro Recordings From Your Home Studio: https://therecordingmindset.com The Mixing Mindset: The Step-By-Step Formula For Creating Professional Rock Mixes From Your Home Studio: https://masteryourmix.com/mixingmindsetbook/
Get the latest plugins from Carve Audio: Smashburger Compressor: https://carveaudio.com/smashburger/ Busboy: https://carveaudio.com/busboy/ Slapshot: https://carveaudio.com/slapshot/ Gas Can Amp: https://carveaudio.com/gas-can-amp/
ALL PODCAST LISTENERS GET 25% OFF. USE PROMO CODE: PODCAST25
Check out our Sponsors: Download Waves Plugins here: https://waves.alzt.net/EK3G2K
Subscribe to the show: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/master-your-mix-podcast/id1240842781 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5V4xtrWSnpA5e9L67QcJej Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@MasterYourMix
Have questions you’d like answered on the show? Send them to [email protected]
Please leave a rating and review: https://masteryourmi
More from Master Your Mix Podcast
Originally from Rochester, NY, producer/engineer Neal Cappellino is the owner of The Doghouse Studio in Nashville, TN. A lifelong musician, he completed his formal education with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (’87). Neal is a 5-time Grammy® Award recipient with a discography that includes Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Robert Plant, Vince Gill, T Bone Burnett, Avicii, and Kygo. He is a member of The Recording Academy, the Audio Engineering Society, and Leadership Music Class of ’15. He has served on the Advisory Board for the School of Arts & Sciences at WPI and was the 2022 recipient of their Robert H. Goddard Award for outstanding achievement in the professional field. He previously served on the board of directors for The Melodic Caring Project, a nonprofit organization that dedicates live-streamed music events to the hospital rooms of critically ill children. IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: Why your monitors don't need to sound impressive; they just need to make you do the right thing The listening check Neal runs on every mix before he calls it done, away from his main room How he actually tracks down what's making a mix sound muddy, instead of guessing with EQ How he knows when a mix has gone past the point where more tweaking is helping The headphone setup he built specifically for Alison Krauss, and why it mattered The difference between giving a vocalist real feedback and just telling them it sounds good The one question he asks himself before making any move on a mix How to record great vocals The psychology of coaching a vocalist
Damian Taylor is a Grammy-nominated producer, mixer, programmer and songwriter who spent six years as Björk's personal engineer and programmer, working on Volta and Biophilia and touring the world with her on stage. His credits include The Prodigy's Invaders Must Die, The Killers' Battle Born, Arcade Fire, The Temper Trap, Odette, Bomba Estéreo's Grammy-nominated Deja, and Dizzy's Juno-winning Baby Teeth. Known for a hand-built approach to editing and sound design that was years ahead of standard workflows, he now teaches producers through The Complete Producer Network and his Mix Accelerator Process.
Peter Craft is the owner and chief engineer of Boxer Lodge, a destination recording studio in the hills above Napa Valley. A former software engineer and patent-holding tech architect, Craft left that career to build records full time, first from a San Francisco garage and now from a purpose-built studio centered on a 32-channel API 1608 console. He's engineered and mixed for Noelle & The Deserters, New Earth Farmers, and Strange Cities, and in 2024 hosted a session for reunited trip-hop pioneers Halou. A lifelong drummer, Craft often plays on the records he's running the board for. IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: Owning a destination studio Leaving a successful job to follow your passions Taking a chance on yourself to lean into your passions The importance of connecting to your community The pros and cons of niching down The one question he asks before touching a single fader Why copying a famous mixer's exact chain rarely works What two mixers with completely opposite styles taught him about staying in his lane The specific mistake that made his guitars sound thin for years Feeling connected to analog gear Knowing your genres before tracking Having a North Star to follow Creating contrast in a mix Choosing reverbs for vibe versus filling space Why piling on reverb can shrink your mix instead of opening it up Being intentional with every decision His parallel vocal chain
Chris Collier is a producer, mixer, mastering engineer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Las Vegas, operating as CMC21 Productions. Across nearly three decades in hard rock and metal, he's engineered and produced for Korn, earning a promotion to producer on 2022's Requiem after years behind the board on the band's records, plus Prong, Lynch Mob, KXM, and Whitesnake, whose classic catalog he's remixed. On Mick Mars' 2024 solo debut, The Other Side of Mars, he played bass on every track in addition to mixing and mastering it. He's currently mixing and producing new material for Nonpoint, Society1, and Gunshine. IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: Why being a "button pusher" gets you replaced The real line between an engineer's input and a producer's input Keeping a band's identity intact while still pushing them forward What changes in the room the moment a band actually trusts you Why quad-tracking guitars usually backfires The sidechain trick Chris uses instead of EQ to fix a fighting kick and bass Why fewer tracks means fewer decisions later Balancing speed vs quality A simple pre-record exercise that gets two guitarists playing tight How much editing is too much editing on a guitar take
Tim Dolbear is an award-winning mixing and mastering engineer with more than 25 years of professional experience and the owner of Eclectica Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, which he founded in 1999. He specializes in music mixing, mastering, and audio post-production for film, television, podcasts, and streaming, delivering high-resolution stereo, surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes for clients around the world. Tim’s work has appeared on productions for NBC, Discovery, Prime Video, HBO, Netflix, and YouTube, including projects with millions of views. He has also mixed records for Grammy and Dove Award-winning artists. Through Eclectica Studios, Tim combines decades of experience with modern production techniques to create polished, high-impact audio that translates across everything from theatrical and broadcast environments to streaming platforms and Apple Digital Masters. IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: Why moving Eclectica Studios across three cities taught Tim more about client psychology than gear The one thing that made clients trust him before he ever proved himself How to make good money off of Fiverr The unusual gig idea that got him noticed in a flooded market What his response time has to do with how many new clients he gets What separates a Fiverr gig people actually search for from one that gets lost in the noise The pricing mistake Tim says cost him the most early in his career Automating the boring parts of your process Why "boring" work like corporate video mixing quietly became his most profitable niche The line Tim won't cross when a client tries to take a Fiverr relationship off-platform