Mixing is an art. With so many tools available today, mixing engineers have a tremendous impact on the sound of the songs you know and love. The hard part is that it is more challenging than ever before to find a great engineer. You see, the internet, paired with the accessibility of recording equipment, has created tens of thousands of “audio engineers”. Practically anyone who has a digital audio workstation (DAW) on their computer calls themselves an audio engineer these days. The reality is that the top audio engineers are light years ahead. Why? Because they have the skilled ability to bring the best out in a mix.
So without further ado, let’s dive into the top audio engineers that can turn a good track into an instant classic!
(In no particular order)
Serban Ghenea
Known for working with:
Bruno Mars
Ariana Grande
Adele
Taylor Swift
Serban Ghenea is one of the most high-profile mixing engineers in the world. If you have listened to the radio in the past couple of decades, you have heard his mixes. He has mixed over 188 #1 recordings and holds 18 Grammy Awards plus 3 Latin Grammy Awards. While he does not do many interviews, he recently mentioned that he does not have any bag of tricks. He approaches mixing by looking for the emotion in a song and maximizing that.
“For any given song, you need to listen and figure what it is in the song that affects you, what it is that touches you – and then try to maximize that. You need to find whatever is the special thing about that song. It’s going to be something different in each song, so you need to discover it and maximize it. It’s a subjective thing, but hopefully it’s going to affect others in the way that it affects you.” – Serban Ghenea
Manny Marroquin
Known for working with:
Whitney Houston
Pink
John Mayer
Shakira
Maroon 5
Manny Marroquin moved to Los Angeles at the age of 9 due to the Guatemalan Civil War. He first got involved in the music industry as a runner for Enterprise Studios. His big breakthrough came after a producer asked him to do a rough mix of a song. After impressing the producer, Manny got asked to mix the entire album. From there, the rest is history. Manny would proceed to work with a large number of influential artists in the hip-hop and R&B genres. Manny is the recipient of Grammy Awards for his work with Kanye West, John Legend, Mary Mary, Alicia Keys, and John Mayer. He uses both analog and digital gear to craft his mixes. Although, Marroquin uses an analog SSL console for the depth and feel of the sound. Today, he works out of Larrabee Studios in Los Angeles and is the go-to mixer for many artists.
Chris Averill
Know for working with:
The Avett Brothers
Dave B.
Averill Productions
Chris Averill began his engineering career as a teenager mixing live shows for mega-churches and working out of a home studio. After collaborating with Billboard #1 Jazz artist, Gabriel Bello, he landed a role working at an independent record label in Charlotte, NC, at age 17. There Averill worked with various artists and producers such as Kyla Imani, Andreao “Fanatic” Heard, Vincent Berry, and DaBaby. He is also known for designing home studios. In 2017 he helped Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers design his personal home studio and subsequently tracked sessions for Scott Avett, The Avett Brothers, and Eef Barzelay. Today he produces, mixes, masters, and edits for artists all over the world. He is also the owner of Averill Productions – the #1 place to work directly with an experienced engineer to transform your sound.
Chris Lord-Alge
Known for working with:
James Brown
Prince
Chaka Khan
Foo Fighters
Bon Jovi
Chris Lord-Alge is a five-time Grammy Award-winning American mixing engineer. He is the brother of audio engineers Jeff Lord-Alge and Tom Lord-Alge. His career took off while working for Unique Recording studios in the 1980s. He performed mixing duties on classics such as the Rocky IV soundtrack and James Brown’s album Gravity (including his famous his “Living In America”). His other credits include Chaka Khan, Carly Simon, Tina Turner, and the Rolling Stones. Chris and his brother Tom Lord-Alge are known inside the music industry for crafting their mix with a lot of dynamic compression for molding mixes that play well on small speakers and FM radio. The result is a punchy and aggressive sound that keeps him in high demand. While compression techniques have always existed as a functional tool, he is known for pushing the boundaries and using it as a creative enhancement. His signature style has become so well known that in 2010, Waves Audio released the CLA Artist Signature Collection series of audio plug-ins based on his effects chains.
Dave Pensado
Known for working with:
Mary J Blige
Destiny’s Child
Justin Timberlake
Christina Aguilera
Ice Cube
Dave Pensado began his career working in Atlanta as a studio engineer during the 1970s and 1980s. After moving to LA in 1990, he currently mixes between 200 to 250 songs yearly for various top artists. In addition, he hosts a show about audio engineering and mixing techniques called Pensado’s Place. Many of the top mixing engineers, producers, and artists have appeared on the show. Instead of using a lot of analog outboard gear, Dave is known for mixing in the box – meaning he prefers to process tracks digitally with audio plug-ins.
Gene Paul
Known for working with :
Aretha Franklin
Hall & Oates
Bee Gees
Donny Hathaway
Gene Paul is a nine-time Grammy Award-winning recording, mixing, and mastering engineer. His career includes various credits in each discipline, making him one of the most versatile engineers around. From the 1960s to-1980s, he worked at Atlantic Recording Studios. Gene Paul is the son of guitarist and inventor Les Paul. He has worked on thousands of hit recordings, including 7 #1’s on the Billboard Pop & Jazz charts, six more in the Pop Top 10, 10 more in the Jazz Top 10, and 5 in the R&B Top 20.
Bob Clearmountain
Known for working with:
Bruce Springsteen
David Bowie
The Rolling Stones
Tina Turner
Hall & Oats
Bob Clearmountain has worked with many of the biggest names in music. As a teenager, he loved music and played bass guitar in a band. He got his start in the technical side of the music business by working out of his makeshift home studio. After his band recorded a demo at Media Studio on 57th street in New York, he was hooked. Determined to make a career as an engineer, he frequently visited the studio to earn a job. Eventually, he was hired on as a gofer and worked his way into an assistant engineering position. His first session was with Duke Ellington. Clearmountain is known for popularizing the idea that mixing engineers can salvage projects and offer specific improvements. He is the first mixing engineer to negotiate a royalty for his work – something unheard of at the time. Despite technological advancements in digital recording, he still prefers to work on his analog mixing deck and treats Pro Tools software like a tape machine.
Tony Maserati
Known for working with:
Beyonce
Mary J Blige
Puff Daddy
Queen Latifah
Notorious B.I.G.
Tony Maserati is widely known for being partly responsible for the distinctive New York hip-hop and R&B sound. He worked at Sigma Sound Studios in New York at the beginning of his mixing career before going fully independent in 1989. Tony Maserati holds 10 Grammy nominations, winning one for working on Sérgio Mendes’s Timeless in 2006. He initially majored in composition at Berklee School of Music in the early 1980s, but switched his major to Music Production and Engineering in 1983. His mixes have earned sales over the $100 million mark. Previously Maserati worked with analog gear although, he has since developed a hybrid analog-digital approach to use the best of both worlds. His signature sound is so popular that computer plug-in developer Waves issues the “Tony Maserati Collection” processing bundle.
Phil Tan
Known for working with:
Mariah Carey
Ludacris
Rihanna
Justin Bieber
Ariana Grande
Malaysian-born Phil Tan is a three-time Grammy Award-winning mixing engineer. He came to the United States to attend Full Sail University in Florida. After finishing his time studying at full sail, Tan moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and has since become one of the most successful mixing engineers of all time. He has worked on 26 singles that have reached the top spot in Billboard’s Hot 100. His work has contributed to $220 million dollars in sales. His Grammy awards include Mariah Carey’s The Emancipation of Mimi in 2005, Ludacris’ Release Therapy in 2006, and Rihanna’s Only Girl (In the World) in 2010. He typically takes a day and a half per mix and averages 200 songs a year. While he used to mix on an SSL console for years, he now uses Pro Tools HD to mix in the box. To cope with carpal tunnel, he uses a Digidesign Icon control surface to get hands-on with the music.
George Massenburg
Known for working with:
Kenny Loggins
James Taylor
Earth, Wind & Fire
Journey
Herbie Hancock
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, George Y. Massenburg is both a recording engineer and an inventor. In the past 45 years, Massenburg has worked on over four hundred albums with an incredible array of artists in various genres. He began working part-time in both an electronics laboratory and a music studio at age 15. By his 20’s he became chief engineer at Europa Sonar Studios in Paris. In 1998, he was awarded the Grammy for Technical Achievement for his contributions to recording as a science and art form throughout his illustrious career. The paper he submitted to the Audio Engineering Society in 1972 concerning parametric equalization in recording is still renowned today. He continues to be published in trade magazines and professional journals globally.
Greg Wells
Another top mixing engineer is Greg Wells. He is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and record producer based in Los Angeles. Wells has songs on over 125 million albums sold and streaming numbers in the billions. He has produced and written with Adele, Dua Lipa, The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Rufus Wainwright, Katy Perry, Keith Urban, Twenty One Pilots, Kid Cudi, Deftones, Creeper Lagoon, Mayer Hawthorne, Theophilus London, Weezer, OneRepublic, Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Pharrell Williams, and more.
Jaycen Joshua
Jaycen Joshua is a mix engineer who works at Larrabee Sound Studios in North Hollywood, California. Joshua started his mix career in 2006 when he became partners with his mentor Dave Pensado and formed The Penua Project. Joshua has won multiple Grammys and mixed many Grammy Award-winning records such as “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” by Beyoncé and “Blame It” by Jamie Foxx, as well as over 60 #1 singles and albums. Including Despacito by Luis Fonsi feat. Justin Bieber. Joshua has worked with Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, Sean Combs, Jay-Z, Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Christina Aguilera, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, R. Kelly, Celine Dion, J-Lo, T.I., Usher, Michael Jackson, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, and more.