Sunday 28 September, 4:30pm.

About Paris.  

It’s time to turn my mind to the whirlwind that was last week, and everything that happened.  Firstly, thank you to the 62 donors who got me to Paris for the Mix with the Masters masterclass with Catherine Marks!

It was truly a dream week.

Music production can feel like a bit of a solitary pursuit, but gosh, this experience has been so energising and validating and wholesome.
What a privilege to spend four days in a world-class studio, just learning and absorbing with your peers, without the pressure of recording.

For the first time in Mix with the Masters’ (MWTM) history, womens’ participation in this workshop not only equalled, but outnumbered men. You could feel it in the room, too. The environment was so warm, so supportive and fun.

People came from all over to attend. France, the US, Germany, Brazil, Tunisia, Canada, Australia, the UK.

Catherine was incredible. She was down-to-earth, funny, encouraging and inspiring. She was really appreciative to the two of us who made the trip from Australia just to attend.

The days were a mix of activities. Often we jumped into her Pro Tools projects, and she took us through her decisions: how she got particular sounds, what kinds of effects and processing she used. She told us stories from the sessions she ran, and how she used pre-production time to get to know the artists, their musical references, and the way they wanted their records to feel.

Particular highlights: jumping into the Pro Tools session for boygenius’ Emily I’m Sorry, Sarah Julia’s track Daughters, and Manchester Orchestra’s The Silence.

We mic-ed drums and acoustic guitars, patched them in, used outboard (hardware) pre-amps, compressors and effects.

We also all brought tracks to share and receive feedback on. That was a really beautiful part of the day - you got to peer inside the other participants’ worlds: their projects, their stories, their motivations for working on songs.
People came from different musical paths: orchestral and classical composition, electronic music, folk, rock. Some people had only ever produced their own music (haiii), others were audio engineers who ran their own studios.
Testament to Catherine and MWTM that we all got so much out of it, even with our different musical backgrounds and levels of experience.

We went out for dinner and drinks together, exploring the 20th arrondissement. I loved that part of town - it reminded me of Berlin.

We all have a WhatsApp group now, and a global support network! We’ll definitely be keeping in touch with each other as we work on new projects.

Catherine has her tarot done by Alyce at La Bellevilloise. How about that sunset/ view!

I’m super excited to put all my learnings into practice. Thank you to Catherine Marks, the Mix with the Masters team, and the other incredible participants: Andrew, Alyce, Avelyn, Carl, Dave, Emma, Gabi, Leah, Laura, Lisa, Mckenzie, Pierre, Selim, Sophie, Sophie, Roman, Tom and Zoe.

Made possible by:

Acacia
Adelaide
Alastair
Alexandra
Amy
Andrew
Anna  
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Arianna
Stevi
Brendan
Caitlin
Chloe
Darcy
Flora
Helen
Jacqueline
Jacqui
Javier
Jeny
Jonathan
Jules
Karen
Kate
Kristen
Kristy
Leah
Mara
Nikki
Oliver
Paloma
Percy
Rebecca
Roberta
Robin
Shannon
Suzannah
Tara
Tom