Mike Post Interview

1:40 Luke F. Walton What's good, everybody? Welcome back. Back to love music more. I am Scoobert Doobert and I am joined with Mike Post from Moose Cat Recording. What's up, Mike? What's How you doing?

1:51 Mike Post going on, Scoop? Thanks so much for having me today.

1:53 Luke F. Walton So, so glad to have you. One of my favorite things to talk about is the recording process because it is the lab. It is the quiet space devoid of fans, devoid of noise where you try and craft what you're going for. And it's the place where you make mistakes.

2:10 Luke F. Walton extreme feel embarrassed but where you also like transcend and so i love talking to people that with that studio experience i see the studio behind you um excited to excited to dig in man so

2:20 Mike Post Yeah, likewise. I always love talking about anything and everything related to music.

2:26 Luke F. Walton where where are you located right now can you tell us a little bit about uh you know moose cat and um how you how you got started there

2:32 Mike Post yeah absolutely um so been running moose cat recording here in in uh in mid-city la um

2:39 Luke F. Walton Nice cool

2:39 Mike Post for since about 2016 now um yeah so we're like uh yeah kind of a analog focused recording studio definitely running pro tools and everything like that but have a like a mid-70s autotronics console run a lot of tape um so we have two rooms here now we just finished we have our main like

3:00 Mike Post in like studio a which has live room you know control room um and then our second room that we just finished is like an Atmos like production and mixing Atmos mixing room um so yeah two two rooms here on site and yeah i've been doing music for as long as i can remember and just trying to you know produce and engineer friends bands coming up that way and just uh yeah ever since i was a teenager Um, so always, uh,

3:29 Mike Post you know, happy to have the, have the studio, uh, as a place for artists to come and, and, um, try to make great music and yeah.

3:37 Luke F. Walton I love that. And I'm excited to talk to you a little bit about Dolby Atmos. I think that's a super interesting topic. And then also just creating that vibe for musicians that come in. But before we kind of get there, I'd love to talk about your musical journey, kind of how you ended up pointing your ship towards recording and then Los Angeles. How did you get the bug? What hooked you on music?

3:58 Mike Post yeah i mean just from like a young age i was just like a fan first of

4:02 Luke F. Walton cool

4:02 Mike Post just like obsessed with music somehow i don't know um

4:05 Luke F. Walton were there any like stand out so like in your mind is like a child that you're like okay that like you know did you hear a hair metal and you're like i want to do that did you hear jazz you're

4:14 Mike Post yeah

4:14 Luke F. Walton like all about that what was there anything that was special cool

4:17 Mike Post i wouldn't even say it's like genre specific i don't know just like i don't know i was just always hooked um but definitely like as a teenager you know listening like a lot of like but I like punk and pop punk in

4:29 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

4:29 Mike Post the in the 90s 2000s I grew up on Long Island so tons of bands coming up through there and a great like thriving local scene at that time so

4:37 Luke F. Walton Totally.

4:37 Mike Post um you know definitely set the stage and my and you know my dad played guitar a little bit so there are always always guitars like around the house I was just like one day I was just like oh what is this thing let me try to pick this thing up and uh

4:50 Mike Post um you know so just started there but even before that i was trying to like kind of write songs like in a very odd way you know so just always like i don't know tough to explain why but just uh you know kind of you know felt like that was the just had a sort of calling to work on music and

5:09 Luke F. Walton Culture.

5:09 Mike Post and to try to make music and um you know like pretty early on i would say when i was still in high school i kind of made made the decision that i was going to like be try to be an engineer and um i figured it was a little bit more realistic than you know trying to be an artist and do the band thing which i was doing still and still do but um you know try to i was like let me try to put a few more eggs in

5:32 Mike Post into this basket that's you know it's fun and you know definitely you know very super passionate about about making records and I was like you know a couple bad experiences right like going to a studio and spending a ton of money and then like not being thrilled with the result and I was like I could I could do this easily you know better than these guys so um yeah that's kind of where things got started

5:57 Luke F. Walton I like that. And I also like the thing about access, like every house should have a guitar or a piano or something just so that the kids in your family can have like that thing that they could be called to, you know.

6:10 Mike Post yeah yeah it's a it's almost like uh you know passed down or something Yeah. not that my family was ever like super you know perfect nobody was like professional or anything like that but i think more so just like having the music around and like both my parents are like huge fans of music Yes.

6:26 Mike Post and you know like in you know in new york they went to cbgb and all the places you know like seeing all these bands and stuff so they were always super into live music you music too which was a big thing so you know they were they would take me to to see stuff like at a young age so Um, yeah, it's ingrained. It's ingrained.

6:47 Luke F. Walton Yeah, I love that. I actually just did a podcast with a guy named Andy Chernoff who played CBGB all the time. And

6:54 Mike Post Oh,

6:54 Luke F. Walton I love

6:54 Mike Post nice.

6:54 Luke F. Walton those kind of anchor points, those places that it's like, like you're talking about the pop punk scene in Long Island, like these moments in time that catalyze genre and then

7:06 Luke F. Walton have fan bases that are associated with it and they can all just kind of like turn into the next thing and I'm so fascinated about how that is transforming now whether or not it will be tied to physical space or virtual space or some sort of combination sometimes I worry that music is like too diffuse like I look at my audience numbers and they're all around the world this is super cool don't get me wrong but there's also kind of that feeling of like okay where's my regional center though like where do I go play I don't really know

7:31 Mike Post Yeah, it's sort of a little bit more spread out now. oh which is you know both good and bad right like

7:37 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

7:37 Mike Post you kind of

7:37 Luke F. Walton for

7:37 Mike Post have you

7:37 Luke F. Walton sure.

7:37 Mike Post know the scenes scenes still exist I think but yeah maybe it's like a few people here in this city a few people here in that city so you can find obviously find your audience like a little more niche in that way but there's something cool about like those days yeah I was thinking it's like how how did it just happen where like there

7:56 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

7:56 Mike Post were all these bands making such a similar sound like what is like the psychology behind like how that happens like you know you know it's obviously it's influences in this but it's just like that moment in time and this there's certain regions and stuff how it's just like all this stuff just happening at the same time and it's just it's like a phenomenon really

8:16 Luke F. Walton Yes.

8:16 Mike Post interesting how that however That comes to be I don't know it's

8:20 Luke F. Walton totally

8:20 Mike Post probably got to be tied to human nature in some way but

8:23 Luke F. Walton absolutely and like david burns book i thought he put out a pretty cool um hypothesis on that tied to venues or

8:29 Mike Post Okay

8:30 Luke F. Walton like personnel um so like if a bunch of people have like muscle shoals or something like that is like one example of like a studio world where you have like the same kind of personnel that are playing in a smaller city and so everybody that's kind of playing there recording there start to like develop a certain sound and then it gets then it gets popular or

8:46 Mike Post Yeah,

8:47 Luke F. Walton or you look at cbgb where that's like a specific venue and it's certain kinds of music sounds good there and plays well with the regulars there and so that kind of like creates its own momentum where the people that are successful are the ones that play well to that crowd in that room and then they get more dates and then it just kind of spirals and then you have at least a loose idea of a sound or a genre or vibe um and like basement shows you know like i think about the grunge stuff

9:13 Luke F. Walton where grunge music makes sense in a basement you're hitting stuff there's not a ton going on there's not a bunch of synths or whatever there's not a ton of notes it's like it's powerful and uh it's like something you want to be sweaty and listening to and like kind of rubbing up against people same thing with like pop punk like there's like a certain energy that you're trying to cultivate out of the audience and i think that that energy ends up feeding the genre almost more than the genre feeds the energy energy

9:41 Mike Post Totally.

9:41 Luke F. Walton maybe i don't

9:42 Mike Post Yeah,

9:42 Luke F. Walton know that's

9:42 Mike Post no,

9:42 Luke F. Walton just yeah

9:43 Mike Post I think there's definitely something to that. And just like the limitation to obviously like going down to just like, oh, guitar, right? Like so accessible and like everybody could go pick that up, like even before my time at Sears or whatever.

9:57 Luke F. Walton yeah

9:57 Mike Post Like you

9:57 Luke F. Walton right

9:58 Mike Post didn't need a whole piano or you didn't need a whole orchestra or whatever. Like, yeah.

10:03 Luke F. Walton totally and it's portable and it's cool like i still think that the guitar like playing guitar on stage will It will always be cool. You're more mobile than the drummer, which is arguably the cooler instrument. But at least the guitarist, like you can go into the audience and play with them. Like you have that portability that in your face-ness of like just this magic weapon. It's awesome.

10:23 Mike Post oh hell yeah yeah i always wanted like i'm funny like i wanted to be a drummer but

10:27 Luke F. Walton Yes.

10:27 Mike Post it was like yeah like you know we gotta have the space to do it and you gotta have you know people who are willing to put up with you

10:35 Mike Post sounding making noise for

10:37 Luke F. Walton Yep.

10:37 Mike Post yeah i

10:38 Luke F. Walton Yep. No, I believe me. I know I've got that thing back there, but I cannot play it at all hours. And it's it's like that's my this is my first indoor drum kit I've ever had because of this. I don't have a shared wall back here on it's all the way on the other side.

10:51 Mike Post that's huge yeah

10:51 Luke F. Walton So I I can at least within some reasonable hours make some noise on my kit.

10:57 Mike Post that's a revelation

10:58 Luke F. Walton Yeah, yeah, it is. So how did you how did you like? like identify engineering as that thing that you wanted to put more eggs into that basket so you said you went into the studio you were a little let down by kind of you were watching the way that these engineers were working let down by the output what did you do next did you try to in turn did you try to you know get your own home recording rig what

11:19 Mike Post Sure.

11:19 Luke F. Walton was your next step

11:21 Mike Post yeah it was both for sure i think it started with the home recording rig like i had like a task cam like a digital recorder you

11:27 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

11:27 Mike Post know i

11:27 Luke F. Walton yeah, yeah.

11:27 Mike Post had the four track stuff too so i was doing that even before that but for demos but then i got like a like a digital recorder you know this is probably like i don't know 2000 2001 something like something like that maybe 2002 um so yeah i was just like starting all right it's like yeah i could what we just spent on the studio for the day i could get this mixer this

11:50 Luke F. Walton yes

11:50 Mike Post recording device and like a couple couple microphones and just try it and see you know we could spend more time doing it so it definitely came from like all right let's like record my music you know that was

12:01 Luke F. Walton okay i still justify stuff that way where it's like i could go into the studio or you know i could find that microphone and get a little more sound treatment or

12:09 Mike Post totally totally um but yeah i don't know then i was just always i was just super drawn to like to like the whole process of of you know and like you said like a like uh like that feeling of just being in the studio and like

12:22 Luke F. Walton yeah

12:22 Mike Post you know just working and and finding sounds and like you know making something sound better and better just like seeing the whole thing come together it's like a drug or something totally i don't know yeah

12:32 Luke F. Walton it so is and it's great too because you can you can fail you can make mistakes but no one will know they only hear the final recording which is sometimes what i get stressed out with like references when you're if you're like trying to hit hit like a certain type of drum sound it's like yo i'm listening to like a mastered mixed finished thing and i am on take one it's

12:52 Mike Post Yeah.

12:52 Luke F. Walton like there are a lot of steps for me to get from here to there it's a little unfair sometimes um but no one needs to know yeah

12:58 Mike Post Yeah. I mean, or maybe those mistakes are baked in and you wouldn't see it as a mistake, but yeah.

13:04 Luke F. Walton yeah yeah yeah that's a good point right that's a really good point so okay so you get your test camera recorder do you do any sort of like intern or apprenticeship The ship kind of

13:12 Mike Post Yeah,

13:12 Luke F. Walton works you have

13:12 Mike Post oh

13:12 Luke F. Walton like mentors

13:12 Mike Post yeah.

13:13 Luke F. Walton cool

13:13 Mike Post I probably did maybe five, six different internships.

13:16 Luke F. Walton Whoa

13:16 Mike Post I did one in New York. I did one in Boston where I went to school at Northeastern. Then I came out to LA like for a couple of different times for a summer for like six months I came out here like during school to like do an internship.

13:31 Luke F. Walton Mm-hmm

13:31 Mike Post Then I came back out again and then I moved here.

13:34 Luke F. Walton What were the vibes like between the different studios in the place like it's like did you have a feeling like oh this feels like more like what a new york studio feels like a boston studio la studio or is it just kind of more just you know person to person people you're working with

13:47 Mike Post I

13:47 Luke F. Walton yeah

13:47 Mike Post think more just like studio to studio less

13:49 Luke F. Walton yeah

13:50 Mike Post so than you know every studio has its own vibe and its own its own setup you know some some are like more accessible and some give you a little bit more like hey here's here's the keys you know some are more like you know wait in the lobby. And so you just try to kind of make your way in. I just was like just dying to learn as much as I could.

14:08 Mike Post And I think, you know, it was nice when I could also use the studio sometimes to, you know, make those mistakes on my own time as well as, you know, get to witness other people working and, you know, at a high level.

14:22 Mike Post um so I didn't I did that as as long as I could and as much as I could and worked for free for you know probably a cumulative amount of uh you know a criminal amount of time Yes.

14:33 Mike Post um yeah even when I moved out to LA I still was doing that you know for a little while and just yeah just trying to get my foot in the door um and just yeah and then it got to a point where I was like you know getting hired for certain gigs and I bet I would start to reach out to like engineers and producers that I that I like really admired um and I linked up with a producer Raymond Richards who I worked for him like out of his studio for about five years and just learned you know really learned how to cut my teeth and watching him like the whole process of like start to finish and you know he kind of took me under his wing um you know so just having a few mentors like that as well as I had another

15:15 Mike Post uh mentor peter malik who i worked at his studio and he did the same thing with me and just yeah really took me under their wings and kind of like was like you know just watching people on a day-to-day basis you know who you know like have made records that you love right like it's like oh it's eye-opening i think it's still eye-opening for me to just even go into a big studio and just see the spaces and be like oh okay like

15:46 Mike Post i i get i get how they did this now look at this room this like you can you know set up one mic in this room and it sounds insane like you know there's it's like you know it's a we try to like

15:59 Mike Post you know it's a mystical thing but then when you kind of like see you know how the cooking is done a little bit you sort of be like oh okay yeah i could do that i could i think i could i could take this little piece from this place and this person and apply it to my own taste yeah

16:16 Luke F. Walton Yes, I like that. What's good guys? Scoobert Doobert here for the Love Music More podcast and I want to let you in on a little secret. One of my favorite new things, minuetno lossless.

16:26 Luke F. Walton earplugs so these are really really really cool i've got two of them here um it comes in this awesome sweet box but it comes with a bunch of little goodies like carrying case tether cleaning tools but the real tech is in these little tiny lossless earplugs my favorite thing about it is one you can swap out any of the included tips so depending on the size of your ear canal we're all built different you can get a nice

16:52 Luke F. Walton nice comfortable fit but there's also this little lever on these adjustable versions that can go from 7 to 25 decibels of cutting so depending on if you're listening to new metal or jazz you can just hit the little lever and adjust in real time i think that's really really cool you know for the longest time i was listening in those awful foam earplugs and it makes the music sound like that it just cuts off all of those high frequencies um and so i was always tempted to sneak them out a little bit oh it's my favorite song no earplugs and you get hearing damage you

17:21 Luke F. Walton But you have tinnitus after the show and then you come back you want to work in the studio and guess what your ears aren't right and that's why I love Minuendo because you can just pop these in and have full full full fidelity with these lossless earplugs. There are two different versions one is adjustable with a little lever and then this one is fixed at 17 decibels.

17:40 Luke F. Walton So check out minuendo m-i-n-u-e-n-d-o dot com where you can search them on Amazon and find.

17:48 Luke F. Walton minnuendo earplugs today get cracking and i like the idea too of start to finish because i think it's it's easier to be like to think okay i know what to do on recording day

18:01 Luke F. Walton but to know what to do on recording day in order to have a good mix you know like those those things are very different and far more valuable rather than just like an isolated i set up mic someone else does the rest of the work you know yeah

18:14 Mike Post totally totally yeah i mean it's still still stuff i'm always trying to be like to adjust and make you know make those adjustments feel like okay i mix you know here's what happened when i got to the mix it's like okay how can i improve on the other stage to make it make it even better when I go into mix and make it easier to get the you know get to the place that you want to get um

18:34 Luke F. Walton Exactly.

18:34 Mike Post so

18:35 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

18:35 Mike Post yeah

18:35 Luke F. Walton Which is a really hard thing, I think, for young or like starting, don't have to be young to be starting, recording engineers is sometimes being afraid to do stuff. and but like if you start identifying that you you always do this in the mix it's like maybe just do it on the front end when you're recording or like if you're always reaching for this like maybe give it some juice some sauce

18:58 Mike Post yeah

18:59 Luke F. Walton right right

18:59 Mike Post yeah

18:59 Luke F. Walton in the beginning yeah

19:00 Mike Post yeah i mean always the best mixes are the ones that sounded the best from the beginning like always it's like did it did it sound amazing right in the room like then it's gonna probably sound pretty good on the mix like if it didn't sound that good it's like

19:14 Mike Post it's like to begin with it's probably not going to sound that good even after you know even if you make it marginally better or whatever and you mix it as best you can or whatever it's you know there's no replacement for that at the source you know great musicianship great room great you know sounding recording right so

19:31 Luke F. Walton Totally.

19:31 Mike Post that's like you know once you once you get you kind of learn that then you'll start to I think you know really improve the whole quality of everything

19:41 Luke F. Walton I totally agree. And I think it also allows you to have more control on what the actual output is. One thing that I had issues with was recording, especially kick drums, still difficult, can be very difficult. A lot of frequencies going Yeah. on, a lot of dynamics going on.

20:00 Luke F. Walton and I kept being really frustrated because I would get mixes back and be like that just doesn't sound right it was because the mix engineer was like sound replacing the kick and you know doing stuff because it just he was like I can't work with this and so but like having that conversation and getting to know okay the mix engineer and then becoming a mix engineer myself was like a lot easier to be like okay that's what I'm doing wrong okay this is what I need to add or like maybe I'll sound replace it on my end rather than like giving such trash to the mix engineer that he has to take it on himself you know

20:28 Mike Post Totally.

20:28 Luke F. Walton you

20:28 Mike Post like totally putting it making it like all right here's really what i want it to sound like before

20:33 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

20:33 Mike Post it

20:33 Luke F. Walton exactly.

20:33 Mike Post even gets to that point to let somebody else clean up yeah looks like you have your the head off on that I

20:40 Luke F. Walton yeah i

20:40 Mike Post think,

20:41 Luke F. Walton do i

20:41 Mike Post yeah,

20:41 Luke F. Walton do uh-huh it's

20:43 Mike Post yeah, I

20:43 Luke F. Walton this is a weird uh this is a weird kit um it's like a yamaha um mini custom so like all of the shells are super super small i'm actually

20:53 Mike Post don't

20:53 Luke F. Walton gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna explore taking off the um rezo heads on the toms too to see if i can get kind of like that 70s thing on it but it's a it's a pretty weird beast i still haven't fully wrapped my head around um uh recording that guy yet but

21:08 Mike Post Sure.

21:08 Luke F. Walton that's that's what the next record's for you know

21:10 Mike Post Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's always the next record. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. What's in there too? It looks like something's inside

21:15 Luke F. Walton yeah

21:16 Mike Post there.

21:16 Luke F. Walton there's a little pillow

21:16 Mike Post Okay, okay. Okay. I thought it was like a dope, dope, dope. Yeah.

21:22 Luke F. Walton yeah yeah

21:22 Mike Post Sometimes I'll throw like a cinder block or something in there.

21:25 Luke F. Walton yeah yeah totally

21:25 Mike Post Yeah.

21:25 Luke F. Walton i've done that too um i've got some i've got some bricks downstairs that i'm gonna try next time i um record it throw some bricks with the with the pillow and see if i can get like a really you know kind of sound um especially since a lot of my music is pretty electronic it's trying to figure out what why am i adding drums you know it's not necessarily adding drums as the centerpiece of the

21:47 Luke F. Walton to the focal point it's like adding drums as interest or something to sample or like tops you know like using electronic stuff as the kick snare kind of like foundation and adding in ghost notes you know

22:02 Mike Post yeah

22:02 Luke F. Walton like that that's

22:02 Mike Post yeah yeah

22:03 Luke F. Walton kind of the way i'm trying to think of the kit and that's probably the reason why i didn't spend a whole bunch of money getting like a really big awesome rock kit because i just i don't think i'm gonna do a lot of that here you know yeah oh

22:13 Mike Post just kind of like a hybrid yeah man that's what i loved about you know all your stuff man it's like thanks it has that kind of synergy between like like the surreal and and the real yeah

22:25 Luke F. Walton cool that's exactly what i wanted what i'm going

22:27 Mike Post Yeah.

22:27 Luke F. Walton for so i'm so glad it's landing and but i think this is also another good example of yeah thinking of what you're going to end up doing on the output and then affecting the input to

22:35 Mike Post Oh yeah.

22:36 Luke F. Walton get there you know what i mean like

22:37 Mike Post Totally.

22:37 Luke F. Walton it's so easy to just be like yeah i'll get the nicest thing but it's like is that what you're going for is that the genre is that the vibe like maybe but uh maybe not you

22:46 Mike Post Yeah.

22:46 Luke F. Walton know yeah

22:46 Mike Post Yeah. You might just need one mic to get that sound rather than a full look at the whole. The whole kit.

22:53 Luke F. Walton for sure i mean like it's the tame impala kind of vibe because i'm sort of in his family tree of genre and he records a bunch of stuff like two three mics

23:02 Mike Post yeah

23:02 Luke F. Walton Wow.

23:02 Mike Post outside right yeah

23:03 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Yeah, right.

23:05 Mike Post i love that yeah

23:07 Luke F. Walton It's awesome. Why not?

23:08 Mike Post that's the dream right there totally

23:10 Luke F. Walton It so is.

23:11 Mike Post isolate i mean yeah i think is there like outside has could have the best acoustics like out of anything as long as there's no like other sound happening but the

23:20 Luke F. Walton Yeah, or Angry

23:21 Mike Post wind the

23:22 Luke F. Walton Neighbors.

23:22 Mike Post wind might have something to say about

23:23 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

23:23 Mike Post that but

23:24 Luke F. Walton yeah,

23:24 Mike Post yeah

23:24 Luke F. Walton yeah. Yeah, exactly. If I had to build a studio inside of a volcano. volcano covering all sides yeah

23:31 Mike Post Don't tempt us.

23:32 Luke F. Walton be pretty metal so i want to i want to talk about um kind of like the decisions from you know your previous experience working with incredible producer engineers doing internships kind of like building your chops

23:47 Luke F. Walton what what learning kind of influenced this studio and the way you wanted to develop it the way you wanted to build it the gear you wanted to prioritize how did you know how did you do that to make the space of your dreams or of your

24:01 Mike Post Yeah,

24:01 Luke F. Walton own you know

24:01 Mike Post yeah, sure. I guess, you know, just the same kind of thing as recording, like picking a piece of like every thing that you liked, you know, and just like, I would say like the whole place is just sort of like. you know for better for worse i've like curated for my taste you

24:18 Luke F. Walton Cool.

24:18 Mike Post know like it's

24:18 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

24:19 Mike Post tough to like try to know what other people are going to like i think thankfully like most of the stuff that i have like people people like a lot as well so but like i feel like if i don't have if i don't use something for like a certain amount of time i'll just get rid of it and get and get something else so always kind of like doing that trade-up thing too of

24:37 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

24:37 Mike Post like that's what i've been doing since i was 13 right like i had had a computer whatever and an interface and then I would sell that one and I would get the next the next thing and just like trading up up up up um until you know somehow I got this studio with

24:52 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

24:52 Mike Post all this great gear you

24:53 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

24:53 Mike Post know um but yeah everything in here for the most part is stuff that I adore or like that I use on every session almost you know not not every instrument but um you know the recording gear is going to be stuff that I use all the time so it's stuff that I

25:09 Mike Post you know just whittling down over the years and just being like oh yeah you know I haven't used touch that guitar in a year I think I think I don't probably need it anymore um you

25:18 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

25:18 Mike Post know

25:18 Luke F. Walton right.

25:18 Mike Post so trying to like incorporate everything into the workflow and have it be like you know a choice piece that that will get used here and not just sits around um but yeah I think just following like you know following my my own gut as far as like oh yeah that that seems like something that I that I need and then of course it's like there's also like you know trying to do it on the cheap right like

25:41 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

25:41 Mike Post you

25:41 Luke F. Walton totally.

25:42 Mike Post know I don't have a Neve console or anything like that so I have to have you know Neve clones that you know I have like the seventh circle audio you know rack that gets me my extra you know 7a preamps that sound amazing but they didn't cost you know cost

25:57 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

25:57 Mike Post a ton so trying to keep within that sort of limitation limitation too and and just always looking also like I'm like heavy on like like craigslist ebay back in the day especially like just going on and just going to people and finding stuff that's

26:13 Mike Post yeah like oh this was like super cheap i'll i'll try it out if i love it i'll keep it if i don't i'll try to flip it um

26:19 Mike Post yeah especially yeah in la the the amount of gear that's on like craigslist stuff on in la is is pretty incredible sometimes because

26:26 Mike Post yeah studios will shut down or whatever yeah you can find some you can find some deals you just got to be you know how obsessed if

26:31 Mike Post Yeah. you're obsessed like oh yeah i'm always on facebook marketplace like oh why something it's like found like a holy grail pedal it was like somebody selling it for 15 bucks i was like i already have one but i'm gonna go get this other one too because why not you know it's like a it's a good deal so always looking for like a good steal um anytime that that comes around um and then yeah also just getting lucky like a lot of times like um with acquiring gear or just like making good

27:00 Mike Post you know good transactions with with with friends or whatever who want to leave leave stuff here sometimes stuff

27:06 Luke F. Walton Yeah, yeah.

27:07 Mike Post like that too so um yeah I think it's just it's just like trying to and of course like I have my own taste too of just the type of music that I generally work on which is more in the indie vein you know I don't have a like you know kind of like quote-unquote like you know I don't have like a Sony c800 right

27:28 Mike Post Yeah, like this right. like like the one chain that is going to be hey this is what it is every time you know I like to have a little more of a variety for like different styles um and you know kind of kind of be ready for almost anything

27:41 Mike Post Let me look up how much a Sony C800 look costs just for the listeners' perspective.

27:48 Mike Post I'm probably talking yes 12. I mean a vintage older one. Yeah. I don't know 12 alex

27:53 Mike Post so uh-huh 15 at least yeah i see a used one this is on reverb for 12 500 um not not bad yeah

28:02 Mike Post bad right just for just for the listener that that microphone is like the um hip-hop and pike pop microphone the like if you're trying to be on top 40 radio um i've used um so i bought i bought a new universal audio um kind of like brain to run this studio one of the new apollos and and it came with for free one of their spear modeling

28:24 Mike Post Oh, yeah, microphones which i never yeah, yeah. would have bought um and it has a c800 that sounds pretty good i've

28:31 Mike Post I bet used it it on a couple does. recordings I bet it does. Yeah. no it's super bright um like i just did a song i think the one i just released this last week was called singing for you and it was like all c800 but it's fun because it like it sounds like the pop thing so it makes you sing like the pop thing obviously wouldn't use it for everything and it obviously does not sound as good as actually having a

28:50 Mike Post having a $12,000 microphone running into a you know $100,000 desk or whatever uh

28:55 Mike Post right but hey still you know pretty man close get to if it gets you 80 of the way there it's like if you can make up you know if music's good and the melody's good and

29:05 Mike Post yeah exactly the the voice thing that is got good the thing that got me was that it unlocked a certain it's unlocked a different kind of performance that was why I was like okay I'm sort of sold because I wouldn't have sung the way that I sung um into this you know or into a different microphone

29:21 Mike Post Sure. uh just Yeah, would that it come kind of stuff out different can be yeah inspiring too.

29:24 Mike Post it is it's weird it's weird how that is and um it's one of the reasons why i think vocalists should sing with their headphones on more often

29:35 Mike Post i'm curious what your thought is on this but i actually a lot of a lot of young vocalists are like so like this

29:40 Mike Post do or so the one like ear yeah i yeah like we need kind to hear of i prefer just as a singer i like the one ear

29:44 Mike Post you i like the one ear yeah yeah yeah totally for one ear just to hear myself like and to feel like

29:48 Mike Post real the yes vibration of like my body or something and it helps me stay but and some sometimes i i do notice like singers like

29:58 Mike Post like they and i do this too like even on guitar if i hear too much of myself i get like scared like

30:03 Mike Post Yes, so true. i Yeah, need totally. to like fit Totally. into the music a little bit to really like let loose um

30:08 Mike Post I agree with that. but if you have a really good headphone mix and it's like all dialed in perfect perfectly yeah it's it's like you're in like it's like a you know 3d experience of

30:19 Mike Post yeah like it's like you're out of body or something yeah totally totally but so it could definitely work all all

30:25 Mike Post it can the way come yeah both ways though i agree like sometimes i'll get too in my head or like thinking too producer-y as i'm performing it's like no i don't want to do that um but the there was like a light bulb moment and again i'm doing my own headphone mixes so i'm doing it exactly the way i want it you know um and i'm compressing plenty on the way in and it's it's like it is sitting in

30:43 Mike Post the mix well enough for it to like draw out a performance that like i would want to hear as the producer mixer which ends up being like a very happy thing but i had a really hard time i had to had to had to like leave the ear off because i wanted to hear my voice the way i understood my voice to be just like out

31:00 Mike Post Totally. in the wild but that's not ultimately what ends up on the record what ends up on the record is what comes through the microphone and like flipping that mentality for me at least helped me sing more

31:05 Luke F. Walton up on the record is it comes through the microphone and like flipping that mentality for me at least helped me sing more towards the song sing more towards the mic and uh allowed like a situation like that fake c800 to influence my performance because it's pulling out different like frequencies in my voice um so just naturally like as i'm speaking i'm i'm

31:24 Luke F. Walton i'm probably speaking with a little more presence because i'm talking into this microphone you know it's

31:28 Mike Post yeah yeah

31:29 Luke F. Walton weird

31:29 Mike Post that's awesome yeah i think and then like if you're hearing closer to what the final thing is going to be yeah

31:34 Luke F. Walton yes exactly

31:35 Mike Post you

31:35 Luke F. Walton 100

31:35 Mike Post like kind of fit in fit it in the in the mix a little bit more yeah

31:39 Luke F. Walton and like and like you i'll do all the like little subconscious things of like you know every microphone captures transients like the attacks for the listeners like the transient response of microphones is slightly different and so i think that

31:52 Luke F. Walton that um you know most people that have done a lot of singing into the microphone or whatever will probably subtly shift the way that they're actually hitting those transients based on how it's coming through yeah

32:02 Mike Post Totally, yeah,

32:04 Luke F. Walton um which is why i get i get stressed out about compression sometimes when i'm recording um vocals because i don't want to like screw it up or mislead a vocalist you know

32:15 Mike Post yeah yeah that's what i usually just do a little bit i you know i won't take take too much off just just a little bit and i don't really record with any like plugins on generally um

32:25 Luke F. Walton Nice. Yeah, that's cool.

32:26 Mike Post just yeah just like straight you know preamp hardware

32:29 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

32:29 Mike Post compressor um

32:30 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

32:30 Mike Post it's obviously it makes it easier when like i'm lucky to have a tube tech so

32:35 Luke F. Walton Yes, totally.

32:35 Mike Post it's like i

32:36 Luke F. Walton Right.

32:36 Mike Post mean yeah it's like tough to make that sound bad um

32:39 Luke F. Walton Yes.

32:40 Mike Post uh even if you're taking a little bit more off off of it it's still you know it almost gives you like that more finished type of sound when

32:48 Luke F. Walton for

32:48 Mike Post you have like that crazy good vocal chain right like it's

32:51 Luke F. Walton sure exactly

32:52 Mike Post almost like what you were talking about just like but just with the hardware it's like oh yeah i sound like a professional yeah

32:58 Luke F. Walton which is so important it's easier to give a professional performance if you sound like a professional yeah yeah go for it yeah go for it yeah

33:05 Mike Post totally yeah i mean yeah yeah i don't like to be scared like when you're you know

33:10 Luke F. Walton when yes

33:10 Mike Post anybody's singing like they're scared

33:12 Luke F. Walton and the thing about guitar is so real too i've had gigs like it's like that that have been hard where like the amp is like facing right at me or the you know the on stage volume is too high and so you can't really hear anybody but yourself and it's just a very naked weird kind of experience and

33:29 Mike Post Yeah.

33:29 Luke F. Walton i know some guitarists like it because like they got like the double half stack and for certain genres of music like you're playing acdc like who cares like be loud um but if you're playing like in a funk context or a hip-hop context or pop context it's like i kind of want to talk tuck in. I want to know the folds of the groove to

33:45 Mike Post Totally.

33:45 Luke F. Walton fit myself. Yeah.

33:46 Mike Post Yeah, also just like... I think it's like, I don't know, it makes me think about it, like on stage, especially I don't want to really think it's

33:54 Luke F. Walton No,

33:54 Mike Post like, second

33:54 Luke F. Walton totally.

33:55 Mike Post you start to think about it, you're in trouble. Like, I just try not to think and just like, so if I hear too much of like, Oh, is that the note I always play?

34:03 Luke F. Walton Yes.

34:03 Mike Post Yeah, yeah, of course it is. Of course it is just shut up and play and just let let the instinct take over. So trying to find that balance of like, yeah, I can hear myself and I fit in but also like, not over over thinking it.

34:15 Luke F. Walton Yes. Yeah,

34:16 Mike Post It's

34:16 Luke F. Walton it's,

34:16 Mike Post yeah.

34:16 Luke F. Walton it's, and that's And that's a really good thing. I think a lot about sports psychology and the analogs to like music performance psychology.

34:24 Mike Post Hmm

34:24 Luke F. Walton And this can transition really well into talking about the vibes that you create for the people that come in and record. But I feel like I don't ever want to think. But I have to be present. It's like that equilibrium, like if you're trying to blow the ball and not have it hit the back of the tube, but never have it hit your lips, like

34:46 Mike Post Yeah.

34:46 Luke F. Walton just kind of floating in there. It's that balancing act of present, focused, intense, but not thinking tight or also like not too loose and just like de-gaffing, you Totally. know?

35:01 Mike Post Yeah.

35:02 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

35:02 Mike Post And a lot of that is like preparation too.

35:04 Luke F. Walton Absolutely.

35:04 Mike Post It's probably like when it comes to sports too, like if you're like conditioned, like you're gonna like those muscles are gonna like take over and like just let you like, you know, do the performance that you need to do without. having to break down the mechanics of your of your vocal performance

35:19 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

35:19 Mike Post or your technique you know it's like if you're comfortable with your technique then you don't have to think about the technique if you think about the technique you're like not as focused on on the song or whatever so yeah

35:31 Luke F. Walton for sure.

35:31 Mike Post all those things gotta like line up like perfect

35:34 Luke F. Walton It's

35:35 Mike Post but animal

35:35 Luke F. Walton it's

35:35 Mike Post yeah

35:35 Luke F. Walton probably like golfing. I don't golf, but I bet it's like that.

35:38 Mike Post yeah yeah i don't golf either but it probably is probably

35:41 Luke F. Walton I'll get a golfer on here and just like pick

35:43 Mike Post harder

35:43 Luke F. Walton his brain.

35:43 Mike Post but you know i'm biased

35:46 Luke F. Walton Sorry to interrupt this very important broadcast, but it's time for one more advertisement for myself for this podcast. What I'm asking for is for you to rate it five stars to share it with your friends. This is like the most important thing for this podcast to grow. So if you want to do this, you go into the podcast screen, right? You click on the dot dot dot on Spotify.

36:04 Luke F. Walton Under there, it says rate show and you go and you click it five stars. If you could do that for me, that's the best way for the algorithms, all that stuff.

36:12 Luke F. Walton stuff to share it out with the world i know that it's a lot to ask but if you could please please please just please just hit those three dots and then a five star would really help us out and helps us you know get the get the word out and spread the love of music so thank you if you're listening on youtube you know what to do like subscribe all that good stuff thank you so much and here's the rest of the episode i'm curious so if you have somebody into your studio how do you how do you create the environment or the supportive kind of like situation so they can give their best performances

36:39 Luke F. Walton This is sick.

36:40 Mike Post yeah so i i think luckily like at least and this is like a lot of feedback that we hear and um that just having been in this space for like eight years like you can kind of see like out here we have like a whole outdoor space um

36:53 Luke F. Walton Yes,

36:53 Mike Post so i like you know we like work with the with the you know we also have like like some light coming in here like

37:01 Luke F. Walton yeah,

37:01 Mike Post in the studio so it's not like a deep dark like cavernous like

37:05 Luke F. Walton right.

37:05 Mike Post dungeon

37:06 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

37:06 Mike Post to make music in so yeah. i think that kind of like sets the stage and like honestly does half the work like you know where it's like oh people come here and it's like a it's a homey vibe and you know they just feel comfortable like without us you know having to do say or say or do much like so i think that like just setting that environment is like really important and just like having a place where people just feel like they're at home and just like feel super comfortable to

37:33 Mike Post to create and they're not like you know sometimes you go to a big studio and it's like the spotlight is on you and you see like the the red button come on it's it's like stage fright right so like

37:43 Luke F. Walton For

37:43 Mike Post yeah i think that's what we kind of tried to do that and my my partner and wife carly she's like she curated all that i can't even take credit for like the whole setup she was like we need to have this light coming in i'm like how is that going to work with the sound like we need to be soundproof and you know

38:00 Mike Post it's like i don't care like we have to have the light coming in and that's probably like the you know that and a million other kind of decisions that she made like you know really sort of like made the space like really homey and just like a good vibe where and you know people can step outside catch them catch some fresh air like right here you know so i think that's like definitely takes a lot of the load off me having to like make people feel comfortable like but then you know even so it's just like

38:27 Mike Post It's like, yeah, just kind of, you know, keeping the keeping the vibes like. you know professional but also just like more low-key and just like you know we're just here like making music and just

38:39 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

38:39 Mike Post not trying to put too much too much pressure on anybody and just like reminding people hey you know like we're not like we can always come back to this or you know there's no pressure like just trying to keep the pressure off and just make it seem like it's just like a normal you know like you're at rehearsal or you're at you know whatever just like I think, yeah, like, and not like having to be like, oh, hey,

39:02 Mike Post your time's about to be over right now,

39:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

39:05 Mike Post you know,

39:05 Luke F. Walton right

39:05 Mike Post like, if you don't get this focal line, you're screwed forever, you know, like, I think just, so I don't know, I think, and I think like I'm pretty like a laid back person, like, so hopefully like that, that people can kind of feel that and just like, you know, just like, yeah, again, just trying to keep the pressure off and also I think the preparation thing too.

39:25 Mike Post is really big like i always try to like even if it's just like a one day session or something like i'll try to be really familiar with like the person's music and we'll have like conversations ahead of time where i'm saying hey you know send me some demos like even if it's a phone demo like i want to know what the song sounds like i want to like know what your you know kind of your vision is and like you know i'm here to like help like facilitate that and like

39:51 Mike Post so just for me like being comfortable with the music like you know sometimes it still happens where it's like oh i didn't have a demo whatever the

39:57 Luke F. Walton Mm

39:57 Mike Post person

39:57 Luke F. Walton -hmm.

39:58 Mike Post it's like a last minute booking or something and they show up and i have no idea what we're doing but i try to avoid that at all costs because like i know what that's like to like walk into a studio and like have the engineer be completely clueless to like what your music is like and

40:12 Luke F. Walton Totally.

40:12 Mike Post like oh i've never even heard this heard not only have i never heard you but like i'm not familiar with this style of music at all and you know like i think everybody's like been there where you're and they just sit there and they just hit record right and you're like uh like you're you're just like unsure about everything so

40:30 Luke F. Walton Yes.

40:30 Mike Post creating like an environment where like artists can feel confident and just share that they're like doing the right thing and going in that right direction um

40:40 Mike Post I think that's that's like, you know, kind of been our approach here and, you know, always like kind of like, yeah, even just the setup preparation to like being like two steps ahead of everybody like, oh, I think that they might even as an assistant, this is something I learned like.

40:57 Mike Post that's how you get to if you're an assistant and you want to become the engineer like

41:01 Luke F. Walton Mm-hmm.

41:01 Mike Post be two to three steps ahead of of even the engineer like do you think somebody's going to need a cable dropped here like make sure that you have something waiting in the wings just in case like try to anticipate and i try to tell like anybody who interns here like that's

41:17 Luke F. Walton Yes.

41:18 Mike Post the biggest thing anticipation of like what's going to happen next or what's what could happen next

41:23 Luke F. Walton Yes.

41:23 Mike Post and just being like ready for that moment like and like it still gets the best of me sometimes like sometimes they're like oh hey uh you know we're gonna do this now and blah blah blah like we need this set up and like you know something comes out of left field like and you're like oh okay yeah sure like

41:39 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

41:40 Mike Post you know you're gonna have to pivot all the time but just as much as you can be prepared and you know so like for my session tomorrow right like we're setting up everything today i'm gonna like have every little nook and cranny you know ready to go so when the artist walks in it's like they feel like oh all right we're ready to you know we'll

41:59 Luke F. Walton Yes.

41:59 Mike Post not only and there's not a lot of waiting around either because

42:02 Luke F. Walton Yes.

42:02 Mike Post i think in those cases too

42:03 Luke F. Walton Me

42:03 Mike Post where too. especially at bigger studios that don't have equipment or they don't have a drum set you gotta wait for the guy to come with the drums and they start putting up every piece and oh that that drum sounds weird let's spend you know three hours tuning this floor tom right like

42:19 Luke F. Walton Yep.

42:19 Mike Post having like a nicely tuned kit and guitars

42:21 Luke F. Walton Yes.

42:22 Mike Post that are that work and are set up and can be used and they're not just like show pieces like

42:28 Luke F. Walton Right.

42:29 Mike Post amps that work microphone you know Mm testing

42:31 Luke F. Walton -hmm.

42:32 Mike Post all your cables make sure like all the stuff that we've all been there and can derail like a session and just kill the vibe and kill the momentum um

42:41 Luke F. Walton Yes.

42:41 Mike Post just all that stuff like is super important so like anything you can just do ahead of time so that when you're on the day of the session

42:50 Luke F. Walton Mm hmm.

42:50 Mike Post it just makes your life easier and it just makes everybody like feel like comfortable like and make make makes them feel like you know what you're doing too like even

42:58 Luke F. Walton Yeah. Right.

42:59 Mike Post you know whether you do or you don't you know right like yeah

43:03 Luke F. Walton God play the part.

43:04 Mike Post like make it seem like like that you're prepared like

43:08 Luke F. Walton Exactly.

43:09 Mike Post so

43:09 Luke F. Walton sets

43:09 Mike Post all

43:09 Luke F. Walton everyone

43:10 Mike Post yeah

43:10 Luke F. Walton else at ease exactly i totally agree and there will always be curveballs there will always be problems to solve um

43:16 Mike Post yeah

43:16 Luke F. Walton one of my mentors he said that the day the recording day is just linear problem solving

43:21 Mike Post yeah totally

43:22 Luke F. Walton it's just like this went wrong okay let's solve that now next thing in the chain um yeah

43:27 Mike Post can't totally can be yeah and

43:29 Luke F. Walton absolutely

43:29 Mike Post all that stuff it takes away from the music like

43:31 Luke F. Walton it does

43:31 Mike Post yeah

43:31 Luke F. Walton it does

43:32 Mike Post it killed it can totally kill the whole day like i've done that like when early on in the studio i think we had like we're like okay but i was with my band so it was like because i would like when we were troubleshooting the room to

43:43 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

43:43 Mike Post like i'll be like let's let me just do as many sessions here like with especially my stuff as i can um just to like work out the kinks it was like oh what is that noise that just and like literally like we got like we got like one basic track done on the on the entire day right like

44:01 Mike Post so and especially you go to a big studio like yeah you don't especially people are coming here and they're spending their like you know what little money usually that they have to

44:09 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

44:10 Mike Post like be in on a passion project of their music and they don't get a lot of chances to like come into a studio and pay for studio time so it's really important for for me and for us here to like to make that experience like not only you know fun and worthwhile but like and special but to also like come away with it with you know a productive amount of work

44:30 Luke F. Walton Yes. And I think that that is the answer to your previous self's question of like, why didn't it sound good? Like, why did I leave that room that was such a good room with such good gear and pros and you're like, meh.

44:45 Mike Post Yeah.

44:46 Luke F. Walton it's all of those things combined and

44:48 Mike Post Yeah.

44:48 Luke F. Walton yeah because i had that experience too where you leave a studio it's like millions of dollars and you're on an ssl board and all the mics are vintage you're like you know the demo kind of had more vibe it's

45:02 Mike Post Yeah.

45:02 Luke F. Walton so disappointing you don't ever want to be there i'd love to talk a little bit more about gear and technology and then make our way to your atmos room room but before we get there any bits of gear that you just want to kind of geek out on or things that you're like i'm obsessed with this um whatever tool it might be

45:21 Mike Post no you know what like as much as I love gear like the more the longer I do this and the more I do it like the less I feel like I'm less of a gearhead as

45:30 Luke F. Walton That's

45:30 Mike Post perception

45:30 Luke F. Walton a good answer.

45:31 Mike Post which is which

45:31 Luke F. Walton Cool.

45:31 Mike Post is crazy for like somebody who has like you know as much stuff as I do um and I've you know sort of made that my life's work of like finding finding cool gear and like acquiring it um but yeah I mean the more the more I do it like the less I'm like oh okay like

45:49 Mike Post you know the best records like that i've made don't it doesn't always come down to the gear or the setup like you know like some

45:58 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

45:58 Mike Post of the coolest stuff i've made like doesn't is like unaffected you know by the by the by the gear i think so i think for me just trying to put more of a of like

46:11 Mike Post you know more into like just um you know the songs and the melody and like that's like me that's where I like I'm like putting more of my focus and that's probably easier easy to say for somebody who has like you know like a full fully fledged like professional studio you

46:28 Luke F. Walton Right.

46:29 Mike Post know I have that luxury now I don't have to think about it yeah of course like I have I have everything I need it's like

46:34 Mike Post if i can't make something great with this stuff like there's no piece of gear that's going to necessarily like save me um

46:40 Luke F. Walton Right.

46:41 Mike Post you know but that said like i'm always looking for for

46:44 Luke F. Walton Yes. Sure, yeah.

46:56 Mike Post yeah

46:58 Luke F. Walton You can take it however you want to take it.

47:00 Mike Post i mean i think it's like more like for like uh maybe even like feeling like inspired to like write or to play on like like I have like a world of electric piano like

47:11 Luke F. Walton Yeah, cool.

47:12 Mike Post that if like if I had to pick like one you know one or two things like that and like my jazz master that I that I've had forever like you know those are like they just like fit my fingers

47:22 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

47:23 Mike Post like

47:23 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

47:23 Mike Post I don't know how

47:24 Luke F. Walton Love

47:24 Mike Post else to describe

47:25 Luke F. Walton that.

47:25 Mike Post it like I can't even like there's certain things that I wrote on like Unlike that guitar that I just couldn't even. play on other guitars like yep so

47:33 Luke F. Walton totally yeah

47:34 Mike Post it's like yeah stuff like that that like almost becomes like a little bit of an extension of of you like you know stuff that I if I didn't have all this I would still have to you know keep those pieces around um you know just for for musical sake but um yeah

47:52 Luke F. Walton that actually really aligns with the way that i i think about things too where there's like a there's like marginal benefit to gear where it's like oh like your interface uh has crappy converter and like crashes all the time it's like you improve that your life is changed it's

48:10 Mike Post Yeah.

48:11 Luke F. Walton like everything is great and i feel unstoppable you go from like one really nice preamp to like another one that's like also really nice but maybe like got a little bit better components it's all like made in america it's like oh yeah that's better

48:24 Mike Post right right is it going to change the the quality of the music that you make no

48:29 Luke F. Walton right

48:29 Mike Post are

48:30 Luke F. Walton or

48:30 Mike Post people

48:30 Luke F. Walton like getting a good computer oh my god yeah

48:32 Mike Post that i would say actually that like i was running like a mac uh tower like a 20 2012 uh thing up until i want to say maybe like a year and a half ago and then we got like a mac studio and that was like that's the best upgrade ever because like like you can't have a mix being printed and it just stops

48:52 Luke F. Walton I know. Ah, yes.

48:54 Mike Post and then or like you know that stuff like that or like god forbid like i would be like nervous like running that machine like if it's like an hour long even like a podcast or something

49:04 Luke F. Walton Right.

49:04 Mike Post like it got it got to the point where it's like you can't have this thing stop in the middle

49:08 Luke F. Walton No.

49:08 Mike Post like that's

49:10 Luke F. Walton No,

49:10 Mike Post that

49:10 Luke F. Walton way.

49:10 Mike Post so yeah stuff like that it's like there's got to be like a bare minimum of like you know work working environment like i'd be like i turned the end of the life for that computer i was like i was like more stressed out about that than anything because like it's like out of your control like i can't so it's like yeah it was like totally probably a little past time to to get an upgrade there but yeah that kind of stuff something just makes your life easier or just like helps you get there quicker or just like

49:36 Mike Post yeah it just takes away those like sort of extra problems are

49:40 Luke F. Walton Yes, yeah,

49:40 Mike Post worth a lot more to me than like an upgraded preamp at this point again easy for somebody to say who has like two BAE 1023s that like already it's like the baseline it's like would I love a vintage Neve yeah of course like and I dream about it but You know?

49:57 Luke F. Walton yeah exactly it's but it's that it's that marginal you kind of like you you kind of hit that asymptote and you start you're still gaining but it's not quite as much as gaining from like my computer crashes every 15 minutes

50:07 Mike Post Oh, yeah, exactly. That's like. pretty detrimental to

50:11 Luke F. Walton i

50:11 Mike Post recording

50:12 Luke F. Walton like the other thing you said too about uh tools that inspire different things i think that's also another really good like thing to latch on to i feel the same way with with my guitars where um sure there are more guitars that i could have that would do different tones that's a little less important than like the shape of the neck and the things i choose to play when i hold that guitar versus that guitar

50:34 Mike Post totally yeah shape of the neck that's a good way to that's

50:37 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

50:37 Mike Post what people say because yeah totally um and something and it might not be like the nicest thing ever like

50:43 Luke F. Walton totally.

50:43 Mike Post it

50:44 Luke F. Walton No,

50:44 Mike Post doesn't have to be it could just be something that you feel comfortable with that you feel like you know is inspiring to you or is something that you know just some magic comes out when you're when you're playing that thing yeah

50:55 Luke F. Walton Yes. I agree. I'd love to hear about your Dolby Atmos room, kind of what inspired you to go there, how you set it up, and then how it's going.

51:04 Mike Post yeah absolutely so this is like a pretty new thing for us here um we i think we probably just finished it probably maybe three four weeks ago um

51:13 Mike Post and yeah like we just have like a a friend and partner who's like really into that world and

51:19 Luke F. Walton Sweet.

51:19 Mike Post like he's an amazing like engineer and mix engineer and has really done some of like the biggest like dolby mixes like that have that have been out to

51:27 Luke F. Walton Awesome.

51:27 Mike Post date so um

51:28 Luke F. Walton Wow.

51:28 Mike Post yeah just trying to learn some stuff from him and he and he kind of got us into the idea and at the same time i also wanted to have like a second like studio b that could just be like overflow or even just like mixed print printing

51:42 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

51:42 Mike Post room

51:43 Luke F. Walton for

51:43 Mike Post or just

51:43 Luke F. Walton sure.

51:44 Mike Post like yeah like another another studio that if somebody was renting this one i could be in there or we could have an assistant in there or

51:50 Luke F. Walton Yep.

51:51 Mike Post whatever like

51:52 Luke F. Walton Yep.

51:52 Mike Post i don't know just an overflow room so it was like okay we could do that and we you know we might as well like kind of outfit it for Atmos um

51:58 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

51:59 Mike Post too

51:59 Luke F. Walton Right.

52:00 Mike Post so um yeah we just like and we had kind of been looking to for like maybe even an alternate location um to like build another studio for the last couple years and

52:10 Luke F. Walton Cool.

52:10 Mike Post it was just like you

52:11 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

52:11 Mike Post know this is like not gonna

52:12 Luke F. Walton Right.

52:12 Mike Post this is just like impossible like it's never gonna it's never gonna work like the overhead on like you know any decent studio space it just like doesn't make it feasible so um

52:23 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

52:24 Mike Post we're like why don't we just build like another room in the in the in the this office that we have already it's like set up and like we'll make it work you know so you know it took maybe six months to like really treat the room put put in the cloud put in the paneling get it sounding pretty decent um

52:42 Mike Post and then yeah like we have right now we have like it's like a 714 setup um in there and

52:49 Luke F. Walton Cool.

52:49 Mike Post um yeah just using like iK multimedia like the MTM system speakers and like a Genelec sub and um sounds really good man

53:00 Luke F. Walton Sweet.

53:01 Mike Post like you know it's like not necessarily like the world that I come from like in terms of like even like being uh you know something that I thought that I would be super into like as a as a listener but like having now having the room and like listening to music like especially like well done music in that setup is really powerful and like you just hear you hear stuff that you didn't hear before just as even it just as a listener

53:25 Mike Post you know i was like oh this could be cool but it's like at the end of the day you know i'm more of a maybe more of a purist where i'm like well the music still has to be good right like

53:33 Luke F. Walton Right.

53:33 Mike Post but yeah hearing hearing some great mixes in that room and just you know just having that you know just to to learn you know for a new horizon you know to so i've been definitely like getting my feet wet with like doing mixes in there and just doing that setup and it's just you know like an emerging space

53:51 Mike Post space to like to something to be a part of you know um going forward in in the music business is just like something good to to have to have for people to come listen to do mixes to do whatever so you know just sort of like in a little expansion of our of our space here and um that's been something that i've really been enjoying um just to have an atmos room to

54:12 Luke F. Walton Yeah, for

54:13 Mike Post listen in man like yeah just

54:14 Luke F. Walton sure.

54:15 Mike Post hearing it well mixed you know inside and like just trying to find like I feel like right now, and you can maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like it's kind of like. there's a lot of stuff mixed for Atmos but it's not really it's

54:29 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

54:29 Mike Post like it's

54:30 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

54:30 Mike Post kind of bare bones of

54:31 Luke F. Walton For sure.

54:31 Mike Post like how they do it creatively so i think there's this whole other world of like that's obviously been going on but it's going to expand like just more in the creativity of like what you can do with that kind of setup yeah

54:43 Luke F. Walton I agree. I agree. Yeah. And the idea of like made for Atmos versus remix to Atmos, I think is a really interesting. thing kind of like lane that is underexplored yeah

54:54 Mike Post totally totally yeah it's and it's obviously expanding at a pretty rapid

54:58 Luke F. Walton for

54:58 Mike Post rapid rate um so yeah we're happy to be like sort of on on the on the board with it and uh yeah just trying to learn you know learn more stuff and yeah i think it can i think it's actually going to make me like a better mixing engineer just even stereo too

55:14 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

55:14 Mike Post just

55:14 Luke F. Walton Okay,

55:14 Mike Post to

55:14 Luke F. Walton cool.

55:15 Mike Post like just

55:15 Luke F. Walton That's interesting.

55:15 Mike Post i don't know why just like just hearing like how you can separate stuff in that space and like maybe applying certain uh certain techniques and um certain certain things you can do in that space can just like kind of make just bring the whole picture together just across the board Sonically.

55:34 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

55:35 Mike Post Yeah.

55:35 Luke F. Walton Yeah. I really like that.

55:36 Mike Post Yeah.

55:37 Luke F. Walton So I've got one final question. This is the question we always like to ask our guests. It's a very open-ended question. So again, take this wherever you'd like. The show is called Love Music More. This segment is called Love Music Why? And this is just a moment for you to say, why do you keep doing this? Why do you love music? Why does it keep calling you back every day?

55:56 Luke F. Walton I could get that it's a job, but where does the passion come from? What? ignites kind of your spirit from music, you know, now and into the future.

56:08 Mike Post Sure, yeah. yeah i think it's something that you have to kind of keep like asking yourself like not not that i need convincing but it's at all like but it's something that you kind of i have to keep reminding myself of like the feeling of like being a music listener and like somebody who just enjoys like the feeling of like being taken over by like a song of

56:30 Luke F. Walton Yes.

56:31 Mike Post like a place that it takes you right because

56:32 Luke F. Walton Right.

56:33 Mike Post like it's easy to get like if you do this every day it's easy to like you know and i go in waves of like oh i'm really into like the technical aspect of this and that but recently especially recently i've been like i gotta get back to like what that initial like feeling is of just that of the music like

56:50 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

56:51 Mike Post um so i think it's chase chasing that feeling like and trying to make music that like makes people feel that way um it's kind of what keeps me moving and also like I guess just feeling like, you know, like I don't feel like my I have I have unfinished business.

57:09 Mike Post Like, I don't think that I've gotten to I don't think I've made all the music that I that I need to make, first of all, and of the quality that I need to make it at.

57:19 Mike Post you know gone gone this far and it's just like it's also like i don't think i could do any you know i wouldn't be cut out to like do anything else at this point and i've you know been doing it for my whole life so it's just like ingrained in me but yeah just trying to like recapture that feeling of like being you know a teenager listening to music and you know it's tougher to get i feel like as you get older and i think that's why like you know like other generations oh yeah i love this music from

57:50 Mike Post music from this time right like it's like your brain only can like take in so much

57:54 Mike Post like information like related to music where you're like this is the you know it's tougher to like get excited right maybe so I'm just trying to stay excited about different about you know music just as a listener and finding the music that gets me excited and just trying to like funnel that into the music that I'm like a part of you know in different ways you know you don't always have like the full control over the music you know if you're an engineer mixing engineer

58:21 Mike Post or producer even or you know so you know just trying to bring that into whatever role that i'm trying to play um in into the music and yeah i just feel like i have to just keep keep doing it because i don't i just want to get i want to get better still like so i'm not i'm never sad like as you know like right like most musicians and like we're never satisfied um so i'm far from satisfied

58:48 Luke F. Walton Love that. Yeah, nobody's more aware of my weaknesses than I am.

58:51 Mike Post right yeah

58:52 Luke F. Walton Under the microscope all the time.

58:54 Mike Post yeah yeah exactly so yeah the more you do it the more i feel like you do get better and i feel like eventually like there's only one place to go right is just to try to be one of the best at it you know if you just keep getting better little bit little bit little bit here like eventually hopefully you're going to be in that place if you're doing it

59:14 Mike Post in it for the right reasons in the right place um so yeah just gotta

59:19 Luke F. Walton like

59:19 Mike Post keep making music because it's all we can do i don't

59:22 Luke F. Walton yeah

59:22 Mike Post know

59:22 Luke F. Walton and i like that too of like recognizing that things come in waves you know it's not always like this part of music that is the most exciting or that part of the music that is the most exciting and that's okay to be like i'm in a tech i'm in like a more technical thing i'm in more of like a practicing my instrument or learning a new instrument thing i'm in

59:40 Luke F. Walton i'm into more of like an album cycle and trying to create a bunch of stuff all these things are they're all part of the same like river but you kind of you can't just be in the one lane all the time and feel 100% stoked like that's that

59:54 Mike Post Yeah.

59:54 Luke F. Walton is love itself right that's any relationship that's like it's it's the part of the evolution and what you bring to it

60:00 Mike Post heck yeah and i think also at least for me is like also trying to more focus on the things that i do feel like i'm the best at

60:07 Luke F. Walton Yes.

60:07 Mike Post in

60:08 Luke F. Walton Good.

60:08 Mike Post terms of like all

60:09 Luke F. Walton Totally.

60:09 Mike Post like whatever skills that i have like what is it what of these things should i really be spending my time doing and getting better at where i feel like i can get even better and then maybe you know maybe have somebody else do certain aspects you know of the process even like

60:27 Mike Post you know so you know and obviously it's like you know there's uh logistical things you know that come along with that and and you know business things that come along with that too like but like yeah just like creatively like I want to start you know more just continuing to focus on the things that I feel like I can really bring something to the table and not like force like you know oh hey I can do this but like you

60:53 Mike Post should I be doing it on every project like let's have somebody else you know do that obviously you know I have a guy a great mastering engineer I work closely with Will Borza so I send him all my mastering stuff like you know eventually I'd love to have somebody who does the does the mix on every production so

61:12 Luke F. Walton Mm

61:12 Mike Post that

61:12 Luke F. Walton -hmm.

61:13 Mike Post I'm not doing the whole thing every time which

61:16 Luke F. Walton yeah

61:16 Mike Post i love doing too but like if i could you know focus just on that production side of it like or just or just be the mixer you know and you know kind of just you know focus on in in whatever part of the process that i feel like i can bring the most to the table

61:34 Luke F. Walton well that's awesome where can people connect with you where can they find you

61:38 Mike Post um yeah you can find us all over the webs uh instagram we're just moosecat recording you can find us on our website moosecatrecording.com you can you can listen to some of the great artists that have been in there find out a little bit more about us hit us up come by check out the space anytime yeah i think that's there's probably the best place to connect yeah

62:02 Luke F. Walton love it and i'll take you up on that next time i'm up in la i'm in san diego

62:05 Mike Post yeah

62:06 Luke F. Walton so i'm not far but

62:06 Mike Post dude come

62:07 Luke F. Walton it'd be fun to

62:07 Mike Post on

62:07 Luke F. Walton hang out yeah let's do it awesome

62:08 Mike Post please do let's do it yeah

62:10 Luke F. Walton really appreciate the conversation was super super fun adios thank

62:14 Mike Post it's a real pleasure peace