We recently connected with Calvin Lauber and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Calvin, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Learning to be a producer/engineer/mixer isn’t a linear path and can take totally different shapes for different people. I started out recording my friend’s bands in my home “studio” space as a 16 year old for basically free just trying to learn the basics of engineering using a few microphones and an early version of Garageband. I never took classes on audio while I was in college, so I’m essentially self taught, which possibly slowed down my learning curve; but at the same time I think teaching yourself something makes it stick with you in a deeper way than being told and simply committing it to memory. A lot of trial and error, getting my hands dirty and figuring it out as I went. Along the way I did have some very wise engineers and producers share knowledge with me during my time working at Ardent Studios and Young Avenue Sound here in Memphis. Now I’m working out of Memphis Magnetic alongside a great engineer named Scott McEwen. Surrounding myself with people smarter and more experienced than I am has really expedited how much perspective I’ve already gained in this field that people spend a life-time understanding.
There’s so much focus on the thousands of ways to record something, or the infinite number of plugins and processing tools that can be used to make something “better”, I think the skill that’s proven to be most essential is being able to understand your monitoring; how your speakers really sound and how they will translate on other systems like headphones, cars, etc. Once you really understand what you are hearing, it’s almost all taste from there.
In audio I think the largest obstacles standing in the way of learning quickly are probably the ridiculous amount of information that’s out there on the internet, and how much of it is questionable. It can be hard to know who’s trying to be helpful and who’s just trying to crank out content. So many working professionals have opened up about their experiences and knowledge, I recommend looking up your favorite songs/albums and seeing who produced, wrote, engineered, mixed etc. There’s a good chance one or more of those names have done interviews or have videos on Youtube that can be super informative and relevant to your tastes.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Calvin Lauber, I’m an Audio Engineer. Producer, and Mixer from Memphis, TN. I work out of a studio called Memphis Magnetic where I record and produce many of my projects, as well as my home studio mix room which is where I end up finishing most of what I’ve started at Magnetic or elsewhere. I’ve worked on records for artists like Julien Baker, Brother Moses, and The Band Camino.
I started my career out as a recording engineer, learning a lot during the years I spent working at Ardent Studios, and over time have spent more and more of my time producing with artists and helping to make sure their song and the way it’s captured is as emotionally powerful and interesting as possible, as well as mixing where I will take all of the tracks for a song and mix them down into something that’s ready to be mastered and released.
I really pride myself on having a really open vibe in the studio, recording and creating your art alongside someone else is a vulnerable thing and it’s so easy to create a negative or uninspiring vibe. I try to choose the right words before I think about choosing the right microphone or piece of gear. In mixing, I love to find the little ‘ear candies’ in a track and find subtle ways to make a song feel as interesting as I can moving from section to section.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
What I love most about working on music is it feels like just the right blend of Left Brain and Right Brain, where technical science and art meet. I always loved science classes in school but would lose attention quickly and find myself hanging on longer in music and art classes. Creating and mixing down a song satisfies all of that for me and I find it’s easy to get into a focused zone where hours fly by. My work days in the studio can be 10-12 hours or even longer in some cases, but even during tough sessions it usually still goes by in a blink for me. That I get to use both sides of my brain to create something that will live on “forever” is just infinitely interesting to me and keeps me wanting to get to the next project.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When the pandemic hit I found myself needing to find more work I could do from home as the studio would be shut down for the foreseeable future. I had always tried my hand at mixing projects at home I recorded at the studio but decided to build out and upgrade my mix room at home, and to try to seek out more mix work. I was lucky that it all happened very organically. Many bands at artists were also working on projects themselves at home and looking for songs to mix. That became the main outlet of my business and since 2020 I’ve mixed hundreds of songs. The perspective I gained from finishing that many songs, I couldn’t have gotten any other way and it benefits as I’m recording or producing an artist before we even get to the mixing stage.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.calvinlauber.com
- Instagram: @calvinlauber
Image Credits
Nate Packard