How to Find Audio Engineers to Mix Your Music
How to Find Audio Engineers to Mix Your Music
As an audio engineer based in a major market like Brooklyn, NY, I figured I would share the channels that new clients tend to find me through, and which might be hit or miss for artists on the hunt for new engineering help. This might be particularly useful for artists that don't have the provelidge of being part of a larger community that trades information word of mouth or has an engineer in the crew to tap in with. Surely, there are other ways to search for and finder engineers than the tactics and sources below. I'm only speaking from my experience.
The Old Fashioned Way
Recording studios are going to offer mixing services as well as recording services. It doesn't matter if you don't live in LA, NYC, ATL, or Nashville, there are people making music all over the place. Working with a studio would potentially afford you the opporutnity to sit-in during mix revisions (if the engineer/studio allows it) or at least offer you an optimal listening environment to judge the mix and subsequent revisions. You may be surprised as to who is right around the corner from you and what they are capable of.
Check Google reviews as well! Just remember to evaluate the engineer as much if not more than the studio itself - The studio isn't mixing your music, the engineer is.
Marketplaces
The purpose of these sites is to make it easy for artists to find, evaluate, and work with different audio engineers. It makes the process standardized, manages payment, and guarantees risk-free transactions, which helps reduce uncertainty for artists (I've linked my own profiles on these sites for convenience). Engineers are available at multiple price points and working in a multitude of styles. The amount of work I'm getting through these platforms has slowed down significantly since the pandemic eased up.
Soundbetter - During the pandemic, Soundbetter was the only way I was meeting new artists so I got very familiar with the platform. It was easy to communicate with artists and for them to play back mixes and revisions directly through the platform. Sometimes, artists have found me on Soundbetter then reached out to me directly because I'm local. Soundbetter makes money by taking a cut from each job they help facilitate, and also offer premium listings for vendors/engineers to gain high placement in search results, access to job bidding, and more.
EngineEars - MixedByAli's platform, EngineEars, offers an interesting A/B feature that allows the artist to test recent mixes and revisions against each other and their original demo so it is more easy to hear the difference the mix is making. At the time of writing, EngineEars makes money through selling premium membership offerings to engineers on the platform that include access to software and courses, but do not affect how high they are places in search results on the website, unlike Soundbetter.
Social Media
Instagram - You might follow artists you admire or other artists on your level. When they drop, check who they have tagged in the post. See who they are responding to in the comments. These might be collaborators on the engineering side you can start to reach out to yourself! At the time of writing, the majority of my new clients just DM either my personal @Vally_is_here or the Timeless Sound IG to get more info.
TikTok - TikTok is such a unique platform. TikTok is ideal for reaching new people and building a new audience. That said, there's a lot of noise on TikTok as well. What do I mean by noise? Bedroom producers and hobbyists broadcasting beginner mix tips (which may or not be good tips/accurate) - Essentially, bad information. I can see how an artist could easily confuse a talented influencer-type personality for a trusted resource... After all, who are our politicians?! 
It might be a worthwhile tactice to discover engineers on TikTok, then explore the rest of their footpriont on the internet. What is their Instagram like? Do they have a website? Any client testimonials to read?
Hit or Miss
Fiverr / Upwork - While I’m on these platforms, It's not the first place to go for experienced engineers. As a vendor/provider, the jobs that clients are posting have a big misalignment between what they are asking for and what they are willing to pay. Some jobs posted are just incomplete in their description, or not entirely sensible. For example, I'll see posts that are similar too "I need someone to producer my song, make me sound good, mix and master" and the budget is under $100.
Craigslist - Craigslist is hit or miss because you will find people claiming to have "studios" or be "engineers" and they're trying to record you in their parent's basement in a room with no room treatment, a Slate emulation mic, no HVAC so you are sweating your ass off, and a mini-fridge or furnace noisily humming away in the corner. I do have a posting on craigslist that I renew every once in a while, but I don't really expect to be in anyone's price range that finds me there. It's no work for me to maintain my posting, and in the off-chance I find a new client there it will be worth the minimal-to-no effort.
So you have a list of engineers to evaluate, now what?
Once you have put together a list of engineers you want to reach out to, you will want to actually want to make a decision based on what's important to you - Check out the post How To Choose an Audio Engineer to Mix Your Music for more on that.
As for what's up like, 'RIGHT NOW' right now?
On the train back from a weekend in the south shore of Massachusetts. Ate too much, drank too much, swore too much. Go to hang out at the beach and it was a string of perfect weather for long sleeve shirt / shorts combos. No photos to share of this one - Go on your own vacation.
If you want to work with us or just shoot the sh*t, hit our socials, send us an email, use our contact us form, whatever works for you!
Ciao ciao.