What’s your job title? I’m a mix engineer. I was at Circle House Studios for about five years. I was their main go-to guy, I mixed all the Cash Money stuff, everybody that came through the studio. After a while I decided it was time to get my own spot. I opened The Vault Recording Studios about a year ago, in North Miami.
try to take Sundays off, but everybody ‘s on a deadline. Financially, does engineering pay well? It’s a good living if you stick it out. But when you first start, you make nothing. Pennies. Do you get royalty checks like a producer? Nah, I’ve been trying to fight for points, though. If I end up reorganizing or redoing stuff I might get a co-production credit with points on the back end. I get paid by the song, so even if it takes two hours or two days I get paid the same flat fee.
What exactly does a mix engineer do? Basically, I take what the producer has made and make it sound radio-ready, consumer-ready. All the vocals, the bass, I blend everything together to make it sound good. How did you develop an ear for music? I think I kinda developed my ear from listening to my dad’s old records. Growing up, my dad had all the collections: Isley Brothers, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, all of them. I used to listen to those records as a kid. In high school I started DJing and doing local house parties. When I was a junior in high school I went to a concert, and I saw this dude sitting in the middle of the room at a big console. I asked him what his job title was, and he said sound engineer. I decided I wanted to be a sound engineer. I can’t rap and I don’t sing, but I just like music. I played the saxophone in junior high, so I had some musical training. My father is an electrical engineer, so he taught me some of the technical stuff about speaker polarity and stuff like that. I like music and electronics, so I just put the two together. Did you go to college? I went to a technical school called Full Sail in Orlando. It was an eight month technical program, I got a specialized Associates degree in sound engineering. After that I came back to Miami and did an internship at studio center. Full Sail is pretty expensive. Is it worth it? That’s a good question. It is really expensive. It’s really up to the person as far as what they can get out of it. It’s just like college. You could go to Miami-Dade and apply yourself and come out and get a big job, or you could go to Yale and mess around and not take advantage of the situation. So in answer to your question, yes, it’s expensive, but if it’s really something you want you’ve gotta spend the money. What skills do you need to become an engineer? You’ve just gotta have an ear for it. It goes back to my experience with DJing. I also did sound systems for cars back when they started gutting out the backseats and putting in 15” speakers. From that experience, I started going into clubs to see what people were dancing to and see what people are playing in their cars. From there, you try to take that song the producer has created and make it fit the mold. If it sounds like a club song, you gotta mix it for the club. The beat’s gotta be bangin’, the snare’s gotta be in-your-face. If it’s more of a radio song, you’ve gotta bring out the melodic lines. It might sound easy, but when you really start getting in-depth it’s really hard. It’s a lot like production. When you’re listening to music outside of work, can you enjoy it or do you overanalyze it? All the time. It’s been so long since I could really listen to a song normally, cause I’m always critiquing. I’m like, Man, the vocals are too low. They shoulda did this, they shoulda did that. The snare’s too low. I hear different things, even with my own stuff. If I mix a song, I have to not listen to it for like a month and then come back and listen to it objectively with an open mind. Name a few songs you’ve mixed.
Ray Seay Mix Engineer I did a lot of the old Cash Money hits, like “Get Your Roll On.” I’ve mixed a lot of Lil Jon songs, like “Get Low” and “Saltshaker.” I mixed Ciara’s “Goodies,” T.I.’s “Motivation” and “A.S.A.P.” Mike Caren [at Atlantic Records] has started using me for a lot of the big mixes, like Juvenile. Juve didn’t like the way the records had been mixed so he sent them to me to fix. When you’re mixing a song like “Get Low” or “Goodies,” do you know it’s gonna be a hit? It’s funny because the songs that I don’t really like always seem to blow up, and the songs I really do like don’t do nothing. It’s a joke among the producers. If I mix a song, they ask me if I like it. If I say, “It’s okay,” they’re happy because they know it’s gonna be a hit. For example, when Trick did “Take it to The House,” I did not like that song, period. I hated that song, and it blew up. I even asked [Slip-NSlide CEO] Ted Lucas, “Man, are y’all serious?” He was like, “Hey, this is what the people want,” and that’s one of their biggest hits to date. Same thing with [Lil Jon’s] “Saltshaker” and “Get Low.” DJ Smurf came down when I was mixing that song and I was telling him I really didn’t like the song. But just to clarify, when I say I don’t like the song, I mean I don’t like it from a technical aspect. Sometimes when I get a song, some things are not recorded right and I’ve gotta go in and change a kick or redo the vocals. What’s your work schedule like? It’s like a twelve-hour day. I come in around noon and leave at midnight. I
If you get paid the same whether it takes two hours or two days, are you ever tempted to rush? No. I’m a perfectionist, and my name’s gotta go on it. That’s what keeps me working. People see these songs that are playing forever on the radio or in the clubs and hear that I mixed them, so that’s how I get more work. If I rush it and don’t do the song right then I’ll start getting a bad name, so it wouldn’t really pay to do it like that. Are there any artists that are particularly enjoyable to work with or difficult to work with? A lot of times the artist doesn’t even come to the mix sessions. It’s really the producers and the record company I deal with, so I don’t get too much drama. I don’t do a lot of recording anymore just straight mixing. I don’t even see the artists. I prefer it that way. I like being alone because it gives me time to be more personal with the song. I can sit for a couple hours, let it play over and over again, and start getting ideas and visuals about where I want to take the song. Lil Jon is also a perfectionist, but he lets me do my thing and then comes in and makes the final judgements and arrangements. Some artists just send me stuff and trust my ear. Sometimes I’ll do a mix and mp3 it to the artist or producer, then they’ll hit me back with changes. Since leaving Circle House to open The Vault, is there any bad blood? No, I wouldn’t say that. We’ve had words, but in the long run, they gave me an opportunity to really grow over there. They allowed me to mature. When I first started working there I was the recording engineer and the mix engineer, so I was kinda doing two jobs. Over time, they started getting so big where I couldn’t even get my clients in there. They’d call me to work and I couldn’t even get a session there cause they’d be so booked up. It just got to the point where it was time to get my own spot. I don’t have to tear down my equipment, I can come and go as I please, and I don’t have to worry about being on the clock. Since I opened The Vault, my mixes have gotten five times better, quality-wise. What artists come through The Vault? All my usual clients, like Trick Daddy, Trina, Lil Jon. I mixed [Trick Daddy’s] “Let’s Go,” in here. That was the first big hit from The Vault. I mixed Pitbull’s stuff here, and T.I’s “Motivation” was mixed here too. They’ll usually send me a Pro Tools session to mix and I do my thing. That’s one of the benefits of having my own studio. I’m not in the business of selling studio time, I’m in the business of selling Ray Seay’s sound. There’s not a clock running over here.
“I like being alone [in the studio] because it gives me time to be more personal with the song.”
Do you have special rates for indie labels? We try to work out stuff for indies, especially if they’re local and I’ve got some downtime. But if a major calls me, they gotta understand that I gotta go get that money to pay the bills. Would you like to give out any contact info? The Vault studio number is 305-556-9435. OZONE MAY 2005
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