Episode 475 – Engineer Ryan Schwabe, Labels Becoming Outdated, And Avid Up For Sale

My guest this week is Ryan Schwabe who’s a two-time Grammy nominated, platinum certified mixing and mastering engineer. In 2020, he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album for Baauer’s "Planet’s Mad," and in 2023 he was nominated for Best Sound Engineered Album, Non-Classical for mixing and mastering Baynk’s "Adolescence."  Ryan is a former professor of recording arts and music production at Drexel University's Music Industry Program. He’s also owner of the music production and engineering company Xcoustic Sound, the music technology company Schwabe Digital, and co-owner of the digital record label Rare MP3s.  And he's also the developer of the new Gold Clip mixing and mastering plugin. During the interview we spoke about learning the art of mastering, his philosophy on mixing, not being tied to certain mixing techniques, developing his own plugin, and much more. I spoke with Ryan via Zoom from his studio in Philadelphia. On the intro I’ll take a look at how labels may become outdated due to localization, and Avid is reportedly up for sale.