Two-Track Tuesday!
Two-Track Tuesdays — Welcome to the Blog!
Welcome to Detroit Born Sounds' weekly blog, delivered every Tuesday — Two-Track Tuesdays! Here I'll talk about everything mixing and mastering, and what it means to get your song engineered with tips and tricks I've picked up along the way, and answers to questions I get asked frequently! My goal is to educate you so you know exactly what to expect with engineering music. If you ever have a question, reach out through the contact page on our website. Thanks for reading!
Who I am as a musician
For those who haven't had a chance to explore the full dBs website — my name is Matt Ryan. I work in music full time and have spent years performing as a bassist across a wide range of genres. My first tour was with a prog metal band called The Omega Experiment. From there I traveled with Chantae Cann (well known for her performance on Snarky Puppy's Family Dinner), Alex Isley, and one of my closest friends, Brandon Williams.
If I had to name a genre that feels like home, it would be R&B, neo-soul, hip-hop, and funk (not too surprising for a bassist!...) What draws me to those genres is the depth of feeling in them, both lyrically and in the way they're produced. The way a song makes an audience feel is the single most important part of it — and as a bassist, I carry a lot of that weight. The bass isn't just about pure depth, it shapes everything happening above it in the harmony and melody. That relationship between the low end, everything else and how you can manipulate it, is why I love the bass so much!
Who I am as an engineer
For as long as I've been playing bass, I've been messing around with recording and mixing. It started back in the Garageband, Ableton and Logic days, running through laptop speakers that had the subwoofer and that awful green headphone jack …. experimenting with signal levels, panning, and what different effects did to a channel. That adventurous phase stuck with me. Since then, I've mixed and mastered albums across gospel, R&B, rock, jazz, and metal. You can browse through some of that work on the discography page at the dBs website.
As I grew as a musician, I started really studying mixes. Green Day was huge for me in middle school, and Dookie was always a favorite. That album was mixed by Jerry Finn, known for warm guitars and punchy, bold-sounding records . The kind of mix that gets you out of your chair. Then there's Bryan Lennox. Listen to Tommy Sims' song "100." The way Lennox puts you in the middle of the band, like you're sitting in the studio with everyone in a circle around you, is pure genius.
What both of those engineers have in common — and what all the best engineers have in common — is that they mix with feeling as the goal, not just technical precision. That's exactly how I approach my work at dBs. When I receive a session, I start by talking with the artist: What is the vision? What did you feel when you wrote this? What do you want the listener to feel? Once I have that, everything else — the balance, the texture, the final touches — is in service of that feeling. This process should feel like wide open arms. Reach out with any questions or thoughts you have about the process. I’d be SO happy to hip you to this world. As intro to advanced questions as you want!
That's what this blog is about. Every Tuesday, we'll dig into the craft from every angle. See you next week! Thanks for reading Two-Track Tuesdays!
To reach out, please contact:
www.detroitbornsound.com