Today’s guest is Leos, he is a sound engineer with 30 years of experience. You do sound mixes. What makes a good sound mix?

Well it depends on what it is, is it a commercial? A cinema spot? A corporate movie or a music itself? Voice is very important, effects, noise and music. Simply said it’s the balance between these things. 

Also, do you want to hear the music more or the voice over? You have to define it with the client first. Then it’s a question of leveling, how does it sounds, is the music too aggressive, is the sounds itself too bright, is the voice good and strong enough? That’s the thing behind the mi

Why does so many sound mixers struggle with that balance?

I think it’s more about the technical part because you need the right instruments and tools. A lot of sound mixers try to mix on headphones, but it’s actually not possible to mix on headphones something which is broadcast on stage with a huge sound system. 

The voice itself should be clear enough, the treatment on how you handle the voice because it is not just what we record, you have a lot of different tools to make the voice thicker. You have problems with the sound of “s”, you have to take it down. When you listen to commercial you often hear the voice louder and the music more behind. The effects should not disturb the voice. 

In a corporate movie you might have different ideas about that. You can say the voice is not so important but we want more music more cinematic effect so you push a bit the music but you still have to understand the voice, otherwise it doesn’t make sense to bring in the voice. 

I think the answer is that experience is the only way to find the right balance.

Yes, the balance but also the quality of the sound itself. If you have a voice which is tall and the music is very bright you have a problem. Good mix actually works on all systems, it doesn’t matter if it’s a laptop or whatever. That’s the important thing.

With the internet it’s all about faster and cheaper. Stuff doesn’t last so long anymore. How do you keep your standards high with budget limitations?

I think for us it’s very important to consult the client, if you have voice over in german, french and italian, this is probably too expensive. So forget the voice maybe, or just do a german version and forget the other versions. You have to adapt. Talk to the client and discuss options. 

One of your specialities I would say is guiding the client to the right voice over artist. Could you elaborate on that?

You have to choose a voice which fit to a certain product. The voice has to sell something and you have to believe what the voice says. In the studio we have the client, the ad agency, the copywriter and we try to define how the voice should be to be believable.

Nowadays you can do a sound mix from almost everywhere. However you work with high end equipment perfect sound studio environnement.

Well two things. the first thing is of course you can do a sound mix anywhere, but do you know how to handle it, do you know what you do? Most don’t. You need to be a professional.

Cinema stuff you can only mix it on big systems, you can’t buy just a little 5.1 system and try to mix, it doesn’t sound good. If you mix music you need a big system. Famous artists want the highest level. Because the artist itself is in the mix. If the mix is bad, you loose.

If you could inspire young people with your journey to success. What would that be?

The first thing is to be kind of naïve, having fun like a child and to learn every day. Because now the techniques as you know evolve very fast.

What gets you up in the morning? What motivates you to keep on making amazing music and sound mixes?

Well it’s the motivation itself, it’s the fun factors. You often hear that in our business it’s all about passion. If you lose it I think you should probably stop your job and do something else. 

Interviewed by Xaver Walser.