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Free mix feedback is back. Dee Kei opens the episode by explaining how the Mixing Music Podcast community now handles it: a Discord forum for public feedback, a private ticket system for Patreon members, and at least one hour every Monday where he personally goes through submissions, often with specific EQ moves and a short demo of what he'd do. (https://mixingmusicpodcast.com/discord )
Then Dee Kei and Lu get into a conversation they've been circling for a while: what AI actually means for engineers, plugin developers, and DAWs. Lu shares what he's been seeing from friends in the industry, people using AI to remove friction instead of skipping the work. Examples include correcting metering ballistics, building MIDI companion plugins so hardware can recall settings from inside a session, and feeding venue tech sheets and manuals into AI to plan a tour. They also react to a recent demo of vibe-coded audio plugins and what it reveals about the gap between an impressive demo and a tool engineers can trust.
From there, Dee Kei lays out his predictions. When almost anyone can build a plugin, the incentive shifts toward selling trust, security, and community instead of just tools. He talks about the real risk of malware in free plugins, why open ecosystems like Reaper look stronger, why Pro Tools has less reason to gatekeep, and his hope that the endless stream of 1176 and Neve clones finally gives way to new ideas. He ties this to a broader thought from This Is What It Sounds Like by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas: AI will be excellent at imitation, which could push humans to take bigger creative risks.
The core of the episode is why neither host is worried about their job. AI mastering has existed for over a decade, and Lu hasn't seen mastering work slow down. They talk about what clients actually hire engineers for: communication, turnaround, reliability, and being the person who handles the artist, the manager, the A&R, and everyone else so the record gets finished. They explain the difference between being an engineer people rely on and being someone's personal engineer, and why the threshold for professional acceptance is rising. Dee Kei also shares an old IBM training manual idea that a computer can't be held accountable, and why that matters when someone has to put their name and reputation behind one mix out of a thousand.
The episode closes on a more personal note. Dee Kei explains why he's excited about change, why he wouldn't be devastated if the job shifted, and why fear, on a personal level, is mostly wasted energy that keeps you closed off to whatever comes next.
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The Mixing Music Podcast is sponsored by Izotope, Antares (Auto Tune), Sweetwater, Plugin Boutique, Lauten Audio, Filepass, & Canva
The Mixing Music Podcast is a video and audio series on the art of music production and post-production. Dee Kei, Lu, and James are professionals in the Los Angeles music industry having worked with names like Odetari, 6arelyhuman, Trey Songz, Keyshia Cole, Benny the Butcher, carolesdaughter, Crying City, Daphne Loves Derby, Natalie Jane, charlieonnafriday, bludnymph, Lay Bankz, Rico Nasty, Ayesha Erotica, ATEEZ, Dizzy Wright, Kanye West, Blackway, The Game, Dylan Espeseth, Tara Yummy, Asteria, Kets4eki, Shaquille O'Neal, Republic Records, Interscope Records, Arista Records, Position Music, Capital Records, Mercury Records, Universal Music Group, apg, Hive Music, Sony Music, and many others.
This podcast is meant to be used for educational purposes only. This show is filmed and recorded at Dee Kei's private studio in Los Angeles, California. If you would like to sponsor the show, please email us at deekeimixes@gmail.com.
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