Why Mixing Engineer Stuart White Loves Pro Tools – Avid
“Sometimes great songs happen from a lot of laboring, but I’d say typically the best s**t happens when things happen quickly and easily.”
So says multi-GRAMMY®-winning recording and mixing engineer Stuart White, who makes this observation from first-hand knowledge working with Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Megan Thee Stallion, fun.,Alicia Keys, and other top artists. His ability to bring out the best in the artists he works with in the studio is made possible by his deep understanding of what they need — and of Pro Tools.
“Artists and producers—especially at the highest level—expect engineers to be able to get their hands dirty, really use the tools, feel the emotion of the record, and be able to complement it,” White explains. “I feel like I’m good at being creative on the spot and reading people really well, knowing what they need in that moment and how to pivot quickly.”
Having in-depth knowledge of Pro Tools enables him to always stay engaged and keep up with every creative whim an artist may have—and then quickly switch gears to work on something else when the artist decides to scratch that idea.
For a mixing engineer, “the music is the fun part,” he says. “Being infinitely flexible is what you get paid for… Getting experimental in the studio is super fun. I love genre-blurring—I guess that’s part of my style in a sense—and Pro Tools is great for that. It’s really, really quick to record, manipulate things, change tempo, pitch, fly things around, and keep the flow going, so the artist doesn’t lose their train of thought.”
Hear more from Stuart White about his experience as a recording and mixing engineer…
