Michael's Mixdown

Today's episode forecast calls for stupid voices and a high of lotsa laughs. Meet Nels, he's a cool guy. Voice actor, musician, engineer, he's everything you could ever want to be and more. We've worked on a few projects together, from his Hellscape to some of his music. Come listen as we spin you a tale (and use a lot of stupid voices to do it). Nels info here: https://linktr.ee/voiceofnels Join...

Have you seen those voice acting challenges on TikTok? Maybe you've participated in a few of them! Or maybe you've started looking up resources for voice acting and found there are Discord communities online. Well join us in this episode where guests Chris Greenfield and Mandy Fisher discuss their online voice over communities. We discuss all about what resources you can find and take advantage of...

You folks are in for a treat today! Russ Castillo is a record producer, audio engineer, and former audio professor, as well as my friend for the better part of 10 years. We met when he was invited to be a guest speaker at one of my audio classes in college. It was immediately clear that he'd had a long and storied career in audio in Los Angeles. He worked for Producer's Workshop, which saw many hu...

This episode of Michael's Mixdown has been awhile in the works. Gabe, front man of the Gabriel Harley Band, and I have been friends for 7 or so years now. Gabe was my first post-college audio connection, and we've worked together on many projects since. I've been Gabe's studio assistant, his pain-in-the-side, and live sound engineer. I've finally gotten the chance to have him on the show, along wi...

It's been awhile since I had my friend Colette on the show, and has she ever been busy! Since we spoke last, she completed her PhD, got married, and has started a career as an audio book director. She also does voice acting, and can make trumpet and loon sounds. Is there anything she can't do? Join us for a peek behind the curtain on how audio books get made, and other goofy things that we discuss...

Hey, I made some new friends! Join me for a sort of impromptu episode where Joel and Matt from Maryland-based Science Penguin get to know me, and I them. We talk all about what kinds of bands we're into (surprise it's prog) and how their recent tour went. There's some really good advice in here if you're a musician that's heading on the road or into the studio for the first time. Find Science Peng...

Hey Michael's Mixdown fans, are you ready for a Wilde time? Get it? Because on today's episode, I have Devora Wilde as a guest! Devora has many on-screen credits in shows such as "Pandora" and "Hollyoaks" and voice-over credits in games such as "Total War: Warhammer 3" and "Battlefield 2042." But most recently she was one of the lead roles in Baldur's Gate 3, playing the Githyanki fighter Lae'zel....

Today a dream of mine came true. They say never to meet your heroes, but I say you need to find better heroes. I've been listening to No More Kings since my college friend and roommate Mike introduced me to them. NMK has a particular style and sense of humor that just fit perfectly with us. Joining me today is the man behind the band, Pete Mitchell. Join us for a lot of laughs and sincere moments....

In today's episode, I had the pleasure of talking to some new friends, Kris and DJ from stop.drop.rewind! The TikTok labeled "progpunk" band caught my ear the first time I heard them, and the fact that they were fellow Hoosiers was the icing on the cake. I knew from seeing them on TikTok that they would be the exact type of guys I would have a blast talking to, and so I did! We cover a lot of grou...

In this episode, I decided to talk about one of the most iconic villain voices of all time. Darth Vader! Later in the episode I also take a crack at recreating the iconic character's voice and effects with my own style. I didn't want to do an impression or copy exactly what's already been done, so this will be Vader like you've never heard him before! Also, this episode contains spoilers for Obi-W...

In today's episode, I chat with voice over professional Mandy Fisher about her experiences in the voice over field. You might have heard Mandy's work in commercials for Macy's, Crayola, or Peloton. With 15 years experience behind her, I figured she would be the right person to ask, "How does one take things to the next step?" So if you've already dipped your toes in the voice over pond, and you've...

A decade ago, I saw a show when I was in college that left an impact on me. After that show my college girlfriend and I bought a CD from the singer we'd seen. His name is Peter Rothbart, and his album "You Are What You Dream" has been in my music library ever since. Every so often over the past ten years I have listened to that album all the way through and admired the song-writing. So I got in co...

So, in or around October of 2020, my friend Jake and I had the idea to have a crossover episode of our respective shows, What Were We Talking About and Michael's Mixdown. So here, nearly a year later, we've done just that! In this episode, we talk about our favorite cartoon theme songs and cartoon music in general, but as usual, we tend to get off topic a little bit. But that's the way we roll. An...

In this episode, I sit down and have a wonderful chat with Christian Pulkkinen, a.k.a. Chrism, who is an insanely talented keyboardist and composer. He is involved with a multitude of bands including Simulacrum, Eden's Curse, James LaBrie, Adamantra, and True Cult Club! We talk about his latest release, Genesis by Simulacrum, and some behind the scenes about the equipment and software used to crea...

I got the chance to talk shop with the folks from Reel Foley Sound, Sanaa Kelley and Arno Stephanian! They are Foley recording artists, and that means that they provide sound effects for movies, television, and video games! Believe it or not, most of the sound effects in film and T.V. are actually not recorded on set with the actors, but are rather recorded later on a Foley sound stage, and added...

Today, we're listening to music in the key of Geebz! Geebz comes from the YouTube channel "Key of Geebz" where he reacts to some of our favorite progressive rock and metal tracks! Geebz is a composer, and you'll find his videos titled "Old Composer REACTS," as well as referring to himself as the "De-Composer." He is a genuinely good guy and was a blast to talk to. But if that wasn't enough, he is...

This episode I am joined by a good friend of mine, Josh, who captains a YouTube channel called Josh JX. We discuss his background in radio and other voice performance, which ultimately lead to the creation of his YouTube channel. On his channel, he creates nostalgia videos about games and shows that we grew up with in the 1990's. There is an upcoming episode for Josh's channel that covers Pokemon...

This episode breaks down the absolutely epic double album "Into The Electric Castle" by Ayreon. What a beast of a subject to tackle. This concept album features multiple characters and dozens of performers and instruments. It took about a month to record and edit the entire thing! And the best part? The creator of the album agreed to answer some of my questions for the show! So come check this out...

In this episode of Michael's Mixdown, I have remote guest Colette Feehan on the show to discuss her exciting research into linguistics and ultrasounds of the mouth and vocal tract of voice actors as they do child-like voices. She started posting on TikTok about her research and went viral overnight. We nerd out about voice actors, discuss cartoons, and we both do some character voices! This episod...

In this episode, I give some tips that I think will help you get started podcasting, or help improve your sound quality. I give some general advice, including what you should consider in your surroundings, gear, microphones, and editing software. Even if you only have your phone, I have some ideas on how to get better sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a really special, emotional episode. Steve Robert (Roh-Berh) was a very close friend of mine, and one of the most caring and loving human beings this planet has ever seen. Steve passed away from brain cancer, but his influence lives on in his community, and in his friends and family. He was a really special person. He was involved in local community outreach programs and advocated for soci...

This is the second audio terms episode, and this one is fairly short and sweet. In this episode, I talk about most of the same effects, like compression and delay, but this time I apply these effects to the electric guitar so that you might better understand how these effects are used in music.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I had been getting some questions and feedback from listeners, and the comment I got most was that there were a lot of terms being thrown around in my show that people were not understanding. So I decided to make a two-part episode to explain what some of these terms mean. You'll learn about compression, distortion, reverb, delay, and more! To have examples of these effects make sense, I did some...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.