Episode 1

Rich Keller is handed a multitrack live recording of the Miles Davis Electric Band performing at the San Francisco Jazz organization, and the brief is clear: 'make it sound like a record'.

The song is 'Jean-Pierre', from Miles Davis' landmark album 'We Want Miles'. It runs 11 minutes and 16 seconds. And waiting inside the session: no hi-hat mic, enormous bleed on every track, and operator fader rides baked right into the recording. Welcome to live mixing.

In Part 1, Rich digs into the full session architecture, explains every muted track and why it's there, and shares how watching the concert video transformed his mixing decisions from start to finish. Then it's straight to the drums, where the missing hi-hat forces him to rethink the entire overhead approach, and where phase, compression, and the Knock plugin become his most essential tools.

In this episode, watch how Rich Keller:

- Walks through the full session layout: live multitrack architecture, muted tracks, overdubs, and the Ambisonics room mic
- Uses the concert video as a real-time mixing reference, watching what he needs to hear
- Discovers and solves the missing hi-hat mic problem through overhead compression
- Phase-checks two kick drum mics for maximum impact and low-end clarity
- Compares the Metric Halo channel strip vs. the SSL on the kit, and explains why he uses both
- Applies the Knock plugin on the full drum bus for punch, saturation, and clip
- Shares his core mixing philosophy: hear what you see, feel what you hear