Mat Mitchell
Mat Mitchell is an award-winning producer, director, songwriter, musician and audio engineer with decades of experience working alongside major music industry artists, his studio includes an eclectic mix of modern and vintage equipment centered around a 56 Channel SSL 6000E/G+.
Notably, Mat has been a core member of the band Puscifer since 2007 — taking on the roles of producer, performer, songwriter and mix engineer — as well as creative director and musical director for Puscifer’s critically acclaimed live tours and popular concert films.
Mat is currently on tour with Puscifer in support of their most recent release Existential Reckoning.
How did you start making music?
I started playing guitar as a teenager, playing along to my favorite songs. Soon after I purchased a Tascam 4 track which helped me start songwriting and sent me down the rabbit hole of production trying to make my recordings sound better and learning the relationship between arrangement and mix.
What was your first synth?
The first synths I was able to spend time on were loaned to me by a friend. Roland SH101 and Ensonic Mirage. They were great, I loved how they immediately affected the types of parts I was writing and the different emotional feel I was getting from them. I want to say the first synth I purchased was a Roland System 100.
What is the first thing you do when approaching a new synth?
Full reset, then start with a simple waveform and go through each block to understand the voice and how it reacts. What’s the filter sound like, does it oscillate, is it clean/dirty, how do the envelopes react. Then I dig into modulation and any waveform modifiers. Lastly, I try to see if there’s a way to break the sound. I find it exciting to find strength in the weaknesses of electronics.
What is your favorite piece of gear…
What is your favorite piece of gear…
in your studio that is not a synth that you can’t do without?
in your studio that is not a synth that you can’t do without?
Console, DAW, and Monitors. Having a tactile console, SSL6056e helps me move quickly, shaping and blending. I work within a few DAW’s depending on the task. ProTools, Logic, and Ableton, thru Apogee Symphony II converters. And lastly, nearfields. ATC SCM45’s. They tell me exactly what’s going on, what’s wrong, and they don’t lie. If a mix doesn’t sound exciting on them I need to keep working.
What inspires your music?
What inspires your music?
I’m very emotionally driven, does the music take me on a ride, tell a story.
What is your production process: in-the-box or live?
Both. I really like the balance of organic and electronic.
Using presets or patching your own sounds?
I rarely use presets. I find they’re typically too complex for my taste, and I usually find it quicker to build a patch from scratch than reverse engineer a preset into what I want.
How does your live set-up look like?
My live keyboard setup for the current tour is 3 Waldorf Iridium synths. We have all the same patches loaded into all 3, so from song to song we can be at different locations. Patches are a combination of synth, samples, and live input manipulation. The modulation, touch screen, and effects make the Iridium very fun and creative to play live, and easy to warp and twist sounds differently every night.
At which time of day or night we meet you most often in your studio?
It used to be if I was awake I was in the studio. For the past 10 years or so I’ve tried to pivot to bankers hours. We usually start around 9am, wrapping around 6pm. Things go late as we get closer to deadlines, but I find I accomplish more when I give myself set hours.
What role do Waldorf synths play in your music?
Over the years I’ve had several Waldorf synths, Microwave, Microwave II, Microwave XT, Quantum, and Iridium. I’ve always felt the Waldorf products stand alone and have a very distinct sound. The Quantum and Iridium I feel are next level. I can create very unique sounds quickly and find them very easy to manipulate.
Puscifer – Personal Prometheus
“Bread and Circus (Re-Imagined by Mat Mitchell)” from the album, Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired (via Puscifer Entertainment/Alchemy Recordings/BMG). Stream/purchase here: https://puscifer.lnk.to/ReWired.
“Existential Reckoning: Rewired is a dataset of revoiced and reassembled orchestrations by friends and members of the larger Pusciforce family.” – Mat Mitchell
“Sometimes it’s just fun to break stuff. Then you latch on to one familiar piece and build something entirely new.” – Maynard James Keenan
“Horizons” from the concert film “Parole Violator: A Puscifer Concert Film featuring Conditions of My Parole.”
Three of our concert films: V is for Versatile, Parole Violator and Billy D and The Hall of Feathered Serpents, are now available to rent or purchase via Puscifertv.com and Apple TV/iTunes.
The companion soundtracks for the trio of movies are streaming via your favorite streaming service (Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, etc.). Vinyl and CD/Blu-Ray for V is for Versatile and Parole Violator can be purchased via Puscifer.com and through your preferred independent record store.
Follow Puscifer:
Mat Mitchell
Mat Mitchell is an award-winning producer, director, songwriter, musician and audio engineer with decades of experience working alongside major music industry artists, his studio includes an eclectic mix of modern and vintage equipment centered around a 56 Channel SSL 6000E/G+.
Notably, Mat has been a core member of the band Puscifer since 2007 — taking on the roles of producer, performer, songwriter and mix engineer — as well as creative director and musical director for Puscifer’s critically acclaimed live tours and popular concert films.
Mat is currently on tour with Puscifer in support of their most recent release Existential Reckoning.
How did you start making music?
I started playing guitar as a teenager, playing along to my favorite songs. Soon after I purchased a Tascam 4 track which helped me start songwriting and sent me down the rabbit hole of production trying to make my recordings sound better and learning the relationship between arrangement and mix.
What was your first synth?
The first synths I was able to spend time on were loaned to me by a friend. Roland SH101 and Ensonic Mirage. They were great, I loved how they immediately affected the types of parts I was writing and the different emotional feel I was getting from them. I want to say the first synth I purchased was a Roland System 100.
What is the first thing you do when approaching a new synth?
Full reset, then start with a simple waveform and go through each block to understand the voice and how it reacts. What’s the filter sound like, does it oscillate, is it clean/dirty, how do the envelopes react. Then I dig into modulation and any waveform modifiers. Lastly, I try to see if there’s a way to break the sound. I find it exciting to find strength in the weaknesses of electronics.
What is your favorite piece of gear…
What is your favorite piece of gear…
in your studio that is not a synth that you can’t do without?
in your studio that is not a synth that you can’t do without?
Console, DAW, and Monitors. Having a tactile console, SSL6056e helps me move quickly, shaping and blending. I work within a few DAW’s depending on the task. ProTools, Logic, and Ableton, thru Apogee Symphony II converters. And lastly, nearfields. ATC SCM45’s. They tell me exactly what’s going on, what’s wrong, and they don’t lie. If a mix doesn’t sound exciting on them I need to keep working.
What inspires your music?
I’m very emotionally driven, does the music take me on a ride, tell a story.
What is your production process: in-the-box or live?
Both. I really like the balance of organic and electronic.
Using presets or patching your own sounds?
I rarely use presets. I find they’re typically too complex for my taste, and I usually find it quicker to build a patch from scratch than reverse engineer a preset into what I want.
How does your live set-up look like?
My live keyboard setup for the current tour is 3 Waldorf Iridium synths. We have all the same patches loaded into all 3, so from song to song we can be at different locations. Patches are a combination of synth, samples, and live input manipulation. The modulation, touch screen, and effects make the Iridium very fun and creative to play live, and easy to warp and twist sounds differently every night.
At which time of day or night we meet you most often in your studio?
It used to be if I was awake I was in the studio. For the past 10 years or so I’ve tried to pivot to bankers hours. We usually start around 9am, wrapping around 6pm. Things go late as we get closer to deadlines, but I find I accomplish more when I give myself set hours.
What role do Waldorf synths play in your music?
Over the years I’ve had several Waldorf synths, Microwave, Microwave II, Microwave XT, Quantum, and Iridium. I’ve always felt the Waldorf products stand alone and have a very distinct sound. The Quantum and Iridium I feel are next level. I can create very unique sounds quickly and find them very easy to manipulate.
Puscifer – Personal Prometheus
“Bread and Circus (Re-Imagined by Mat Mitchell)” from the album, Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired (via Puscifer Entertainment/Alchemy Recordings/BMG). Stream/purchase here: https://puscifer.lnk.to/ReWired.
“Existential Reckoning: Rewired is a dataset of revoiced and reassembled orchestrations by friends and members of the larger Pusciforce family.” – Mat Mitchell
“Sometimes it’s just fun to break stuff. Then you latch on to one familiar piece and build something entirely new.” – Maynard James Keenan
“Horizons” from the concert film “Parole Violator: A Puscifer Concert Film featuring Conditions of My Parole.”
Three of our concert films: V is for Versatile, Parole Violator and Billy D and The Hall of Feathered Serpents, are now available to rent or purchase via Puscifertv.com and Apple TV/iTunes.
The companion soundtracks for the trio of movies are streaming via your favorite streaming service (Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, etc.). Vinyl and CD/Blu-Ray for V is for Versatile and Parole Violator can be purchased via Puscifer.com and through your preferred independent record store.
Follow Puscifer:
Mat Mitchell
Mat Mitchell is an award-winning producer, director, songwriter, musician and audio engineer with decades of experience working alongside major music industry artists, his studio includes an eclectic mix of modern and vintage equipment centered around a 56 Channel SSL 6000E/G+.
Notably, Mat has been a core member of the band Puscifer since 2007 — taking on the roles of producer, performer, songwriter and mix engineer — as well as creative director and musical director for Puscifer’s critically acclaimed live tours and popular concert films.
Mat is currently on tour with Puscifer in support of their most recent release Existential Reckoning.
How did you start making music?
I started playing guitar as a teenager, playing along to my favorite songs. Soon after I purchased a Tascam 4 track which helped me start songwriting and sent me down the rabbit hole of production trying to make my recordings sound better and learning the relationship between arrangement and mix.
What was your first synth?
The first synths I was able to spend time on were loaned to me by a friend. Roland SH101 and Ensonic Mirage. They were great, I loved how they immediately affected the types of parts I was writing and the different emotional feel I was getting from them. I want to say the first synth I purchased was a Roland System 100.
What is the first thing you do when approaching a new synth?
Full reset, then start with a simple waveform and go through each block to understand the voice and how it reacts. What’s the filter sound like, does it oscillate, is it clean/dirty, how do the envelopes react. Then I dig into modulation and any waveform modifiers. Lastly, I try to see if there’s a way to break the sound. I find it exciting to find strength in the weaknesses of electronics.
What is your favorite piece of gear…
… in your studio that is not a synth that you can’t do without?
Console, DAW, and Monitors. Having a tactile console, SSL6056e helps me move quickly, shaping and blending. I work within a few DAW’s depending on the task. ProTools, Logic, and Ableton, thru Apogee Symphony II converters. And lastly, nearfields. ATC SCM45’s. They tell me exactly what’s going on, what’s wrong, and they don’t lie. If a mix doesn’t sound exciting on them I need to keep working.
What inspires your music?
I’m very emotionally driven, does the music take me on a ride, tell a story.
What is your production process: in-the-box or live?
Both. I really like the balance of organic and electronic.
Using presets or patching your own sounds?
I rarely use presets. I find they’re typically too complex for my taste, and I usually find it quicker to build a patch from scratch than reverse engineer a preset into what I want.
How does your live set-up look like?
My live keyboard setup for the current tour is 3 Waldorf Iridium synths. We have all the same patches loaded into all 3, so from song to song we can be at different locations. Patches are a combination of synth, samples, and live input manipulation. The modulation, touch screen, and effects make the Iridium very fun and creative to play live, and easy to warp and twist sounds differently every night.
At which time of day or night we meet you most often in your studio?
It used to be if I was awake I was in the studio. For the past 10 years or so I’ve tried to pivot to bankers hours. We usually start around 9am, wrapping around 6pm. Things go late as we get closer to deadlines, but I find I accomplish more when I give myself set hours.
What role do Waldorf synths play in your music?
Over the years I’ve had several Waldorf synths, Microwave, Microwave II, Microwave XT, Quantum, and Iridium. I’ve always felt the Waldorf products stand alone and have a very distinct sound. The Quantum and Iridium I feel are next level. I can create very unique sounds quickly and find them very easy to manipulate.
Puscifer – Personal Prometheus
“Bread and Circus (Re-Imagined by Mat Mitchell)” from the album, Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired (via Puscifer Entertainment/Alchemy Recordings/BMG). Stream/purchase here: https://puscifer.lnk.to/ReWired.
“Existential Reckoning: Rewired is a dataset of revoiced and reassembled orchestrations by friends and members of the larger Pusciforce family.” – Mat Mitchell
“Sometimes it’s just fun to break stuff. Then you latch on to one familiar piece and build something entirely new.” – Maynard James Keenan
“Horizons” from the concert film “Parole Violator: A Puscifer Concert Film featuring Conditions of My Parole.”
Three of our concert films: V is for Versatile, Parole Violator and Billy D and The Hall of Feathered Serpents, are now available to rent or purchase via Puscifertv.com and Apple TV/iTunes.
The companion soundtracks for the trio of movies are streaming via your favorite streaming service (Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, etc.). Vinyl and CD/Blu-Ray for V is for Versatile and Parole Violator can be purchased via Puscifer.com and through your preferred independent record store.
