Michael Brauer

Engineer

About me

Michael Brauer has an impressive back catalogue, having worked with Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Coldplay, John Mayer, Ash, My Morning Jacket, Ben Folds, Eric Clapton, Prefab Sprout, Leonard Cohen, Pet Shop Boys, Dream Theater, Elle King, James Bay and Calle 13 to name but a few. He has won seven Grammy Awards, including best engineered album for John Mayer's "Battle Studies". He currently works in Electric Lady Studio B in New York, where he works with an SSL 9080 J-series desk, as well as an vast collection of outboard. The outboard is at the heart of Brauer’s approach to using compression and EQ, that is so elaborate that Brauer has given it a trademarked name: “Brauerize”. The mixer explains that it, “is the combination of a few different compression techniques, including multi-bus, parallel and post-fader send/return compression, which focus on mixing into compression, allowing me to ride instruments, vocals, and my entire mix, into the sweet spot.”

Brauer’s ‘Brauerizing’ technique, of parallel compression of vocals and/or instruments is complimented with his heavy use of software, which as he describes, allows things that one cannot get from the hardware, such as “great de-essers and fixing tools”.