Ben Abraham ‘Friendly Fire’

Since 2014, Ben Abraham has been captivating music enthusiasts with his exceptional talent of immersing listeners in the narratives of his songs and evoking emotion in an undeniable way.

When Ben Abraham wrote and recorded his sophomore LP, Friendly Fire, he and producer James Flannigan turned to Michael Brauer to carry that talent forward sonically.

In this Puremix exclusive, Michael deconstructs his mix of Ben Abraham’s “Friendly Fire” and explains how every move he made was about bringing the intention and emotion of the song to life. The focus is on the story of the song and connecting the listener to the journey that Ben is taking them on, from the first note to the powerful climax of the song.

See how Michael Brauer:

• Listens to the rough mix and explains how he makes a plan to approach the mix from an emotional perspective instead of a technical one
• Explains the importance of connecting with the story of the song as a mixing engineer
• Demonstrates how he created his signature piano sound on Ben’s piano with post-compression eq and carefully placed parallel compression
• Discusses how he constructed the mix around the piano and Ben’s voice after identifying them as the key elements of the song
• Builds the sound of Ben’s vocal by using the tones of multiple parallel compressors
• Goes through each of the vocal effect chains he used to create the ambiance around Ben’s vocal
• Dissects elements of the mix one by one showing the thought process behind each move
• Explains each step of the Stereo bus chain he used to finalize the mix

Learn from Michael Brauer how mixing records involves not only enhancing sonics but also connecting listeners with great storytelling and emotions.