Learn it in the room where it happens.
YouTube will teach you where the buttons are. It won't sit next to you when your vocal sounds thin and tell you why. We teach one-on-one in the same rooms, on the same monitors, through the same outboard the records here get made on — because the gap between watching and doing is the whole thing.
one on one
Private mentorship.
90 minutes, just you and an engineer, working on your music. Not a curriculum you sit through — we start with whatever you're stuck on and build outward from there.
Single session
$125
One 90-minute session, one-on-one, in the room you'd actually record in.
Four sessions
$400
$100 each. The honest version — one lesson shows you the buttons, four builds a habit and finishes a song.
Eight sessions
$680
$85 each. For producers going from bedroom demos to releases, with a body of work at the end of it.
- Ableton Live — start to finished track
- Pro Tools & Logic fundamentals
- Recording and comping your own vocals
- Mixing your own records
- Sound design and sampling
- Getting a release actually finished
Not on the list? Ask anyway — if it happens in a studio, someone here does it for a living.
two days, behind the desk
The Two-Day Mixing Intensive
Two full days behind the desk with the engineer who's tracked and mixed over a thousand records — on the same monitors, the same outboard, and the same room the records get made in.
$997
for 2 full days · 8 hours each
For context, not for pressure: two 8-hour days in the Rock Room at our published rate is $1,590 — you can check that against our own room rates. The course is $997, and Garrett is in the chair next to you the whole time.
$250 deposit holds your spot · 8 seats max
Gain staging to static mix
- Session prep, routing, and why a clean start saves the whole mix
- Building a static mix that already sounds like a record
- EQ and compression as decisions, not presets
- Working the SSL bus compressor and the Tube-Tech CL 1B by ear
Depth, automation, and the last 10%
- Reverb and delay as space, not as an effect you add at the end
- Automation passes that make a chorus actually lift
- Vocal chains for pop, rap, and indie — and when to break them
- Referencing, translation, and knowing when a mix is finished
- A laptop with your DAW of choice
- Two or three of your own multitracks — we mix your material, not a stock demo
- Headphones you know well
Capped at 8 people so everyone gets real time at the desk, and it runs with a minimum of 4. If a date doesn't fill, you'll hear from us well before it and your deposit comes straight back.
Held at the studio — 1505 4th St, Ste 219, Santa Monica CA 90401.
who's teaching
Garrett — Lead Engineer
Our in-house engineer — the one behind the glass on most sessions at Paradise. Garrett has been a part of over 1,000 records and has been tracking, mixing, and producing out of Paradise Recording since day one. He moves fast, keeps the room loose, and knows exactly which mic and chain flatter your voice. From late-night rap sessions to polished pop and indie records, he's the reason artists keep coming back.
Meet the engineersbefore you book
Good to know.
- Do I need any experience to start?
- No. Sessions are one-on-one, so the first one starts wherever you actually are — whether that's 'I've never opened Ableton' or 'my mixes sound fine until I hear them in the car.' Complete beginners are the most common first-timers here.
- Do I need my own laptop or software?
- Bring a laptop if you have one — you'll learn faster on the setup you'll actually go home and use. If you don't have one yet, you can work on the studio rig for the first few sessions while you figure out what to buy, and we'll tell you honestly what's worth the money.
- How long is a mentorship session?
- 90 minutes. That's long enough to actually finish something rather than just get set up, and short enough to stay sharp the whole way through.
- Who teaches the mixing intensive?
- Garrett, our lead engineer. He's been part of over a thousand records and has been tracking and mixing out of Paradise since day one — the course is the way he actually works, not a slide deck.
- What do I walk away from the intensive with?
- Your own multitracks, mixed — plus the session files, your notes, and a way of working you can repeat on the next record. You mix your material across the two days, not a stock demo everybody else has already used.
- Is the mixing intensive ever discounted?
- The price is $997. We don't run a fake list price on it — the comparison we show is simply what two 8-hour days in the Rock Room at our published rate costs at our published rate, so you can check the math against our own booking page.
start where you are
Book your first session.
Tell us what you're working on and what's not working yet. We'll put you with the right person and find a time.