David Mikeal

Recording Connection Mentor David Mikeal On The Best Way to Predict Your Future

After working in the recording industry for close to two decades David Mikeal is one of the most in-demand audio engineers and producers in the Orlando area. A lifelong musician, David’s youth was spent touring the country with major label bands signed to A&M Records and CBS Records as a lead guitarist and vocalist. Today, David owns and operates StudioLiveUSA in Oviedo, Florida, which just saw the completion of their new Live Room with truss lighting, full sound system, new digital board, and a raised stage with 12 foot ceilings. The new studio addition is large enough to service a small orchestra. Right now, it’s where StudioLive is producing a series of live performances that, if all goes as planned, will be airing on a syndicated television network, showcasing the Orlando’s eclectic musical talent.

Also a longtime Recording Connection mentor, David’s involvement with our program is just one of the ways he tries to pay it forward, providing today’s up and comers with the perspective that comes from experience and  relevant entrepreneurial thinking that’s geared towards meeting the needs of today’s musicians rather than staying stuck in out-moded thinking:

“People I know used to get offended in the old days, big studios, they would be offended if they couldn’t do the whole project from the ground-up, from the very beginning to the very end. [But] now, I advertise, ‘Look, if you recorded something at home and you want to take the last step for your project, and take it up a couple of notches, come to us. We’ll mix it for you.’ Or I have people hire me just to do guitar solos for them on the record, or I have people just come to the studio just for their drum tracks, and they do everything else at the house, because they can’t do drums at their places. They don’t have enough mics, or they can’t make that much noise. So I’m happy to do any and everything that anybody wants to do. I’m not offended, you know? And if you do a good job for them, and you treat them well, chances are they’re going to come back and want to do more with you…”

David’s approach to working with artists in the recording studio as they need establishes a relationship of trust, enabling them to feel surefooted and supported rather than “led” or “coached.” Knowing how and when to give advice and when to stay out of it is often a major factor that can determine whether or not you earn their repeat business:

“If you want to keep a good mood in the session, and be successful with artists, you got to be able to read them… I suggest to them [his apprentices], before they really learn how to read people, ‘You know, just do your job. Be polite. Even if you don’t like what they’re doing, be polite. And do exactly, and as quickly as you can, you know, what they ask you to do. And only if they ask you for your opinion, you know, like in the beginning, until you get to be good at it. Only if they ask you your opinion, you know, then you’re allowed to speak up and say it.’”

When asked what are the essential qualities any engineer needs in order to succeed, David says, “There’s two skills that are going to get you just as far as knowing how to run all the equipment. Number one is you have to be a really good people person because you’re going to have to deal with some very difficult people, and you may have to spend 12 hours at a time with them in the control room, and you might not even like what they’re doing… The other thing is you’ve got to have a good set of ears…Having a good set of ears and knowing the right mixture for stuff, without being prompted too much, I think, is a gift. Some people have that, and some people don’t.”

And, when asked what he loves about mentoring students he says, “Well, for the most part, they keep me young. And it does help keep me fresh… Occasionally, I do get lucky and have people that, after they graduate, come back and actually work for me, at least for a while. And I think it’s natural for me to be a teacher. I teach guitar and piano. I really get a kick out of seeing the light go on in somebody’s eyes, when they get it…I tell the students when they get a bad grade on of the quizzes, I’m like, ‘You know, you need to study harder, and I’d be real proud of you if you get more of the answers right. But what’s most important to me is not how many questions you get right, or how many missed. It’s more important that you get it. And when I see that you get it and you retain it, that’s what I’m most appreciative of.’”

We asked him to shout out specific students he is proud of and he didn’t miss a beat: 

“Gavin Thomas—He was one of my students about four years ago…he’s my right-hand guy. Another one was James Woodrich, and then another one recently at Studio Live…well, it was probably a year ago, was Sebastian Morales. Now he’s in Miami working with—I know he had done a session with Carlos Santana and some other people…Somebody else, come to think of it, helped me engineer a lot of stuff since he graduated, and he went through the Master’s. That’s Jason Powers…He actually works for me part time.”

When asked what he thinks the benefits of Recording Connection’s hands-on mentorship style of education are, he says, “I think the Recording Connection course is wonderful… I can’t tell you how many students come to my studio that were interested in going to Full Sail first, or have actually bailed ship and decided to take this course, or come over here as musicians with a local band or something, or as their part-time engineer, only to tell me how they wish they wouldn’t have spent so much money, and they were stuck in a classroom of 30 or 40.”

David surmises his final tidbit of advice to Recording Connection students in a saying attributed to none other than Abraham Lincoln: “The best way to predict the future is to create it” he says, pausing before he explains further. “The only reason to get in the music business is because you love music. If you’re doing it for the money, it’s probably a mistake. But you know, that could work for anything, because if you’re lucky enough to be able to do what you love, or at least be pursuing what you love, taking education in it, then the money will follow. Because you’re doing what you love, you’re passionate about it. Enough said.”