Behind the techniques of Hans Zimmer's GRAMMY-winning engineer Alan Meyerson | UNSUNG

For Episode 10 of the UNSUNG podcast MixedByJocelin and Mirek Stiles were joined by the legendary Alan Meyerson in Los Angeles at the revered Just For The Record Recording Studios.

The 2x GRAMMY-winning mix engineer has mixed and recorded the scores for some of the biggest movies in the world. His credits include Interstellar (2014), Lion King (1994), Dune: Part One (2021), Dune: Part Two (2024), The Dark Knight (2008), Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), Shrek (2001), Inception (2010), Gladiator (2000) and many, many more.

Outside of his work as a scoring mixer Alan worked on some very successful records in the 1980s from the likes of New Order, Cameo, Etta James, and Bryan Ferry.

Our family at Abbey Road are also over the moon to welcome Alan into the faculty at the recently announced Abbey Road Institute LA. He joins Rafa Sardina (who will launch the LA campus), Barry Rudolph, John Boylan, Vanessa Garde and many more.

In this episode Alan talks about his musical beginnings, discovering the studio, working on jingles for TV and Radio commercials, his early career as an engineer in New York, hanging out with John Lennon at the Hit Factory, losing his studio at Larrabee to Dr. Dre, meeting Hans Zimmer, imposter syndrome, turning 64 at Abbey Road, the Brass from 'Inception' (2010), how he approaches a mix, working on film scores vs game scores, mixing in surround, music budgets in film and selling his analog gear.

➡️ Follow Alan on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/alanmeyersonmusic/

➡️ Hear some of Alan’s work - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0OooELYcsSh90cWyVgDQUo?si=iQj3tQhOT1mippJF-H2Abg

➡️ Learn more about Audiomovers - https://shorturl.at/1Tpv5

Timecode:

0:00 Intro

0:16 Musical Beginnings

1:03 Discovering the “Studio”

1:15 Alan’s first internship at a studio

3:40 Alan’s first job as an Assistant Engineer at Counterpoint Studios

6:32 Joining The Hit Factory

6:48 Joining A & R Recording studios

6:54 Going freelance working on jingles for TV & radio commercials

9:30 Working as a mix engineer in Pop and R&B

14:54 Alan gets to work on his first film

15:23 Meeting Hans Zimmer

16:07 Thinking about Leaving the Music Business

16:48 Working relationship with Hans Zimmer begins

17:07 Moving into Score Recording & Mixing

19:12 Imposter syndrome

20:29 Alan at Abbey Road

22:30 Turning 64 at Abbey Road

23:48 Alan’s appreciation for Session Musicians

24:59 Flow state

25:30 Brass from the Inception score

26:29 How Alan mixes Brass

28:40 Hans Zimmer’s iconic sounds

30:28 Feedback sessions with Hans

32:00 When the film inspires the character of the mix

34:05 How Alan approaches starting a mix

34:49 Alan’s mixing template

35:40 How Alan does automation

36:40 Delivery requirements for scores in 2025

39:47 How Alan uses Audiomovers

42:44 Mixing in 7.1.4

45:53 Working with the Sennheiser AMBEO Cube

48:53 Dynamic music of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

50:06 The difference between working on a film score vs a game score

51:42 Music budgets in films

53:48 Quick-fire round

55:16 Alan on compression

56:14 Does Alan Meyerson use analog gear?

57:00 What advice would you give aspiring engineers?

UNSUNG is a weekly show exploring the untold stories and creative processes behind the music we love, from a cast of globally acclaimed record producers, studio engineers, songwriters and composers.

UNSUNG honours the real stories, and the truth behind the music that shapes our lives. It's a podcast by music obsessives, for music obsessives. Join us.

UNSUNG is a podcast from Audiomovers. Audiomovers is part of the Abbey Road RED family and our software LISTENTO is used by over 90% of recording sessions at the studio, as well as on countless GRAMMY-winning records and Billboard 100 hits.

Alongside LISTENTO, Audiomovers creates a suite of groundbreaking pro audio software tools designed to help music makers collaborate.

#podcast #alanmeyerson #hanszimmer #inception #mixing #engineering