Co-hosts Ed Thorne and Paul Third dissect mixing, mastering, and studio gear with working engineers.
Produce Like A Pro treats recording as a working craft, not a mystery. Episodes move from Abbey Road history to remix feedback, headphone mixing, mastering decisions, room treatment, and the social realities of client work.
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Produce Like a Pro's sampled episodes are hosted by co-hosts Ed Thorne and Paul Third under a recurring 'Working Audio Tools' segment. Most episodes follow an interview format: a mixing engineer, mastering engineer, or audio educator joins to unpack one technical area in detail, such as mixing on planar-magnetic headphones, diagnosing a bad-sounding limiter, or setting up monitors and acoustic treatment in an imperfect room. Recurring guest types are working practitioners rather than musicians — mastering engineers with client-facing YouTube channels (Nicholas Di Lorenzo of Panorama Mastering), mixing/mastering engineers (Emrah Celik), and audio educators (Kyle Mathias of Audio University). A separate solo, narration-driven format covers recording technology history, exemplified by an episode tracing Abbey Road Studios from its 1931 opening through tape, stereo invention, and the Beatles era. Another recurring format is a panel-style mix critique, where the hosts review a remix or mix in detail, discussing vocal presence, drum sample choices, and mastering decisions. Recurring technical themes include studio acoustics (quarter-wavelength absorption, Helmholtz resonators), gear comparisons (interfaces, preamps, monitors, headphones), and loudness/limiting standards (LUFS, true peak, oversampling). Career and business topics also recur, including how mastering engineers price freelance work and manage difficult clients. The show carries a recurring DistroKid sponsorship mention tied to its production-business discussions. Listeners who get the most from it are working or aspiring mixing/mastering engineers, home studio owners, and audio engineering students looking for shop-talk-level technical detail rather than beginner tutorials.
Made for: Working and aspiring mixing/mastering engineers, home studio producers, and audio engineering students who want practical, gear-specific technique rather than beginner-level tutorials.
What sets it apart: Stays in technical shop-talk detail — LUFS targets, limiter behavior, headphone EQ curves, room-treatment physics, track-by-track remix critiques — with guests who are working engineers rather than artists or general music-business commentators.
Multi-platinum producer Warren Huart sits down with producers, mixers, and mastering engineers to not only a get a peak into the techniques and tricks often held close to the chest, but in turn show that you can always make marvelous music on any level of equipment.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Produce Like A Pro connects mixing, mastering, monitoring, and recording history to the practical judgments that shape finished music.
Produce Like A Pro treats production knowledge as something to test against real mixes, rooms, and working relationships. Warren Huart's wider catalog moves between Working Audio Tools conversations, detailed mix criticism, and recording history.
A bad limiter often means a bad mix, and this is where your excuses lose headroom.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sturdy Abbey Road history that links Beatles lore with the recording tools and studio culture behind the music.
Abbey Road comes through as a studio with two kinds of mythology: the public one, built around the Beatles, the zebra crossing, and the 1976 name change, and the more technical one, built in tape rooms, mastering chains, and cautious EMI offices.
A practical remix-contest listen about vocal presence, drum balance, width, and the fine line between polish and overproduction.
Produce Like A Pro uses the Lianne Kay remix contest as a chance to listen past the usual "good mix" shorthand and get into the small choices that decide whether a track really lands.
A grounded mastering talk about limiters, flawed mixes, and the tact needed when a project is not quite ready.
Mastering is framed as a craft of judgment, not a last-minute loudness trick. Nicholas Di Lorenzo is blunt about the limiter problem: when a track falls apart under limiting, the issue may already be in the mix, from shaky dynamics to uneven tonal balance.
A grounded, engineer-level case for mixing on headphones without treating monitor-speaker tradition as gospel.
Working Audio Tools turns a potentially nerdy headphone debate into a useful working-engineer conversation. Guest Emrah Celik talks through why he favors planar magnetic headphones for mixing: lower distortion, flatter response, and, most practically, a tendency to keep him from…
Kyle Mathias keeps audio science practical, with room treatment and gear talk framed around starting now instead of chasing perfect conditions.
Working Audio Tools brings Audio University's Kyle Mathias into a relaxed, practical conversation about audio theory without turning it into homework.
Joe Wong interviews drummers and musicians about craft, history, and the working musician's life.
Lij Shaw interviews producers and engineers about mic technique, mixing, and studio business.
Ian Shepherd and working mastering engineers dig into Atmos, loudness wars, and vinyl cutting.
Hip-hop history, loud and off-script.
Abbey Road begins as a studio story.
A mix critique turns into a close listen.
Paul Third puts mastering under the microscope, and Nicholas keeps the answer practical.
Mixing on headphones gets a proper shop-floor debate.
Audio theory gets practical fast.