David Isaac : Ask.Video

3-time Grammy Award winning Producer and Mix Engineer David Isaac has worked with such artists as Luther Vandross, R. Kelly, Marcus Miller, Anita Baker, and many other top recording artists.

David Isaac

By Martin Sitter

When it comes to R&B Producers & Engineers, David Isaac is a name that constantly comes up. I've known about his work for years, and I've always admired his ability to make mixes that seriously sparkle.

I have to admit, I was pretty excited when he came up to our booth at NAMM a couple of years back and introduced himself. Over time, as our friendship grew, I came to understand that David Isaac, is a natural educator - the type of person that could fit well with macProVideo.com's hand-picked roster of industry-leading trainers.

David grew up in the Detroit of the 1960's when the streets sang, danced, and made their mark around the world with the sound of Motown, the Soul of Aretha Franklin, and with many incredibly talented Gospel artists ... this proved to be the ultimate training camp for the future life of David Isaac.

After working in Detroit with many artists including Parliament/Funkadelic, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, El Debarge, Aaliyah, KEM, Aretha Franklin, Barry White, The Clark Sisters, Thomas Whitfield, Fred Hammond, Anita Baker and more, David decided (with some gentle prodding from more than a few top musicians and engineers) to make the move to Los Angeles, California. There he worked with artists like Madonna, Michael Jackson, Puff Daddy, Babyface, Billy Idol, Amel Larrieux, Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, Toni Braxton, and more.

As time passed in his new west-coast home, David began to Produce and Engineer extensively with Bass Legend and Producer, Marcus Miller. With his well-deserved reputation for nailing perfect mixes growing in the local scene, he was called-on to engineer for artists like Luther Vandross, or to Co-Produce for such artists as Eric Clapton, Wayne Shorter, and David Sanborn.

David has mixed music scores for films such as Chris Rock's "I Think I Love My Wife", and for Rock's television series "Everybody Hates Chris". Other films that David has been involved with were "The Ladies Man", "Love Jones", "Serving Sara", "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner", "Lethal Weapon II" to mention a few. David also produced the theme song for Disney's movie, "The 6th Man" with Marlon Wayans. As an interesting side project, David Produced with Marcus Miller, the Funk ride at the opening of Seattle's "Experience Music Project".

So far, David has earned 3 Grammy Awards and many more nominations for his incredible Production and Engineering skills.

At the moment, David is wrapping up his own forthcoming R&B / Funk CD with the help of a few R&B legends, and developing presets for various music software companies. Oh, and most important of all, David's creating incredible training for macProVideo.com - and I could not be happier about that fact ... David is a true legend of the music industry and I'm incredibly pleased to present his tutorial-videos here at macProVideo.com!

Courses by David Isaac

Reviews

This was awesome! wrote on January 14, 2024

This is another tutorial that sent me off to the races. After going through it, I was able to add these suggestions to my mixes with ease. He didn't hold anything back and provided a plethora of information relevant to any genre of music.
(3)
cosmkcomik wrote on July 26, 2018

Whew! This is a long course, but one of the best! Unless you are working in a studio, chances are rare that you'll have a chance to look over the shoulder and learn from an arranger like David Issac! David takes apart and rearranges every aspect of the example song and adds the finishing touches to make it work better. Along the way, his knowledge of the 60's & 60's R&B styling are introduced and added to the mix. He delves into what makes a good mix and how to achieve depth and harmony between the instruments, vocals, and effects so that all can shine through. Make time for this course!!
(74)
Funkfan wrote on December 22, 2015

Parts are corny and the first half is a bit long in the tooth but overall some good pointers on creating dimensionality in the song. It would be nice if David used more modern tools (LPX and Ozone) but this may be an old tutorial.
(3)
KD wrote on July 21, 2015

The best tutorial I've seen on mixing so far. Very thorough in detail and easy to follow. Great Job David! Please do more! Thank you!
(1)
Totally impressed!!! wrote on October 22, 2014

Mr Isaac is one of the few that I can listen to and hear a big difference in the before and after.
(104)
s.24 wrote on September 17, 2014

excellent lesson and well presented by david issac. this is my first lesson mixing r'n'b in logic. i found the lessons most helpful. well done to ya all at mac pro video.
(1)
Clay Collins wrote on January 11, 2014

Very good course. David Isaac breaks it down very clearly and I gained a lot of insight for mixing this genre:-) I found it fascinating that in the whole tutorial, I didn't see him use any compressors on the tracks. Perhaps that is a definitive trademark of the era. No wonder my R&B mixes sound over compressed;-) If you like the dry and tight R&B sound of the 70's this is perfect for you. Truly great course!!!
(1)
Mountain Monkey wrote on September 5, 2013

I just wanted to say, it was a great tutorial and really helped me to improve my mixes. IÂ´m semi professional, have worked in pro studios, had some of my music published but now just work from my home studio. I originally learned a lot when I was working on my tracks with a studio engineer, unfortunately thatÂ´s no longer possible for me at the moment so this tutorial was something quite similar. What an opportunity to learn from somebody with so much experience. What I gained most from this was moderating how much eq, effects etc I use, use of panning and giving instruments more space, I kind of knew that in theory but didnÂ´t always follow it, after watching the tutorial I went back to a track I had just started, applied quite a bit of what I learned and wow what a difference. A big thanks to David Issacs for doing it and to Macprovideo for offering it, I look forward to more of these kinds of tutorials from seasoned professionals with a lot of commercial experience. A bargain at this price to learn so much!
(1)
C1ph3rd wrote on July 6, 2013

Really insightful review of taking an R&B song through the mixing process to get a suitable yet interesting sound.
(128)
Anthony wrote on July 2, 2013

I've just finished David Isaac's Mixing R&B. It's unbelievable how much of his experience he's let on. There's so much priceless info; and I sure will be using this course as a reference for a while..
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