I specialize in full production and beat programming, be it hip-hop, electronic, or going for organic, realistic programmed drums that nobody would ever think were programmed. I've done work for/with Jason Mraz, Talib Kweli, Killer Mike, Inspectah Deck, Killah Priest, Emancipator, CloZee, Champagne Drip, Sophie Barker of Zero 7, and more.
I have been pretty much obsessed with making music now for over 28 years. What started out as a passion for writing songs and playing guitar has turned into me being a full-time music producer, recording/mixing engineer, and beat-maker/remixer. Because of the wide array of music genres I love, and the various projects I have been a part of over the years, I specialize in a number of different things, mainly:
- songwriting, especially coming up with catchy melodies (The Beatles are my biggest influence ever)
- production/arrangement for singer/songwriters, indie rock, hip-hop, trip-hop, downtempo, electronic, and commercial EDM.
- mixing music (I really enjoy this and have A LOT of experience)
- vocal and instrument comping/tuning, and tightening/editing (the tedious stuff that makes a world of difference)
- remixing (I LOVE remixing!)
- I specialize in using Ableton Live and Pro Tools, but honestly do 99.9% of my work in Ableton these days.
I also play guitar and keys and could add nice parts to flesh out your track if you think it needs it. I own a real Rhodes, and a Prophet 12 and Minimoog Voyager synth, which are sonically amazing to add to productions.
Tell me about your project and how I can help, through the 'Contact' button above.
Credits
- Emancipator & 9 Theory - Cheeba Gold
- Champagne Drip
- Jason Mraz - Love Someone Remixes
- Beats Antique - Cat skillz Remixes
- Tor - Blue Book Remixes
- Emancipator - Dusk to Dawn Remixes
- Arms and Sleepers - Swim Team Remixes
- Torii Wolf
- Eligh & Amp Live - Therapy at 3
- Inspired Flight
- Amp Live - Kaleidoscope Theory EP
- Rocketship
- Scarub
- Eligh
- Metrofique
- Area Sound
- Emancipator & 9 Theory - A Thousand Clouds
- Clozee - Nuages
- NoMBe - Chromatopia Mixes
38 Reviews - 7 Repeat Clients
Endorse Gabe Lehner (9 Theory)- check_circleVerified
So amazing and patient! He brought my work to life.
He is also just an incredible well rounded producer with so much insight. Would highly reccomend 10/10 you won't be disapointed.
if you are looking for a tutor,someone to master, mix,help finish a project he is your guy! - check_circleVerified
Gabe is a prominent producer who is easy to work with, understands your vision fast and goes the extra mile to give advice on your mix. My recent project experience with him was excellent.
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Gabe did an awesome job of producing really sweet tones for the loops I needed. Great communicator as well. Will definitely work with him again. Thanks Gabe!
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Gabe is meticulous and patient. He is willing to teach - a rarity amongst LA producers. Gabe is reliable, in that he does what he says he's going to do! Another high valued character trait. LOVE the song we created together: Dead People Walking' by, Wolfstang.
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I reached out to Gabe for some feedback on my first original music. His feedback and advice was excellent, super detailed and useful to take my music to the next level. Also, he offered me advice on how to approach the project from the music business side as well, which I really appreciate. Overall, he's an outstanding producer and super friendly guy that can help you take your music to the next level. I look forward to keep in touch with him!
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Gabe was great to work with and easy to communicate with. I'm super excited to share this remix!
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Gabe mastered my tracks for an EP, and was quick and professional. He put in extra effort to ensure that I was happy with every track and I'm very satisfied with the results
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Our second project and once again Gabe's remix is like walking through a beautiful rainforest, exceptional work!
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Working with Gabe was an absolute pleasure, the remix exceeded my expectations, can't wait to collaborate again in the future!
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Gabe is an outstanding producer. You would be lucky to work with him. He's got gorgeous taste, is super musical and has the versatility to find the sound you're after. He is a total find. I have done one song with him but hope to do many more.
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I'm SO happy with how these remixes turned out, Gabe did an AMAZING job...super looking forward to sharing these tracks with my friends and fans!!
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Gabe was awesome to work with and provided an awesome product. His communication was prompt and was very professional. The mix was spacious and was exactly what I was looking for. Would defiantly recommend!
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Couldn't have picked better, Gabe made the mixes so spacious, detailed and perfectly balanced. I find it easy to feel like I'm being too difficult with my requests but Gabe never gave me a reason to feel that way and it was honestly such an easy, communicative process.
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Gabe was really fantastic! He took my demo and made it into something special. He was very detail oriented and easy to communicate with. He has such great ideas and vision and really elevated the sound and feel of my song! Would absolutely work with him again. :)
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Gabe did an amazing job on a remix of my new single and it was way beyond my expectations. Gabe is so creative with his style that his remix rivals the quality of my original and may even be better. Gabe really listened to my ideas about the remix and delivered exactly what I was looking for. Would highly recommend Gabe!
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Gabe is extremely professional, courteous, and pays attention to detail. Beyond his mixing, mastering, and production capabilities he is someone that is easy to work with and seeks to understand exactly what the artist wants. Great experience!
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I’m so thankful I chose to work with Gabe for my EP! We reached out to him, very new to the recording process, and he was helpful and informative the whole time. He really knows how to listen to what you want while expanding on your ideas and making it better and better! It was an amazing process and I had a wonderful time. I hope to work with him again soon! :)
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Gabe is a great guy and an amazing producer to work with. This is not our first project together, so I know, what I'm talking about. Gabe really takes the extra mile to understand you and realise your vision of the song. He's super talented and professional in what he's doing,- thus my song ended up way beyond my expectations and we're getting first airplays already : ) I can definitely recommend him to anyone wanting to take their music to the next level.
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My band and I had a the opportunity to have Gabe producing one of our songs and we could not be happier with the results. He took our song to the next level while maintaining the original spirit of the song.
We wanted to work with Gabe after hearing that some of his great TripHop demos (my band's type of music), but I am absolutely certain he will excel in other types of music as well. We are really looking forward to collaborate with him on the future! - check_circleVerified
Gabe is a total perfectionist pro that has been deeply dedicated to his craft for many years. He is a Producer for artists that want to completely stand out with more creative substance in their music - not just generic, cookie cutter song generation. My experience working with him could not have gone better.
Interview with Gabe Lehner (9 Theory)
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: I always want to know, as detailed as possible, what their vision is for their material, and what other mixes, songs, or artists/bands they want to sound like. This gives me a good direction to take so I can assure they are getting what they want. Nothing is more important than taking my ego out of the equation and making sure the artist is happy with their art.
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I have been doing this now for just over 23 years. This whole journey began in 1996 when I was in 10th grade and started learning guitar, which meant almost instantly starting a shitty band with my best friends. We were a band though for 10 years, and we became a very good, very tight band with a lot of material, recordings, and live shows under our belt. I though that my first band was going to be the extent of my musical career; that we were "going to make it." Of course we didn't, and when it ended I didn't know what to do next until I got advice to check out a program called Ableton Live, which is a household name now, but wasn't at the time. This was a true life-changing move. Earlier, even before my band (jack the original) broke up, I had started dabbling in home recording/production and beat-making with Reason and ProTools. So when the band ended and I discovered Ableton I quickly went hard down that path, and got involved in a duo called Inspired Flight that really honed a sound and live show around Ableton. Inspired Flight was a vehicle for me to open for some of my idols, play amazing music festivals including Coachella, and meet a lot of great, inspiring piers. When that project got put on a major hiatus I became more of a solo artist (9 Theory), and also focused more on producing and mixing for other people as my own skill set in the studio developed more and more. Now I live in Los Angeles (I'm from San Diego), and besides doing work from my home studio I teach electronic music production with Ableton Live at a college in LA, and I sometimes do work out of a really incredible commercial studio as well called LoLA.
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Oooh... There are so many, but I suppose my dream collaboration would be with Damon Albarn, who is probably my biggest inspiration as an eclectic artist who has done so many different kinds of projects, and each one is SO good!
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: My main advice would be to make sure you like examples of the work a potential provider has done, and then to actually connect, at least via email, but moreso on the phone, and make sure you like their vibe and enthusiasm for working on your stuff. Before I ever produce for somebody I like to meet up over coffee and talk about the project and make sure we each feel good about working with each other before we do. I think that is important.
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: I am truly proud of everything I work on, but one thing I am particularly proud of is how my remixes for Jason Mraz turned out. I ended up doing two different remixes of his track, "Love Someone," just to show him examples of two wildly different approaches. He loved them both so much that he released both, and I am particularly happy with the whole mood and vibe of the one titled "Love Someone (9 Theory Remix)." I am especially proud of this because it was a big opportunity for me and I came through, and got to have my work released and promoted by a major artist via a major record label.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: I am currently doing a number of remixes for two different clients in San Diego, mixing an EP for another artist in San Diego, and I am also producing/recording/mixing a commercial EDM project for somebody here in LA. I am also working on my own 9 Theory music.
Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?
A: No, I am new to SoundBetter. Hopefully I'll be revising this answer in the near future :)
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Both. I LOVE analog gear, and especially analog synths, which can get a sound I really like that is impossible for digital stuff to recreate. However, so much digital stuff sounds amazing now, and I know of famous, well-known mixing engineers with access to all of the most desirable analog outboard gear doing their mixes in the box because digital recreations as plugins can be so close to the original that it's silly to not use them, given the ease of making adjustments or recalls. There are also great digital sounding synths out there. Analog and digital are just different, but both are great, especially when used in conjunction.
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: I promise that they will be thrilled with whatever I do. If they aren't then I'm not done yet, and I'll keep working and tweaking until they are.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Making music is my obsession, so I thankfully have fun doing it, pretty much all the time no matter what I am working on. I love taking music and making it better; that's the funnest game for me. Watching a song or mix get better and better until I feel it can't be better anymore is a really cool process, I love it.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: There aren't common questions I get. Usually conversations are all about what the client wants, and I am asking them questions to make sure I can give them what they want.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: I don't know really. I'm not aware of stereotypes about studio nerds or producers/beat-makers. Are people talking smack? ;)
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: Acoustic guitar, ukulele, kalimba, hand drum or cajon, and a violin. I am assuming with this answer that this a classic desert island situation with no electricity :)
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: My style is very melodic and clean sounding. I am a stickler for fidelity and sonic balance in a song, whether it is the elements happening in a song, or the technical aspects to a clean mix. Also, when it comes to beats, my style is extremely groovy with a major nod to golden-era hip-hop, rather than being aggressive, or having beats that hit super hard.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Less is more. This is a golden rule to always remember! Also playing with changing dynamics in a song is essential to having your production not feel too boring by the end or even middle of it. Keeping the level of energy in a track on the exact same note the whole time is no bueno.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: I usually work on genre-blending things in the world of hip-hop, downtempo and trip-hop, electronic, house, even commercial mainstream EDM. Also, for other artists, I often produce more chill, singer/songwriter indie artists who lean indie folk, or americana even, or more indie rock too. I feel confident to work on any genre of music, but these are what I usually work on.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: I would say if I had to choose one thing, my strongest skill is actually songwriting and coming up with catchy melodies. Writing good lyrics can be a long, grueling process often for me, but for some reason writing unique, hooky, interesting melodies comes as naturally as walking. I think it must have to do with how obsessed with The Beatles I was growing up, and other super melodic bands. I must also say though, that with the years and countless hours I've spent going more into a production world than artist-in-a-band world, I am also a very strong producer and beat-maker, pretty much on par with writing melodies as a strong suit.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: I typically wake up, have my morning coffee, step outside for a bit of sun and stretching, and then dig into studio world. When I work I am extremely focused and I just do whatever needs to be done that day, making sure to stop and take little stretch breaks when my body starts telling me it needs it.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: My studio has its own dedicated room in my home, which is great because I am able to put attention into aesthetic detail like colors, artwork, and lighting, to make it very conducive to creativity. I use Ableton Live and Pro Tools, almost equally depending on the job, running on a nice 27" iMac, which has a lot of great software synths and plugins essential to good mixing (shout out to Fabfilter!). My studio is also equipped with a Fender Deluxe w/Les Paul electric guitar rig, a stellar Yari Alvarez acoustic that records really well with my Blueberry condenser mic, and I have a really nice Kubicki bass that gets a wide variety of bass tones, and sounds amazing DI into my Great River mic pre with a Distressor. I also have an 88-key 1978 suitcase Rhodes (game changer), and a Prophet 12, and Minimoog Voyager analog synths. Then there are lots or fun toys like different things for percussion, I have an Ebow I use often, a kalimba, melodica, vintage Echoplex analog tape delay, Copperphone mic, some pedals, and so on. Pretty much everything I need to record/produce great, professional sounding productions.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Probably my biggest inspiration is Damon Albarn, who is from one of my favorite bands, Blur, but who also now does Gorillaz, and has an enormous, eclectic catalog of other collaborations, soundtracks, and projects. I am very inspired by artists like Damon who don't only live in one sonic/genre box. I am also very inspired these days by Bonobo for his musicality as well as pristine sonic productions and mixes. Also everything Radiohead and Nigel Godrich do inspires me a lot, plus a billion other beat-makers, bands, and producers that would take way too long to try and list here :)
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: The most common type of work I do for other people is full productions in the vein of electronic music or hip-hop. A lot of this is beat-making, as well as mixing the whole track when it is done. I also do a lot of mixing work for other artists who I don't produce, just mix for.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: I think what I can bring to a song that is most useful for people is making sure the song and recording feel like they tell a story from beginning to end with proper flow, dynamics, and arrangement so that it is not too long, or doesn't ever get boring or lose interest. I find many artists struggle with how to flesh out a good arrangement, but I have developed quite a knack for this and it comes easy to me. I also have a strong ear for detail so I will pick up on little minor things that may be out of place, or could be better or changed, that many artists may not pick up on their own. Also my strong suit is melody so I can be a great help helping someone make their melody a little better, or write a bridge the song my need that they don't have yet.
I was the Co-writer, co-producer, Vocalist, and Mixing Engineer in this production
- 9 Theory & CloZee - The Courage To Fall In Love Again
- 9 Theory - I Won't Slow You Down
- Emancipator & 9 Theory - Pharaoh Dunes
- 9 Theory - Bite Back (feat. Lexis Janay & Scarub)
- ProducerAverage price - $3000 per song
- Mixing EngineerAverage price - $800 per song
- RemixingAverage price - $1500 per song
- Beat MakerContact for pricing
- Programmed drumAverage price - $400 per song
- Mastering EngineerAverage price - $80 per song
- Vocal TuningAverage price - $300 per track
Unless I am out of town, which isn't too often, my turnaround time should be fairly quick, about 1-4 days depending on the job, though doing a full production or remix could be more like 1-2 weeks.
- Gorillaz
- Thievery Corporation
- Nightmares On Wax
- 88-key Rhodes
- Prophet 12
- Moog Voyager
- Echoplex
- Crane Song HEDD 192 converters
- Great River MP-2NV
- Distressor el8x
- Apollo x8
- Overstayer M-A-S
- SSL Fusion
- Crane Song Avocet 1.5 monitor control
- Adams A77X
- Blueberry mic
- Gibson Les Paul
- Yari
If you ever refer my mixing, track production, or remixing to another artist who hires me for it I will give you $100 off of your next mix/production/remix from me.