Chicago Trax: How a 1996 Visit Changed the Way I Thought About Mixing

In 1996, I left the outskirts of Sheffield and touched down in the birthplace of House music - Chicago.

I was 23 and already 8 years deep into this sound.

To be able to spend six weeks in the city that had fed my soul?

I didn’t just visit - I lived it.

I played the Shelter alongside Ralphie Rosario, remixed a Mark Picchiotti track, worked in top-tier studios, drove to Detroit to play a set, and hit illegal warehouse parties - the kind of stuff you only hear about in stories.

But one visit, in particular, has stayed with me ever since.

Chicago Trax

During that trip, I was lucky enough to pick up some stems from Chicago Trax Recording Studio.

The very place where legendary tracks like Pleasure Control by On The House, Your Love by Jamie Principle, and Devotion by Ten City were mixed.

I expected something rough and lo-fi.

Instead, I found a serious professional studio.

Tape machines.

Racks of outboard gear.

And, if memory serves, a 48-track desk.

This was where those records had been mixed.

The records I'd grown up on.

And I could see the world they'd been finished in.

But the thing that stayed with me was the tape.

The stems I picked up had been recorded to tape.

We had to transfer them.

I hadn't worked with tape at all.

I didn't understand what it was doing at the time.

That came years later.

Once I'd worked with tape emulations and started hearing what they did to a mix, I thought back to Chicago Trax.

Saturation.

Compression.

Cohesion.

The tracks sticking together.

Suddenly, that room made sense in a completely different way.

Years Later

These days, I do most of my mixing in the box.

But that connection to Chicago still guides me.

When I'm making House and the mix feels too clean, I know where my head goes.

The tape.

The way those records were finished.

I use tape emulation when I want the mix to stick together.

Not every track needs it.

Sometimes I want something cleaner.

More digital.

But House still takes me back there.

Back to that room in Chicago.