Mixing and Mastering Engineer

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Polished. Of course if someone wants a more raw style record, then thats what I'll do, and I do like raw sounding tracks. Although, I tend to want to give a more polished sound to tracks. Personally, its just what I gravitate towards.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Follow your ears. A lot of times people spend hours upon hours tweaking little things and running every track through all of these different combinations because they're indecisive about if something is right. Sometimes the way its tracked just fits the song. How do we know when to do what? Use your ears. If it sounds good, then it is good.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: The most common type of music I work on would definitely be Rap and Hip-Hop. I also work within Rock and Metal and as well.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Inside of my studio I have a multitude of preamps and other outboard gear such as compressors and eqs, in both full rack and 500 series formats, that really help your music come alive. In addition to the outboard gear, I am currently running Pro Tools HD along with the Avid Artist Series mix controller. My monitors consist of both NS-10ms and Genelic 1030A, which run through the Dangerous Monitor ST switching system. Lastly I have access to some of the industries greatest plugins which are used in the top studios around the world. But of course, its not about the fancy gear, its about how you use it to help create good music.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The experience. Every time I work on a track, I always learn something new.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill would be having the ability to help and artist let their passion shine through their music.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: What I bring to a song is a new perspective. Because of personal experiences and musical taste, I may have a entirely different direction or idea that a client might of never have thought of. The client always has the final say, but giving the client an outside opinion could be the difference between a song that only your close friends hear or the next big radio hit. You never know what may happen.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Always, always, always, the first step is to listen to the song and take notes. This helps me developer clear direction and make the best decisions for that song. My goal is to insure that the listeners first impression of a song is a great one no matter who the listener is. After that first listen, your ear and mind begin to adapt to the song and may cloud your judgement and potentially limit your creativity. After that I'll work with the most dominate instrument and sound source and base the rest of the mix around that.

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: Professionals that have inspired me are Dave Pensado, Chris Gehringer, Cameron Mizell, and Joey Sturgis to name a few.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: Backroom Studios is a full production studio capable of tracking, editing, post production, mixing, and mastering for all genres of music and TV production as well. Everyday is different, but our most common type of working is mixing for singles and albums for both Rock and Hip-Hop genres.