Remote rock, pop, metal mixing

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: Pink Bullet's second EP (producer), mostly live tracking, with few overdubs, and no sample replacement/editing really helped capture the energy of the tracks, not to mention it was also lots of fun.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Tim Gaze (song with a blues band with orchestral arrangement/strings)

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: Julian Schweitzer, Tim Baker, Matt Barnes, Dave Neil, Marly Luske.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. Analog for color (bounce down once I get what the plugins cant) if needed, however, most of the time I use digital avid for multitrack and plugins for recall, faster workflow, and I can get very close to all sounds with digital.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: That I will always try to deliver your vision. I always want people to love what I give them.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Solving the challenges of each song. The fun is in the journey, not the destination.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: To only make tracks as loud as possible.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What are they currently listening to that inspired them to help create their current work, where are they playing to distribute the songs (e.g. youtube, spotify, etc).

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: Have a couple of references to help communicate/label particular sounds (e.g. love the kick/bass in this example, like the space around the vocals, or how the overall mix sits with similar instrumentation)

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: Neve 1073, MAAG EQ, Fairchild, Distressor, and an SSL Channel strip (is that cheating?).

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: Completed a degree in Music Technology at my local conservatorium, worked as the house engineer at Alchemix and 180 Studios in Brisbane for over a decade with a variety of artists and clients, been working freelance since. So over two decades now (time sure flies by haha).

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Colorful and in your face.

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: I would love to mix a song for Billy Corgan or Trent Reznor. My biggest heroes.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: keep it simple.

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

A: Open to all genres, but typically rock, metal, alternative, indy.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Making things sound interesting.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: To help artists deliver their journey as clear and exciting as possible for their audience.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Listen through the track. Get a balance and work out the sections and parts. Add color with analog saturation (hardware and plugs), use EQ to help balance competing instruments, compression to help control dynamics and punch, reference with no volume bias, add dimension with reverbs and delays. I use mix bus tape/eq/compression to help glue everything together before I start, and use limiters and clippers to help achieve punch and loudness without sacrificing groove and punch. I master tracks separately (if requested) with Manley/Shadow Hills/neve/weiss/izotope/tc electronic/fabfilter compressors/eq/ and limiters. For mixes I like to try and mix with transients already controlled at the early stage (gives the best final result in most cases), rather than leaving loudness entirely up to the mastering engineer. For mastering, I like to keep it as transparent as possible to preserve the mix. However, every song is different so this process can change depending on the material and client's vision.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: It's a dedicated space with Avid pro tools HD, 8 channel flying faders, Genelec Monitors, Avantone Mixcube, akai controller, and UAD apollo interface with an octo UAD satellite 2. For hardware I have racked up: UA 1176, dBX 165, EL Distressor, Yamaha SPX90, JLM: NV500 (Neve 1073 style preamp), TG500 (EMI TG preamp), FREQEQ (analog EQ), PEQ500 (Pultec style EQ), LA500 (LA2A/3A style compressor), PMM (stereo meters). I have all widely used plugins by Waves, Fab Filter, UAD, Softube, AVID, Slate Digital, and many many more.

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

A: Like most people on here, it constantly changes and always growing. Last month I have been listening to Everything Everything, Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails, Otis Redding, Wilco, Marvin Gaye, Smashing Pumpkins. At the moment Mix with the Masters and Youtube has helped me to connect and be inspired by Tom Lorde Alge, Bob Clearmountain, Andy Wallace, Ben Grosse, Tony Maserati no name a few.

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

A: Online mixing and mastering for solo artists and bands. I have also occasionally mixed for post-productions (final mixing of speech/FXs/music for film and television).