Sculptor Of Sound

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

A: It would have to be a song by R&B artist Bobby Valentino I gave my input on the drums and bass sounds and was allowed to have free reign of the production and mixing of the song

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: A project with 20 songs for a rapper

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

A: No

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I love analog but I'd have to say digital because you can get very close where most people are not able to tell the difference and because of the recall, when you need to make corrections its much easier with digital to make changes. In analog you have to create some form of log via paper, picture etc to keep up with the knob or fader changes when going from song to song.

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

A: My promise is to give them the mix that their looking for and expect at reasonable rates

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The freedom to be able to work anywhere in the world

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: When will you be done How much Can it be fixed in the mix

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

A: That its easy

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What they are trying to accomplish What artist would they say has a similar sound

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

A: Do your research so that you can ask the right questions. You dont have to be familiar with everything but by knowing the basic principles you can weed out the people who most likely not professionals

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

A: My focal trio monitors Avid S3 controller Uad Soundcard SSL compressor Computer with all of my plugins

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

A: I was an electrician, Network Engineer, and then mix engineer. 15 yrs

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I would describe my style as hybrid

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

A: I would like to work with Bruno Mars because I love how he takes the old and new and makes fun music.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Turn the volume up and not the faders. I get many rough mixes where the faders are past unity gain and the tracks are clipping. This is because the recording engineer most likely was listening to the song at to low a volume so they bring the faders up to compensate when all they had to do was raise the volume which would result in smaller fader moves.

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

A: Rap, Pop, R&B, Smooth Jazz

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill would have to be the ability to listen to a song and easily see what my client is trying to accomplish and give them great results.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring my knowledge, expertise and honesty to a song. I never run songs though templates to speed up the process and treat every song as if it were my own

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I start with listening to songs in the same genre of the project for about 30 min. Then listening to the song I'm working on to try and get a feel of what the artist is trying to achieve, where their going. Then I perform gain staging. I then proceed to get the levels right by adjusting the levels of the tracks to kind of glue them together. Once I feel that I have a decent mix I then determine which tracks need compression or eq etc, to create a cohesive sound. Once that's done I usually take a break before Mastering to let my ears reset.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio consists of Avid ProTools, Logic Pro x, Steinberg WaveLab, All of the latest plugins. I use a hybrid setup which means I use software and hardware combined. Most people are (ITB) which stands for everything being done in the computer using virtual processors which is not a bad thing, but my setup allows me to capture the analog warmth of hardware and combine it with the cleaner more sterile digital sound to create a sound that is similar to vinyl yet clean like a cd.

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

A: I'm inspired by Dave Pensado, Mixed by Ali, Phil Tan, Manny Marroquin. These are all famous mix engineers that I have had the pleasure of meeting

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

A: I mix and master songs for clients