Mixing & Mastering

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

A: I work mostly on projects with live orchestra. I spend a lot of time mixing scores for film and video games, as well as in the field recording chamber music around LA.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: In really broad terms: 1. Communicate with the artist / songwriter / composer. Learn what defines a successful project for them. 2. Provide support for the process of exporting multitracks 3. Prep session - Listen and assess 4. Correct undesired technical imperfections - noise, clicks and pops, and clipping. 5. Correct undesired musical quirks - time and pitch correction 6. Create a balance, starting with the most musically interesting / important elements 7. Apply EQ / compression to improve the overall balance 8. Add reverb and effects 9. Apply or refine EQ / compression creatively 10. Listen in different environments to gain some perspective 11. Continue refining 12. Submit for revisions / revise 13. Deliver master file, and provide further support

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I've got a really nice 5.1 system. Two PMC twotwo.6's as my mains and a PMC TLE1 for the sub. I spent a heinously long time finding the best combination of speaker placement and listening position. I also put a ton of care into time aligning all the speakers, as well as setting the cross overs. My acoustic treatment is all custom built, and is a combination of OC703 and Safe n' Sound.

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

A: Right now, I'm mixing a lot of video game scores remotely. Typically I get multitracks and a live orch session from Vienna or Budapest. I take these tracks and edit, tune, denoise and do a first mix. I get notes from the composer, and then the production company and proceed accordingly.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: My favorite mixing tip is making a two octave bandpass filter with whatever eq you have and listening to different parts of your mix. For example, highpass at 100Hz and low pass at 400 Hz. It kind of emulates listening on different sets of speakers, or at leasts helps in a similar way.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Dramatically improving the sound of amateur recordings. A lot of home recordings have crazy issues. Usually as a result of room acoustics. Most people don't know how wild the frequency response of an untreated room actually is. We're talking swings of 30dB peak to peak going from 100 Hz to 250 Hz. It could be anything. I'm great at taking recordings like this and have them do what you want.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Maybe more important, I will help you get your song finished! There are things in music that are generally accepted as good, such as playing in tune / in time. There are also things that are generally accepted as good in a mix / master. I make pleasant spectral, dynamic, spatial, and harmonic characters accessible for musicians. When you have an idea that goes beyond what's generally desired, these fundamentals are even more important. If you want an album without compression EQ will need to do more of the work. An extremely distorted, harmonically rich moment, might be more meaningful when contrasted by something pristine and clean. Basically I can translate verbal ideas into sounds through my experience and knowledge of music and audio technology. Doing so quickly makes the process more enjoyable.

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

A: I'm particularly inspired by musicians who use timbre as a primary channel for expression. I think that fascination is partially a result of DIY recording. You grow up hearing classic records recorded in high end studios, and then wham, you hear something by a band like Guided By Voices. It feels totally different! It sounds totally different! The process of self recording will always be super interesting and inspiring to me. Some of my favorites include: Masakatsu Takagi, Mount Eerie, and Haruomi Hosono.