Mixing & Mastering

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

A: I normally record and mix hip hop vocals. I sometimes mix the beat as well, if needed. Then master the song in a separate setting, possibly the next day, for a fresh new ear to get the best final result.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Analog is better but costly, while digital is 75% there as far as quality. Most always, digital more convenient.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: The free plug-in Voxengo SPAN, might be, single handedly, the most useful plugin of all time. This can visually show you everything about what your hearing from your speakers as well as an RMS meter, mid/side analysis and phase correlation meter. No more, guessing and sweeping frequencies when you can see it clearly with SPAN.

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

A: I'm most proud of a song I did on my first album with my band Ways!de called "Hold Up" featuring a musical idol of mine, Bernz (from the band iMayday!). We reached out to him on social media and he came through 2 weeks later with an amazing verse that blew our minds. I had the honor of being on the track as well as mixing and mastering everything. It was such a big moment for me and my goals in my musical career.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Aside from mixing and mastering many other artist's content and editing music videos, I'm working on a new album with my Hip-Hop band Ways!de. We release one album every year on Thanksgiving.

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

A: I don't know them personally but I recommend Manny Marroquin and Patrizio "Teezio" Pigliapoco for being mix gods. Two of the greatest to ever lay hands on a mixing board. 🙏

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

A: I will deliver the best product possible from the content I am given. I put my all into every mix and use reference tracks to make sure I'm somewhat equivalent to the industry standards.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Bring about to do what I love for a living. If I can make music for a living, even if it's standard wage, I'll be very happy. My family, friends and music is all that I love.

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

A: I am most commonly asked if I use "Autotune" well. My answer is always that I love the sound of it used musically, I have lots of experience with it and have a few options on brands of pitch correction to use for dialing in what will work the best.

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

A: Many people think we have one specific way of mixing and one specific set of tools but this isn't true by any means. We as mix engineers strive to be creative and musical just like a standard musician. We reach for only what the specific audio calls for to enhance and help bring the best out of the player or singer's performance.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I always ask if they have their full session in prepared to send me (commonly as a .zip folder in Google drive or Dropbox).

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

A: I suggest looking into buying Waves NS1 for lowering background noise perfectly, as well as, Waves Vocal Rider for tracking your vocals with while recording. Vocal Rider will keep your vocals from peaking too high as well as ducking down low and It will give you near perfect leveling with absolutely no compression at all. This will give a service provider like me a perfect vocal to work on with no issues.

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

A: Laptop, FL Studio, Sony C-100 microphone, Behringer mic500usb tube preamp/interface, and Byerdynamic DT 770 headphones.

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

A: My parents were musicians just for a hobby but it's in my blood. I was surrounded with many genres growing up from many sources and found myself not making money with it so I joined the Air Force to pay for college and upon graduating I wanted to chase music with my Hip-Hop band Ways!de right after graduating college for Audio Engineering/Video Production in Dayton, OH. This lead me to want to become a full time mixing and mastering engineer.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Musical while still Hip-Hop and appropriate.

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

A: If I could work with anyone it would iMayday!. They are my biggest musical inspiration for the way they combine hip hop with other genres. They find a way to write very in depth lyrical music but have such great musicianship and vibes throughout it all. Hands down my favorite band.

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

A: Hip-Hip, RnB, and Pop music. I'm open to working with any genre. I have a connection with all styles of music, as I do play guitar, drums and piano.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Vocal Mixing RnB or Hip-Hop style music.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Pure, true vocal clarity mixing is what I bring to a song. That's what people come to me for. I can make vocals shine pristinely, maintain consistency while still being dynamic, tune them to stay in perfect key without audible robotic correction and cut through any dense mix.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: First, planning what needs to be done for the project and communicating with the client on what their goals for the final product is. Then, after the recording process, I'll set up and organe the session. Following that, I'll route everything in the mixer and proceed to mix the full song while keeping everything on the master fader below -6db. Finally, I'll mixdown a WAV file and bring it into a new blank session and finalize with mastering in a separate setting the following day.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I'm certified for Pro Tools although I spend 99% of my time using FL Studio now. It's flexibility in the mixer is unmatchable in my opinion due to the way your able to easily route all your channels, organize, sidechain and just completely customize your music experience. I work with many tools such as Waves, Izotope, Fab Filter, Sound Toys, Eventide, Behringer, Sonnox Oxford and Antares. I run my microphone through a linear phase EQ Neumann u87 mic mod preset thatatches the frequency response perfectly to a u87, then it goes into my tube interface which I've replaced with JJ Tesla tubes. I'm currently mixing on multiple studio headphones and Paradigm Studio Monitors.

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

A: I'm very inspired by Manny Marroquin, Patrizio Pigliapoco, and Andrew Scheps are my favorite engineers. As far as producers I have to give the crown to the almighty Michael "Se7en" Summers of Strange Music for his unbelievable work ethic and consistency. Neil Peart, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rush, Tech N9ne and iMayday! are my five ultimate musician heroes.