Producing, Mixing

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Mostly our own Productions and studio related services (recording, producing, editing...)

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: We like Analog, always felt it was different and we like the workflow it gives as well as the beauty of having physical gear and knobs which you can feel and turn with your hand. But digital can sometimes do a better job in certain things, that's why in the end of the day a mix between both is what would be the best today...

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

A: We would always promise to do our best, no matter the circumstances.

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

A: Work with someone you can be friends with, with someone whom you're comfortable exchanging ideas with or creating with.

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

A: SFEIR studied in the music field, a year in Montreal and two in Berlin then stayed in Berlin to gain some experience, and ISKNDR studied for three years in Coventry, UK. Both of us came back to Lebanon and opened our studio here.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: We like music that makes you feel different emotions and makes you want to dance.

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

A: We like to work with artists that are looking for innovation, something different..

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: To be able to differentiate the creative side from the technical one and know on which to focus in which times is really important for us.

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

A: As we already said, electronic music and rock are what we work on mostly. Electronic music is of course a very wide world, but we worked in many genres, house, deep house, progressive house, and many other. We also work on advertisement songs which we quite enjoy.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: EQs. My favourite part. Having a nice saturated frequency response, and having all instruments or elements work together and fit within a specific context.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: As we said we love the creative side of things so in co-ordnance with the producer, we sometimes add things that would be more of production decisions, and sometimes experiment with sounds, all when we feel it's needed. We like to try to come up with a different sound than what was done in the past, of course being inspired and influenced by what was done.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Usually it starts by organizing the session, then start cleaning up the mix. We also listen to some reference tracks and try to visualize the final product of the song. We work mostly on the frequency range at the beginning and then on the dynamic range. Usually the effects and the automations are things we do as last steps.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: We work mostly in the box with Yamahas and Genelec speakers, we use Waves plugins, Soundtoys, Antelope, Native Instruments, and many more. As for outboard gear, we have a customized analog trident eq as well as a vintage MXR analog compressor and an analog delay that we sometimes use depending on the song.

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

A: We mix different kinds of music. We mixed some rock songs and that's mostly my background but at the moment we're mixing more electronic music, as well as working on our own electronic music productions. We try to clean the mix as much as we can but also love to contribute to the creative side. Other than that we produce for the most melodic techno and house as well as progressive house.

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

A: The Maschine studio, a pair of Genelec speakers, Moog synthesizer, SSL analog console and a DA/AD converter (Antelope)

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

A: Alex Boulos

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Modifying sounds

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

A: We get inspired by many musicians and professionals. The electronic music industry is so wide that one can not limit himself to a single inspiration..