Music Producer, Mix Engineer

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Getting better every day.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I was trained in the era of renting out control rooms for weeks at a time. With painters tape on the mixing console saying 'DO NOT TOUCH' and working on a 2-4 song gig over a week straight. Taking home tapes and paying extra for tapes. Regardless of how I feel between digital and analog, the reality of the situation is, everything these days is instant. If a client calls to request a small edit, DIGITAL allows us to recall settings instantly, sometimes with just a laptop, and go. Imagine recalling settings on a 64-channel analog mixing console for someone requesting a 2dB boost on a adlib or to change a 'Yeeeaaa' to a 'Yaaaaa' today and your client expecting this for free?! I am constantly looking at the best possible ways to capture performances and ANALOG plays a huge roll at this phase. But once I approach the FINAL mix, I like to be completely in the box by then. Ready to take on any edit requests quickly. When a customer specifically asks for outboard processing, I will usually print wet stems back into my session so I don't need access to that outboard gear later.

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

A: I will be honest. For better or worse.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The satisfaction of completing a project on time and following up weeks later to see growth and success of a record.

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

A: Q: How much do you charge? A: Depends what we are doing

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Do you suffer from mild to chronic demo-itus?

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

A: Macbook Pro Beyerdynamic Headphones Avid S3 SSL UC1 Mixcubes

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

A: New and Old School Hip Hop, Rap, R&B, Pop, Dance, Reggae, Roots, Reggaeton, but I've done many genres.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio in Toronto has multiple rooms. The main control room has 32 channels of i/o. The configuration will vary month to month depending on what we're doing but at the heart you'll find an Apple M1 MAX Mac Studio (upgraded), Antelope Orion 32+, SSL Sigma Console, Neve Shelford Channel, Universal Audio Twin-finity Channels, Octo-Core UAD Satellites, Avid C24 Controller, with playback on ADAM a77x's with 15" sub in mid-field position, and Yamaha NS-10's in near field position pre-amplified by Bryston. All of our software is licensed: Waves Unlimited, SSL Complete, Slate All Access Pass, Antares Unlimited, PA Alliance MEGA, UADx Complete, Softube, Arturia, Native Instruments, KIT, Acustica, and more.

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

A: I am inspired by a wide variety of music and music genres. All of them. From folk, country, rock, dance, hiphop, RnB, Pop, Blues, Jazz, tribe, everything that stimulates my ears.

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

A: People search me out for my recordings mostly. I have a way of bringing out a performance and capturing the perfect moment, kind of like a photographer. I offer co-writing, coaching, rehearsal, recording, editing, mixing, mastering (ITB), music production, music editing, music re-production, vocal production, production workshops, and more.

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

A: 1. That everything can be fixed in the mix 2. That I work in my spare time.

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

A: Finding the right engineer is like finding the right barber. There's always that one guy that just gets it. But you gotta start somewhere!

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

A: As of 2019, 21 years officially. I completed my audio production & engineering course at Harris Institute for the Arts in 2003 but was officially certified in 2007. (long story)

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My style ... I start off with a little OCD, super organization of tracks, clip trim/edits, labeling and color coordinating. Then meditation while balancing levels and listening. Then go full out reckless rockstar with processing and really get into your song. Once it FEELS good, I take a step back (some times a whole day or two step back) and return to finalize the work with science and reason (Analyzers, Loudness Meters, Referencing, Headroom etc) without losing the 'feel' of the music.

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

A: Oh man, so many. I listen to so much different genres I wouldn't know where to start. I also enjoy being blown away by random nobodies. It's easier to list who I don't want to work with: Negative and Selfish People.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Recording is my passion. Nudging the artist in the right direction and capturing that once in a lifetime performance that becomes permanent in the song forever. Those are my personal victories. Mixing is my calling. Since the beginning, I was always trying to make things 'Sound Better' pun intended. Whether it was adding things to the signal or educating myself on tricks and intelligent processing. I find it very satisfying to re-create people's vocal chains with a fraction of the plugins they use. The look on their faces when you load the right EQ and compressor and achieve the same, or better result than their 11 plugins on their lead vocal.

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

A: I mixed a record for Marr Grey a while back and got a screenshot from the client between him and @40ovo saying 40 liked it ...he liked it a lot.

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

A: Haven't really looked.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Get it right in the recording. Don't 'fix it in the mix'.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: The ability to tune in to your sound. Once I understand your sound, I work faster and everything you start hearing from me is exactly what you wanted.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Emotion. I am a strong believer that music can stimulate people to feel happy, sad, sexy, angry, -everything. When I work with people, I ask questions, I align myself with what they are trying to put to the universe from their head and from their heart. And I don't let them stop trying things until I 'feel' their vision in the song. That goes for producing, recording, mixing and even mastering in some cases.