Mastering & Mixing Engineer

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

A: I started out as a session musician and recording artist before gradually moving to the other side of the glass. Over the past 20 years I've worked across recording, production, mixing and mastering, which gives me an understanding of the whole process of making a record. Mastering eventually became my main focus.

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

A: One project I'm particularly proud of was remastering Pink Floyd live bootleg recordings from their 1975 tour for a Sony release. Working with historic material like that requires a different approach from mastering a modern mix – improving the presentation while respecting the character and limitations of the original recording.

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

A: I'll listen to what you want, give you my professional opinion when I think it will help, and treat your music with the same care I would give my own.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Hearing a track arrive as a mix and being able to make that final improvement that brings everything together. It's particularly satisfying when the artist hears the master and immediately feels that their record has become the finished version they had in their head.

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

A: "Is my mix ready for mastering?" I'm always happy to listen first. If I think a change to the mix would produce a better result than trying to fix it in mastering, I'll say so.

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

A: That mastering is simply making a mix louder. Loudness is only one small part of it. Good mastering is about balance, translation, dynamics, consistency and making the finished record work as well as possible everywhere it's played.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What are you trying to achieve with the record? Are there any reference tracks you particularly like? Where will it be released, and is there anything about the current mix you're unsure of? Understanding the artist's intention is more useful to me than simply being told to "make it louder."

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Musical rather than clinical. I like punch, depth, dynamics and character, and I don't believe every record needs to be pushed to the same loudness or polished into the same sound.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don't wait until mastering to fix something you already know is wrong with the mix. A great master starts with a great mix – and leaving some dynamics and headroom gives the mastering engineer room to make it better.

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

A: Reggae, ska and dub are particular specialities, but I regularly work across rock, indie, pop, blues and heavier music too. I've mastered everything from contemporary independent releases to archive material from major artists.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Knowing when to intervene and when to leave something alone. I can make constructive suggestions without taking control away from the artist – the finished record should still sound like them, not me.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Whatever it needs – and no more. My job is to understand what the artist is trying to achieve, enhance what is already working and address what isn't, without imposing a generic sound on every record

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I listen to the mix first without processing and assess what it actually needs. If I hear something that would be better addressed in the mix, I'll tell the client before mastering. From there I work on tonal balance, dynamics, depth, punch and level while preserving the character of the original mix. I then check the master across different listening systems before delivery.

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

A: The musicians and engineers from the earlier days of recording, when performances had to be captured rather than endlessly corrected. I love records that sound human, exciting and distinctive rather than technically perfect.

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

A: Mastering is the majority of my work, along with mix appraisals before mastering. Having spent 20 years recording, producing, mixing and mastering music, I can often identify mix issues before mastering and suggest practical changes that will help us get the best possible final master.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Slam Door Studios is my purpose-built recording, mixing and mastering studio. The monitoring and listening environment have been carefully developed over many years, giving me a room I know intimately and can trust when making critical mastering decisions.