Professional Audio Mastering

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I have just finished working on the mix and mastering of a new track titled 'Top Of The World ' by Chris Wills (David Guetta vocalist) and legendary Studio 54 DJ Lenny Fontana. 'Top Of The World' is getting a major release later this summer.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both...I used to be a digital nerd but in my older years got very much into analog, it's the warmth and body that high end analog kit can add to a recording that I love.

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

A: To create great sounding masters they will be proud of.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Music and helping people reach their goals. Its great when I hear from clients that their tracks have entered various online charts or hear them played on the radio!

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

A: I am a miracle worker, remember mastering can make a good mix sound great...but if the mix is terrible to start with mastering really isn't going to fix that.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: If they have been listening to a reference song / artist during the mixing stage its always really helpful to know as it gives me a better insight to their end vision.

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

A: Try not to spend too long mixing down a song, from experience its always the songs that you spend months obsessing about mixing that come out worse - as you generally start fiddling with things that really don't need fixing!

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

A: I produced my first commercial release at just 13 years old, it was a Drum & Bass remix of the X Files TV Theme that was released on Vinyl / CD single and received plays on BBC Radio 1. From then on I got the bug I went on to produce and mix a national UK Top 20 hit record here in the UK under the production name 'Distant Soundz' which is a name I still produce and remix under to this day. Since then I have produced, mixed and mastered countless club chart hits here in the UK over a 20 year period for various artists.

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

A: Wiley, I have watched the artist grow from selling limited white label records to being at the forefront a whole genre of music. I love seeing indie artists who have put so much work in over the years becoming successful.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don't add too much top end EQ during the mixing stage, always mix a touch duller than the reference tracks you are listening to. Its much nicer to the ear adding the final touch of brightness / air to a recording using a high quality mastering EQ than a plugin EQ on your DAW's master buss.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio setup is located in an iconic underground studio space that has been home to a numerous radio stations and recording studios. When it was renovated by Essex Radio in the late 1980's they spent well over £1m in suspending the entire floor of studios to so that its floating and vibrations are absorbed. Our mastering chain has been designed with the highest quality signal path in mind, we even had all the Van Damme cabling custom made so that each cable is the exact length resulting in the shortest possible signal path. The sound we get from the SPL PQ coupled with the SPL Iron our clients love, a client recently described their masters as having a 'beautifully richness' which sums up the Kingsview Sound perfectly.

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

A: I do love UK Garage, Grime, Drum and Bass which are my early roots as a mix and mastering engineer. So artists such as MJ Cole, Andy C, Goldie and Stormzy are all on my current playlist.

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

A: I recently worked on mastering the debut EP for an up and coming New York based artist, Andrew Canlon. It was just a really nice collaborative effort between Andrew, his mix engineer and myself mastering the songs. You can check his work out at https://www.andrewcanlon.com/

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

A: Do you do stem mastering? Yes I do, however I do point out to clients that stem mastering is different to mixing and mastering a song. I have had clients send unmixed projects for stem mastering in the past which I can do but they would incur an additional charge for the mixing stage.

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

A: Cubase, my old Korg X5 Keyboard (its been around the world with me!), SPL EQ, SPL Iron and my custom SSL G compressor.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: A down to earth nice bloke to work with.

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

A: EDM (Deep House, Tropical House, Progressive House, Techno etc), Breakbeat / Drum & Bass, Urban (UK Garage, Grime, Hip Hop, Trap), Pop (Bands, Electronic & Acoustic)

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Calm, kind and with attention to detail.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: 20 years of mix and mastering experience. I have also produced UK national chart hits.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I always make sure I listen to some reference artists in the same genre of the order prior to starting. Having worked as a mix engineer its normally quite easy for me to understand the artists and producers vision for the final project. As nearly all my work comes from recommendations and repeat business I always try to go the extra mile for the client.

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

A: I work on mastering all genres of music but do have a loyal client base of dance / urban music labels that use my services for their releases. I also help run an urban and dance music radio station based here in the UK which means I listen to a lot of music within these genres.