Producer, Mix Engineer

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

A: This project has allowed my to really flex my creative muscles I co-wrote/performed this and Mixed and Mastered everything. soundcloud.com/viosynimusic

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Currently I'm mixing/mastering and EDM EP and a Rock Album with ongoing work as a result of my film composition.

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

A: I haven't had a look around just yet but I'm looking forward to getting involved in the community.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I think picking a camp here unnecessarily rules out some great sound, for me both camps have their merits but the gear that sounds the best is the gear you know really well.

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

A: My promise is a industry standard mix/master that encapsulates the "feel" and the heart of the track.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I like hearing new music and helping guide it towards the success it deserves.

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

A: Thats a tough one, I guess people are mostly interested in getting their songs ready to compete in the industry. My answer is one of hard work and ensuring your ideas are realised by anyone you work with.

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

A: That the gear does the job, frequency analysers are great but they cannot work out if the mix is exciting and attention grabbing.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Always very interested in where the artist have come from and where they hope to go, this alone will inform loads about what the music needs to sound like and what needs to happen next.

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

A: Spend time talking to the person you choose, they should be able to explain anything you want them to and utilise them as a source to find out as much as you can from the interaction. The more knowledge you have the better choices you will be able to make.

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

A: Well I guess I would need a guitar and a Microphone first of all, then a laptop and headphones which only leaves me one piece of outboard equipment which would have to be a nice Analogue EQ.

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

A: I started about 10 years ago in a band, one of the most important things to me at the time was that I understood everything that was going on and this sparked my interest in the field. After the first album flopped I decided to really get into recording and production, after a year or two I signed a young artist that I would work with for the next 4 years I became the entire recording side of the project and after 3 releases we signed a deal and he moved over to Sony, after this I garnered a lot of work from them and have been working like this ever since.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Relaxed and thoughtful its really important for me that the artist is listened to and ideas are shared to ensure a great product in the end.

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

A: If we are talking dream artists then I would have to say someone like Bon Iver or Olafur Arnalds someone who appreciates the feel of the ambient sound, on the other side I love the precision of EDM and dance music.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: My favourite, and one I do with all of my tracks, is stripping the track back to its essential elements and ensuring that everything included is adding something to the track not detracting.

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

A: I've been lucky to work on quite a diverse range of music from Orchestral, folk, Rock and EDM. My speciality would be making stripped down recordings sound full and warm.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Understanding the needs of the client, its my job to make the track meet industry standards while ensuring it sounds just as you had hoped or even exceed your expectations.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Being a musician first and learning the ropes of engineering after the "feel" of the track is the holy grail. It's always been my focus to retain that feel while ensuring sonically the track is ready to compete and is something I hear often from my clients.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Mixing: The first thing is to listen to the rough mix if provided and understand what the artist/producer had in mind when they recorded. After that the first things I go for are the Bass/Drums to lay down the foundation of the track, after this I listen to the other elements to get an idea of the main themes in the track and the important parts dependant on the genre and the feel of the track. Once this is done I spend time getting the sounds one by one into the sonic space adjusting the ensure room for the most important sections. Then tweaking... lots of tweaking. Mastering: The first thing is to listen to the mixed track and gauge what state the tracks are in, at this point its important to pick out some comparison tracks in the same genre. From here I start with some general compression and EQ and from there compression and EQ to suite and finally limiting.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have an in-house studio which has been professionally acoustically treated. I primarily work out of Logic with a full waves package and several other high end plug-ins as well as some analogue outboard equipment. This all gets played through any one of a number of speakers and headphones to get the right sound including Yamaha HS-50a's, Sennheiser Studio headphones, AKG Overears and the classic Apple Ear Buds.

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

A: Without writing a huge long list of names the professionals I aim to be like are open about their workflow and are happy to talk details with their clients, I love talking my client through the intricacies of my work to help them understand what I'm doing.

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

A: Mixing is my bread and butter and something I really have a passion for, I love to Master the same projects as the one flows into the other. I'm comfortable with both stripped back tracks and built up arrangements with orchestral instruments and electronic sounds also.