Recording/Mixing/Production

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

A: The BKV8 Samsara EP. We had started working together in 2018 and this was the first EP he dropped ever, in 2020. It's really is personally a good example of our growth and how far I've come engineering. It's only the beginning too! I produced on Takeoff with Jake Mark and tracked/engineered every song.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Currently working on a couple projects with some artists at the moment.

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

A: Anyone from Omniverse!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I like both, analog does have that magical sound though.

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

A: I promise to bring soul and creativity that you wouldn't find anywhere else, at an excellent quality.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love music so I enjoy being able to work on music everyday as a career. I also love seeing the growth when I work with artists over a long period of time!

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

A: How I've gotten to where I am. I say the same thing everytime. Hard work and analyzing/learning from the greats!

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

A: That producers just make beats. When I'm able to be a part of a project from beginning to end, as in, I make the beat, record, mix, and master, I enjoy working with the artist all the way through to truly craft a memorable piece of music.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What are your music goals? What sound are you going for? Not everyone wants clean mixes, some want raunchy/raw mixes, do you want any added drops/stutters/FX or production from my part? etc. knowing what you're trying to express can allow me to help you even more.

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

A: Be organized! I prefer to have named stems so I know what is what, in order to organize them myself in the mixer. I also like stems consolidated, so i can just drop them all in my DAW without having to move them around. If you have protools sessions, those are the best format to send! I can continue off from where you/your engineer were. If you have any sort of desires/wishes, don't be afraid to ask before I mix! I love trying to do weird things and I know a lot of artists can be shy/insecure with adding stuff to songs, but I usually do that anyways. Likewise, if you don't like something I did, it's no problem to take it out and go back. Just know I'm here to help YOUR vision.

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

A: I got fl studio in 2011, and promptly started making EDM. I had played guitar and drums before that, and started learning piano because of percussion class in band. EDM Lasted about a month before I started playing in bands and messing around trying to record music on fl studio, and eventually started learning to mix for my old metal band. After that, I heard Future's Thought it was a drought and instantly thought I could make beats like that, and started making beats everyday. This was in 2015. At the same time, I started engineering as well, because I would record myself and my few friends that rapped so I could learn how to record, mix, master, and also how it feels to be an artists going over your own beats. Since then, I've been working at it daily and briefly did a few internships/paid jobs in a couple studios in the DMV area, before setting up shop in my apartment to work freelance. At the moment, I do music full time with 10 years of production experience and 7 years of engineering experience.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Engineering wise I focus on clarity and pristine sound for clear, well heard, but massively felt mix. Production wise, I just like doing trippy melodies and hard drums.

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

A: Future, Young Thug, or Lil Uzi Vert. These 3 artists are who led me down this path, and I resonate with their music. I feel like they were the artists that I was listening to nonstop when I first started making beats because their producers were all inspirations to me. Where I am now in my career, I've finally developed my own sound and feel like the music I could make w them would be great.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don't forget the value of simplicity! Too much going on can detract from the vocals, or main melody.

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

A: I primarily work on Hip Hop, RnB, and Pop music. But, I began engineering metal music, so now a days I can mix anything.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skills are production for sure, I have played instruments most of my life and have performed and analyzed many different styles of music. With that, I am able to bring countless influences and feelings to tracks. For engineering, I am very capable at grasping the original feeling of a song and expanding on it to perfect it for a final mix/master. I also tend to help artists a lot when recording, and have been praised numerous times for helping artists find their catchiest flows and melodies.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring a level of clarity and professionalism to every track I work on. Whether production or engineering, I try to bring the best out of the source material to deliver the best possible work.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I use protools for all my engineering needs, so I use it for both tracking and mixing. I'm a very fast recording engineer, so I try to mix throughout recording process in order to have a much better premix by the end of a session. For mixing, I typically aim for getting as clean and pristine a sound I can first, and from there go with the vibe of the song to add different flavor and styles to the mix.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: For engineering I have a WA251 tube microphone, Yamaha HS5 speaker monitors, Antelope Audio Discrete Synergy Core 4 interface, and the UAD Satellite for UAD plugins, I also have a full collection of plugins from WAVES, Plugin Alliance, Acustica audio, and more for in the box mixing. I use Pro tools for engineering. Production wise I have numerous guitars, a full sized 88 key electric grand piano, a Korg Wavestate, and plenty of plugins for different synths and samples to use in production. I use FL Studio for production

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

A: Engineers such as Alex Tumay and Mike Dean have provided me the most inspiration and influence for engineering, as far as production I am a huge fan of producers such as Southside, Metro Boomin, TM88, Pierre Bourne, and more. I'm also inspired heavily by my peers in Omniverse, which is my producer collective.

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

A: Typical day to day work is recording artists in my area, I also mix and master songs for these artists as well as others I meet through the internet/through connections. I usually produce for a lot of artists in my area as well, and produce for a lot of artists in different cities too.

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

A: Assuming there was no electricity, an acoustic guitar, a trumpet, a drum set, a saxophone, and a violin. I already play drums and guitar, but I've always wanted to learn the others. Just never had the time!