Mastering: Analog,Digital,Tape

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both because analog is fun, intuitive and it helps me find the path the song need. Digital is reliable, precise and there is few algos that are very handy.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I get to listen to music all day long, everyday, on beautiful speakers.

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

A: Where can I listen to your work ? There is a playlist on spotify/Tidal.. on my profile and IG account. Do you do test masters ? And Yes I do !

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

A: People sometimes confuses mastering engineer and the mixing police. I don't blame people's mix and fix thing, I enhance, I change the perception if it's a bit off but I don't change the mix. Furthermore, I encourage young mixer to take risk, follow their visions and push it as far as they can, I'll be the fence if something goes wrong (it barely never does).

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

A: My speaker, my converter & EQ, a decent computer and Hi-speed internet :) I'll buid the room on site !

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

A: I have been doing mastering full time for 3 years now. Before I was a mixing assistant in a big Parisian Studio, doing mastering on the side from home (I started to work in Studios almost 10 years ago).

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

A: Everything from classical to post hardcore but I shine the best with R&B Soul, Hiphop & Electronic music.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I keep myself available for the people working with me, offering an open communication. And I can also make things loud if necessary.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I don't actually bring anything to a song, I'm just working around it (or frame it) so it could be presented to the world under the best circumstance.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I like to receive the project as a whole so I could get the global vibe and direction of the project. The previous day, I usually start by putting all the song in sequence matching the level from song to song so my starting point is coherent all along the record (using a small speaker I have on the side). Then I like to work fast because you can only hear a song for the first time once and I have to remember the feeling I had about the song for the whole process to reach the goal I have in mind. While working on aparticular song, I'll always refer to the other songs of the record to make sure it all stays consistent. I like to push things a lil bit while working for the first time on a song, it helps showing to the client the potential of the song and what I can bring with my work. Sometimes I nail it with the first version, other time we need a revision.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have been building my setup fews years now, my main tools are my speakers and my room. The speakers are PSI A215 and I recently upgrade the acoustic of the room with PSI active Bass Trap AVAA. I like working with both analog and digital tools so I run an hybrid setup with analog hardware and plugins. The chain grows and improves over the years and for now, it's built around a Lavry Gold & a Forssel converter with a KNIF Eksa as my main EQ. The chain is always a bit different from project to project and even from song to song, not every piece of gear fit any music so I try to find the best path possible for song.