Rock & Heavy Mixing/Mastering

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

A: Recently I worked with a client on here who wasn't especially confident in his abilities, his rough mix of the song he recorded was amateur at best and he admittedly himself isn't a great singer. I really worked through that song, tuning and editing every little bit of it, and adding production elements as I went until it sounded HUGE. He was blown away with the results and is excited to work on more songs with me! I also told him how he could improve his recordings, so that next time we work together his songs will sound even better! It's great to be able to grow with your clients, and I'm happy to have met him. Very good guy, and a great songwriter!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Currently I am working on a mix/master for a band called Thorn, they're a modern metal take on the alt rock scene in the 90's and sound great! I'm happy to be working with them, their songs are killer!

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

A: I believe Brandon Allhouse and Luc Chiasson are on the platform as well. And I would recommend using those guys to anyone, they're big up and comers in the scene, and great engineers.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital, nothing beats the convenience, dependability, and affordability of digital. Most pros have gone completely in the box, and their hundred thousand dollar consoles are just sitting there collecting dust.

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

A: I promise that if you supply me with tracks that are good quality and performed well, I can unleash the hidden potential in your song and bring my clients vision to life, which translates to their music sounding better, and more people listening!

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love mixing, hearing a song come together slowly, and watching mine and a clients vision come to life, where I'm happy, the clients happy, and the song sounds great! It's what I live for.

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

A: What DAW do you use for mixing ? Should we “Stem” the effects on separate tracks? What plug ins are you working with? I was literally just sent this by a client, and I think it encapsulates it all pretty well.

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

A: Generally when I tell someone who is not into music I'm a Mixing and Mastering Engineer, they assume I'm a DJ, or EDM artist.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What bands are you into and like the sound of, this is important to know because stylistically mixes can be very different, and I want to be able to deliver what the client perceives as a "good mix", not my own.

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

A: Make sure the performances of the tracks are the best you can perform, I can fix a lot, but I can't make a bad performance sound great, I CAN make it sound better through tuning and editing, but the energy has to be there for me to access in the first place, especially with vocals. I can make your vocal in time and in tune, but I can't make it sound like you care.

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

A: My computer, interface, monitors, console one, HD 6xx headphones

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

A: I learned how to play guitar, bass, and drums, at a young age. Originally I had gotten into music production to record my own music, I quickly found that getting your music to sound like your favorite artist's, or even sound good at all is a very difficult task. I researched with every minute of my free time, I signed up for several courses to get on the track to improve, I had fallen in love with music production to the point where I didn't even want to play my guitar anymore, I would just participate in online mix competitions every month to try and improve, post my mixes on various facebook groups, looking for critiques, I got them, I improved. Learning to mix was a very slow process, spanning over the last 7-8 years. In 2019 I decided to quit my day job working at the YMCA and pursue Audio full time, I took on a variety of work: podcast editing, Audiobook Production and Narration, Gaming Audio (Also received certification in Wwise), Forensic Audio and more. In early 2020 I received recognition from URM Academy that my submission to their mixing contest had been accepted into their top twenty poll out of over 800 entries from amateurs and industrial professionals alike. It gave me the confidence to pursue Mixing and Mastering full time, and I haven't looked back.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I would describe my mixing style as heavy, impactful, yet organic. Big sounding drums, big punchy low end, in your face vocals, loud and tight mix and master.

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

A: I would love to mix either Periphery or The Contortionist, but that's definitely more of a long term goal.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Referencing is key to getting your music to compete with other commercial music in the same genre. Having a Plugin like ADPTR Audio's Metric AB is a great way to be able to compare your music to others, comparing the different frequency ranges of your song with your reference mix, is a great way of getting your tonal balance right!

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

A: I work mainly in Rock and Metal, leaning towards the more heavy side of music, but I gladly take any project I feel I can bring something to.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is being able to identify and solve problems in a mix, that an untrained person or musician, would not be able to identify so easily, the common listener just hears an amateur sounding song, as apposed to being able to identify what the problems are in the first place and fixing them. The common listener and musician won't be able to tell the snare in a song has too much 1000 hertz, or that the vocal has too much 400 hertz, they'll just hear a bad song and turn it off.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring a fresh perspective and a lifetime of knowledge and experience in music performance and production. As an Mixing Engineer, I am able to help musicians make their music sound better thanks to my years of working and learning how this craft works.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: My typical process once I have received a rough mix from the artist, is to pull the song into my DAW, and try to take a listen as a fan would, and try to focus on the big picture stuff, notice things that take me out of the song, or don't fit tonally in the mix, and take notes throughout the song, taking timestamps at specific sections if need be. Do another listen through to see what editing and tuning I will have to do and get back to the client with a quote, communicate what needs done and tell them to expect their first mix within 4 days, after that, we can start the revision process. Ask for references, mix the song, master the song, start revisions, they get three but usually we end up in a good place after revision 1 or 2 in my experience. Once the artist is happy, they accept payment here on Soundbetter and I send them an unwatermarked version of their song in whatever formats they wish.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My main monitoring systems are Krk Rokkit monitors in an acoustically treated room, as well as my Sennheiser Hd-6xx's for detail work. For Processing, I am working entirely in the box, as most producers are now, especially in the genres I work in. I have a large assortment of plugins, and a Softube Console 1 interface that allows me complete flexibility when working on a clients tracks.

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

A: Some of my favorite "Rockstar" producers are Gene Freeman, Jamie King, Joey Sturgis, Joel Wanasek, among others I'm sure I'm forgetting. I've seen many producers and mixing engineers on an academic program called Nail the Mix.

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

A: I do editing, mixing, and mastering of Rock and Heavy music.