Hip Hop Mixing & Mastering

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I am producing several songs, one of which is a classic cover tune in the style of bluegrass featuring the amazing Peter Rowan!

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

A: David Mohacsi for vocal tuning, he is the man!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital with lots of incredible analog emulations because they are so good at this point and because the power of instant recall is way more valuable than the perceived "voodoo" of old school analog. Don't get me wrong, I've paid plenty of dues on tape machines and they have their place but for my workflow at this point in time in the box is the way to go.

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

A: Deliver a powerful compelling mix that you are happy with!

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love music and the creation of music. With the mixing process you can truly make the sum greater than the individual parts. When you add in a nice mastering touch it really does bring the song to life in the best possible light!

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

A: Who have I worked with. I send them to my website or AllMusic.com for samples and credit listings.

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

A: Clients often think mastering is merely throwing a limiter on a mix to raise the volume and it's good. Proper EQ and compression and choosing the right limiter for the job is critical!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What their musical vision is and what some of their influences are.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Laidback professional!

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

A: Rising Appalachia, because they have such incredible voices.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Usually making sure the client vision is clear and we have established a good channel of communication before we get too far into the process. From there it's answering any questions about file formats and resolution etc before they send my the multi-tracks or pre-master. From there it's making sure the customer is happy with the sounds I am sending them!

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have a fairly portable rig which I can take on the road with me when traveling to work in other studios. I always take my Sennheiser HD headphones, Apollo Twin X, and a few other essential items with me when not working in my home studio.

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

A: As far as mix engineers go I am a big fan of Greg Wells, Andrew Schepps, and Dave Pensado. As far as inspiring musicians, too many to name all but some top picks are Andrew Bird, Elvis Perkins, Rising Appalachia, and of course John Prine and Peter Rowan.

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

A: I most often will help clients with the mixing and mastering phases of their projects.

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

A: Know the difference between the tracking, mixing, and mastering phase and what you can realistically accomplish in each of those.

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

A: An acoustic guitar so I could continue to write songs, a pick to play the guitar, a spare set of Elixer strings, a lighter for building a campfire, and a machete for opening up coconuts!

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

A: I have been involved in music/audio production since 1997. My first job out of college was working at a local CBS affiliate as an audio engineer. From there I went on to work as an audio engineer for a multi-media company that specialized in producing CD Rom content (back in the day). My job then was to edit, cleanup, and normalize hundreds of audio files each week. This was my "wax on, wax off" training and paying of some serious dues. Beyond that, I was always the guy in my bands recording our songs as well as songs for other local bands. I've always had some manner of project studio going and as of 2012 I have been working out of a commercial studio in Honolulu called Blue Planet Sound.

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

A: I had the honor of working on Peter Rowan's last CD "My Aloha." I was the tracking engineer and got to mix 4 of the songs. It was so much fun working with this living legend, he is such a wealth of knowledge with the history of bluegrass and all things folk.

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

A: I really love acoustic/organic instruments and sounds.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I have played bass and guitar in many different bands in the past and I also have completed a jazz guitar class from the Berklee online music school. I feel like these experiences help me better communicate with clients as we strive towards making the best decisions for what each song needs.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: When delivering programmed drums always include the source midi file in addition to wave/aif sound files. It opens up so many doors to creating new textures and sounds that may be more appropriate to a song than what is captured in the sound files. With the midi file, I can try out different snare sounds, ride sounds, etc or at the least enhance overhead sounds which always seem to need some help coming from programmed drums.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Relentless persistence. Giving whatever I'm working on 100% of my skill set and attention. My love and passion for music, all aspects, help drive me to learn something new every day in order to keep improving and getting better.