Mix Engineer & Composer

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

A: Be sure you work with someone who understands your music and what you're about. It's important to hire an engineer with experience in your genre so they know how to achieve the sound you want.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What is your goal for this project? What did you like or dislike about any past experiences working with a mix engineer? What artists do you like the sound of and why?

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio is located on a farm near Free Union, VA. It's in a former garage with two-foot thick walls which had surprisingly good acoustics even before I put in the acoustic treatment. The highlight is the view of a river with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background. Gear-wise, I use an RME DA converter with a pair of Yamaha HS7s. I'm the only studio in the area with a full-size grand piano.

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

A: I work on a lot of classical recordings for my job as Lead Engineer with Atlas Arts Media. I also do quite a bit of Folk and acoustic music because it's often a similar goal as in classical: make a mix that is as true to the original sound of the instrument as possible. However, I also enjoy when I get the chance to experiment with creating unique textures that are only possible in a recording.

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

A: The vast majority of my work is remote mixing and/or mastering. For my job with Atlas Arts Media, I get to work with classical recordings recorded in a Chicago concert hall. For my own clients, they typically send me a home recording, or something they recorded in a small local studio, and I make it come to life.

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

A: For some reason, I've noticed people call my job "editing." Yes, there's editing involved when I stitch together pieces of different takes into one seamless performance, but being an audio engineer involves so much more than that. Mixing requires a whole other level of creativity to decide how to balance the different instruments in a mix and what effects and techniques to use to do so. And in classical and acoustic genres, it takes a great deal of skill to turn a raw studio recording into something that captures the authenticity of a live performance. Mixing is both an art and a science. Editing is only one tiny part of it.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I approach every project both from an engineer's and an artist's perspective. Being a solo piano artist myself, I know what it's like to pour your heart and soul into your music and how important it is to feel like the recording reflects your vision. I always try to understand what my artist is trying to say musically, and then I use my technical know-how to make sure it comes across.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I like having the skills and know-how to bring an artist's vision for their project to life. I enjoy the collaboration involved in the recording and engineering process.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don't try to "fix it in the mix." Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. It's always more authentic if you nail a performance in the studio and get the sound right from the beginning.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I'm known to be able to make seemingly impossible edits when piecing together a recording out of differnt takes. I prefer not to edit unless absolutely necessary, but when the client asks for it, I always try.