Mixing keys and other stuff

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

A: Recording and mixing a cover of "Ein Geschenk" ('a present') from Ewig. A young lady did this mostly as a present for their parents' 25th wedding anniversary. Turned out beautifully :-)

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: getting more clients

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Almost completely digital. But I do use analog summing and a 2buss comp to glue things together. ITB is easier to recall and sounds just about as good as analog. I do manually ride automation though with my S3!

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

A: If your song has a soul I will find it and bring it out any make it shine. Songs without soul don't really interest me. I will tell you.

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

A: I can't hear my XYZ, turn it up. -Yes master ;) (Why I like unattended mixing session) What jets do you fly? - A320 and A330 Can you add another Chorus? - sure, you're the boss! But should we, really? We need a new breakdown. - give me a day! Can you make this 20bpm faster? - ahmmm. really??! Did you tune the vocals? - No! (Melodyne is almost maxed out :) Are you also a CFII? -yes

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

A: I've played music since I can remember, made it to become the go-to keys guy in our town but then was not quite brave enough for a full on career in music. Studied for a while (astrophysics, CS) and eventually became a pilot. Our 10-souls soul-band eventually broke up when the last finished university and we all got 'real jobs'. I decided then to pick up audio engineering training, so that I could work with music on my own terms and not have to gig on weekends. Last year my airline went belly-up and I really want back in with the music. Hence, here I am!

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

A: Steve Wilson. Bach to Jon Lord, Einaudi to Opeth. Keith Jarret to Ayreon. All things Funk/Soul

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: creativity, the people (most anyways)

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

A: Music flows from the soul to the instruments to the mics into the ears back to the soul. Even the best tech can't fix a sub-par song or recording and is only a crutch along that way!

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

A: A macbook with logic, akg812, a keyboard, sm57. Solar panels!

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

A: Steve Wilson. Not only because he's a genius!

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

A: make sure you speak the same language music-wise and in general. \m/

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: the reason for the job: demo, indie, major (haven't had many of these yet...go ahead, change this!) previous releases vision steps up until now deadlines the weather

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: burgundy - like a good red wine.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: mono eq to death!

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

A: hand made

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Selective hearing, while everyone else around me slowly goes insane!

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: a lifelong interest, craving and love for music.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I listen to reference tracks before and while mixing, so I check them out at the beginning. Then I load up a template with all groups, VCAs, routing, etc. set and import the tracks. Do a first listen, then a fader up, then mono EQ (takes forever and a day!), ride volume, compress, pan, saturate, modify, mangle, wrangle, undo, restart, go insane

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: It's a small but beautiful ITB setup. With some occasional analog cheating on the 2buss...

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

A: Make sure they bob their heads when they hear the track. Aka mixing.