Mixing and Mastering

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Currently, I am working on writing and recording keyboard parts for 4 different albums, all happen to be in the Metal genre. I am also mixing and mastering 2 of those albums as well.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. Because they both have pro's and con's. For example, digital has come a long way in emulating analog gear but there are some things it just has not been able to do that well yet. For example, guitar amp sim's are getting really good, but still not quite comparable to the real deal. Its why I still have a big collection of guitar amps that I reamp DI's through.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love the fact that I get to help artists take the music they worked tirelessly to create and refine and shape it into what they envisioned it to sound like in their mind's eye.

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

A: 1. Macbook Pro 2. Universal Audio Apollo Quad 3. Vintage Neumann U47 4. Stealth Sonics Reference In-Ear Monitors 5. Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S61Mk2 That's everything I would need to still make music!

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

A: I have been doing this for over 10 years now. This was the career path I decided to pursue. I didn't do anything else before audio production.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Modern but not over the top. I like to find a balance between a very clean, tight in your face sound and a more organic, real and "live" sound on a record I work on.

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

A: One I always have wanted to work with is a band from Finland called Sonata Arctica. They are one of the first bands I listened to that made me really appreciate Metal music and are what made me decided to get into the music industry. I'm very lucky that I actually will get the chance to finally fulfill this dream pretty soon actually!.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: When it comes to a Metal production, never under-estimate the power of the bass guitar in a mix. Its the difference between your guitars sounding like a massive wall of sound and a wimpy picket fence.

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

A: Typically I get asked to work on heavier music, like Metal. I would say about 50% of the music I work on is Metal and the other 50% is a verity of different genres like Pop and Hip Hop.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: When it comes to Mixing, its probably getting the drums in a song to properly gel in the mix with everything else but also be powerful and distinct. The most compliments I get from Clients are usually something to do with the drums in the mix.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: It's a hybrid setup currently. I have an Audient ASP 8024 console that all my mixes go through. Convertors I use are 2 Universal Audio Apollo x16's. A bunch of nice outboard gear like a UA 1176 and a vintage LA-2A. As for plugins, I pretty much have them all. Most of the Waves stuff, all of the UAD plugins, Neural DSP, etc. The computer system is a Mac Pro running Pro Tools 12 HD, Cubase 10.5, and Logic Pro X.

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

A: There are a few different professionals in the industry that inspire me. Warren Huart, Andy Wallace, Andy Sneap and Jens Bogren to name a few.

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

A: Mixing/Mastering and Keyboard/Synth Session work are what I tend to get asked most for.