Recording/Mix engineer

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

A: About 5 years ago now, I had the chance to work with a local Chicago band, Double Identity. At the time they were an all female duo comprised of guitar/vox, and drums/vox. I worked with them as their recording and mixing engineer for what, a few years later, became their EP, Small Talk. I got to see them grow as artists and just excel in their own right. To this day I keep in touch with them and have been following their career ever since.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I’m currently working on the marketing end of things regarding the upcoming release of my freshman EP.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Although I’m working in digital now, I believe I prefer analog. Why? Because I feel there’s a rawness there that ends up getting lost in one way or the next when working in 1s and 0s.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Being the person behind the artist/band that has great music out in the world.

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

A: I’d bring my whole studio setup, at least a guitar or two, and some mics and cables so I can hit record whenever inspiration strikes.

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

A: I’ve been a fan of music ever since I was young and listening to Michael Jackson on my parents stereo setup (I’m talking vinyl here). Throughout on one of his records at the time and just listening to everything that’s going on within that song or even whole album. From there, jumping ahead about 30 years, I’ve gained a degree in audio production and since then have been doing all sorts of jobs within that umbrella…live sound engineering, studio, ADR, etc. Heck, I’ve even recorded and mixed my freshman EP on my own.

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

A: I’m open to working on all types of music.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: If I’m just mixing a song, I’ll initially listen to the track at whatever stage it is brought to me and try and get some ideas on where I can take it to make everything sound even better. Once I have that framework, I’ll begin chipping away at it until it’s finished. Along the way I’ll send rough mixes to my client, if they’d like that, so if they are hearing something that I may have overlooked that they want louder, etc I can then attend to that request. Once I get close to the end of the mixing process, I’ll listen to the song in my car to see if there is any frequencies or something of the sort that is either missing or there is too much of. If I find anything of that sort I’ll then work on the song a little more in that regard until the song sounds good in the car, through my monitors and various headphones.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: It’s a small setup, but works for what I do. I’m running ProTools 12 with a mix of bought and stock plugins on a MacBook Pro laptop with an extra screen. My interface is the Scarlett 2i4 with audioengine 2+ monitors.