Mix & Master for Streaming

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I have both analog and digital gear and make good use of both. Some analog gear has not yet been well-reproduced in the digital world. Some has. Part of a skilled engineers job is deciphering which is which.

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

A: I promise to bring my most earnest approach to your record. If any goodness can be sifted and featured, I will find it and bring it forward. In the rare event that I dive into the tracks and find there's some reason (technical or otherwise) that I can't bring value to the track, I am comfortable communicating why and letting the project go.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love the lifestyle. I get to make a delicious matcha or chai tea and then bathe in sound waves. There's just enough creativity, mixed with fun geeky technical stuff, and I can take a break and step out of the studio whenever I want!

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

A: Clients run into questions about when exactly to send be as far as track/stems go. I tell them to send me everything dry, but if they're in love with the particular effect on something, send the wet one too! I can usually emulate i somewhat higher-fidelity version of the same thing, but if I can't am happy to use theirs. There's a certain threshold where the client's mixing crosses over into sound-design. A particular artists sound-design is part of the creative process and one way or another I do my best to preserve and feature that essence.q

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

A: I don't know that I run into many regarding mix. The modern musician is much more savvy about the art of recording and mixing because most of them have tried their hand at it. There can be some misunderstanding in the realm of mastering but, to be fair, the mastering industry is changing so drastically right now, I don't know that the clients are that much further of base and anyone!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: First, if they have a reference mix. Whether they have a reference mix or not I like to know some artists they're into and if they hear any of those artists in their conception of the track or record.

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

A: I advise it! Listen to my work and see if you like what you hear. If you have a question about whether I'd be a good match, I'm happy to listen to your project and tell you if it is within my range and therefor worth your well-earned money.

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

A: I'm going to assume this island is not completely desert and that somehow the electricity works. 1. My balanced power supply. It's a massive 50-pound coil of copper wire and some filters which clean up electricity so you can record clean tracks. 2. NS-10 studio monitors. They are unforgiving in the midrange and I have listened to them for 20 years. 3. My SSL bus compressor. 4. Pacific Microsonics HD CD converter (or my Apogee soft-clipping/conversion device would do) 5. My UA Apollo x8. I've been very impressed by their work and believe they have crossed some thresholds with this recent generation of gear. It not all quite analog, but some of it is pretty damn close and having the DSP in the hardware is a gamechanger.

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

A: I began recording 25 years ago. When I was 13 I made my first multi-track recorder out of two stereo tape decks and a 4-channel mixer I borrowed. I would bounce back two stereo tracks of one deck to the left channel to the other deck, while recording to the right channel, then repeat. I've been passionate about recording and mixing ever since. I bought the first pro-sumer digital 8-track ever sold when I was 17 and pushed it as far as it would go. At 19, after moving to Nashville, I had the blessing of meeting my engineering mentor, John Mahoney, who councils me to this day. He had run a respectable studio for years in Atlanta and was, at the time, engineering for the late Leon Russel. John and I mixed an album together at his studio. He knew everything about all the gear I couldn't afford and had never laid eyes on, and dispensed so much information it took me years of trial and error to integrate it. I was intermittently touring as a musician out of Nashville and coming back to record, so each round brought new challenges and learning.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Classic discipline applied to cutting edge experimentation.

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

A: An artist like Frank Ocean would be amazing. Reconciling all the different textured to create a vivid world. And something like Harry Styles. I love crack-candy that is pop music as much as anyone.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Arrangement. I can do a lot with mixing, but if you imagine your instrumentation like characters on a theater stage, you want to leave space for each character. I often encounter artists and producers crowding the low frequencies. Massive sounds can be awesome! But if you have a huge kick drum, a big fat low bass, and two sub-bass synths, something has to give. It's like standing the characters in your play on each others shoulders. See what kind of drama you can create my carving out space for that big kick drum or massive guitar solo to land. You'll be surprised by how much the emotion starts to spill out of otherwise jumbled tunes.

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

A: I have a strong background in indie-rock, folk, acoustic, rock, electronic, and ambient music. One of my more recent active clients is very shoegaze-y. Think Cocteau Twins meets Massive Attack). I enjoy approaching new styles and finding what the nature of their particular sound is asking for.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Imagination and balance. I can hear, even in a rough reference, what a song is capable of, and after carving the best out of the sounds available, am devoted to rendering the best possible balance of those sounds.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Reverence. Working in a calibrated and controlled environment, I am an adaptor between the artist/producers vision and the experience of the modern listening consumer. Many times, what sounds good in a project studio doesn't sound the good once it's gone through the various processes of platforms and consumer stereo systems. My research, background, equipment, and skills are uniquely tailored to the most modern of music-delivery methods.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: For mixing: I will load in and up-sample your files to 96k/24-bit audio. After orienting to the tracks and reference mix (if provided) will begin treating audio. At times this will involve re-amping tracks through high-end outboard gear, restoring audio fidelity and removing unwanted artifacts. After a meticulously balanced mix is achieved, stereo buses are tracked through outboard class-a SSL compression and high-end Apogee analog-to-digital converters and soft limiting to contain peaks and improve average energy (perceived loudness) of the individual buses. The stereo buses are then combined. For mastering: when mastering my own mixes, very little is required along the lines of overall loudness and eq profile. My masters are optimized for streaming and digital release, observing playback levels of Spotify, Apple, and Youtube, and maintaining an appropriate peak-to-loudness ratio to deliver the most dynamic and loud playback possible. New standards set in place by streaming platforms have restored natural dynamics to music and I am one of the engineers on the cutting edge of biasing for these new parameters.

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

A: I'm releasing my very first personal release very soon. It has been a pleasure to get to apply all of this engineering knowledge to my own material and it holds a great deal of meaning to me. I'm grateful for everything that has brought me to this day in my career.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: An artist from Philadelphia named Korey Jones. We've tracked 9 of his songs here at the studio and I'm mixing two of them for an upcoming release. Also, a Brooklyn artist named Ky who goes by the name SWORDS.

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

A: I'm new to the SoundBetter world, but have been enjoying going through and sampling providers work. As I become for familiar with the professionals on here, I'm certain I will find my favorites.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Discrete symmetrical sine-wave balanced power, NS-10 monitors, outboard SSL bus compression, outboard LA-2A, Universal Audio Apollo x8 w/quad satellite processor and associated Unison Plugin suites, additional apogee electronics high-end A/D conversion and soft-limiters, Izotope noise reduction and mastering suite

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

A: Favorite mix engineers include Bob Clearmountain (David Bowie, The Band, Nick Cave, Roxy Music), Chris Galland (Rihanna, John Mayer) Nigel Godrich (Radiohead,Beck), John Goodmanson, (Nada Surf, Rogue Wave), Rob Schnapf (Elliot Smith, Cass McCombs) Favorite Mastering Engineers: David Ives (Kacey Musgraves, Cass McCombs, Foo Fighters) Bob Ludwig (Litterally Everyone), Greg Calbi

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

A: Mixing: I receive tracks from clients recorded in various circumstances and set about producing the most balance mix possible, serving the song and the voice while augmenting the most appealing attributes of a given piece.