Bryce on SoundBetter

Hey, my name's Bryce, owner of Heavy Handed Sound. You just put countless hours into your new song, now you need a great engineer. Here's a bit about me.

I'm a graduate of Icon College of Music in LA as well as Night Vision Music Academy with over 7 years of experience. While at Icon I was mentored by Mesta Bish (of Punching Dolphins Mastering) where I developed a love for the post-production process. Soon after, I started my own audio mastering company, Heavy Handed Sound, and have worked with many emerging talents from LA's underground electronic scene as well as Western Canada. I now work as the in house audio engineer for the Toronto based label, Heist Mode.

Every song is unique with its own characteristics that I carefully analyze and then enhance to the best of my ability. My process is a tailored mix of tonal correction, imaging, multi-band dynamic control, compression, and limiting. Through these, my goal is always a dynamic and polished final product that matches the artist's vision.

Please don't hesitate to shoot me an email and connect with any questions you may have!

Click the 'Contact' above to get in touch. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Credits

9 Reviews - 1 Repeat Client

Endorse Bryce

by Lo
Verified (Client)
Bryce was very easy to work with. He was very communicative and also had an awesome track to work with. Will definitely work with him again!
by Roman M.
Verified
Amazing work again by Bryce, highly recommend for anyone wanted dynamic range, tonal balance and loudness all as priorities for their masters!
by Lo
Verified
Bryce did an awesome job mixing my track. I appreciate the attention to detail he took (I am very picky on vocals). He did a great job helping the track and following my references. Also, very impressed with how fast his turn around time is. Definitely will keep Bryce in mind when if i'm in a pinch again. Overall very professional and high quality work and I would definitely work with him again.
by Roman M.
Verified
Thank you Bryce for your professionalism, communication and of course super master of my track. I was really looking to have my tracks sound big and loud, while improving dynamic control and retaining tonal balance
by K
Bryce is very friendly and definitely went the extra mile to make sure the recordings sounded great. He responds quickly to messages and is easily approachable.
by Roman
I have had Bryce master all releases on my label Heist Mode with the most exceptional work I have come across, after using other engineers. We will continue to develop a relationship with him, and his increase in clients speaks for how great his work is for itself. It's very important in today's music industry to have someone who does more than general mastering work; Bryce really dials in and focuses on the musical dynamic control and tonal balance in our genre of Techno, while maintaining the raw feel of the music - no easy feat. Thank you so much for your passion into your work Bryce!
by Kastropolis
Bryce is a hidden gem. He was very quick with his turnaround time and made my song sound the way I had envisioned. If you're especially an EDM artist, this guy knows what he's doing! An absolute pleasure working with him and will be in touch for future releases.
by Adrian F.
Bryce from Heavy Handed Sound took care of the master for my latest single that I released. He was able to give me a loud, clean master that didn't compromise my mix or sound. I would recommend him to go to for mastering services. His communication was good and professional throughout the process.
by Sean T
Bryce handled the mastering for my duo's debut EP last year and it came out sounding more professional than any of the other mastering services we've tried in the past. We will be back for our next project!!

Interview with Bryce

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: I've been on their side many times so I know the stress and anxiety that can come from finishing a song. I promise to be patient and receptive to their vision and to do my best to achieve it.
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I signed up for Business at a local university after taking a year off when I finished high school. I was months away from starting class and started getting super anxious because I think I just knew it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. I told my parents and they supported me so I got back into making music which I had been doing before as a hobby. A year later I applied at Icon Music Academy in LA and the rest was history. All in all about 7 years. I started my own mastering company towards the end of last year and love it!
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Less is more.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: I work out of a studio in downtown Edmonton. It has custom acoustic panels and bass traps, treated with sonar works. We have Dynaudio BM6MKIII monitors with SA-1073 preamp/eq, analog heat, Sub fatty, and some other synths that friends of mine love to take in and out as we share the studio together. We just lost our buddy's Prophet-6 when he moved which was heartbreaking. We miss them both equally you could say.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: I mainly listen to edgy electronic artists today like Flume, Boys Noize, The XX to name a few, but I grew up listening to Led Zepplin and Queen and draw lots of inspiration from rock music.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: I specialize in song mastering.
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: When I was going to Icon I entered my first remix competition for Dim Mak and won. It definitely set the bar high and I thought I had made it at that point (which of course I didn't) but it was the first sort of, "sign" to me that I wasn't an idiot for backing out of University.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: I'm working on my first solo EP. Maybe it'll turn into an album though, who knows with this quarantine going on right now.
Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?
A: Yes! Tom Frampton. I don't know him personally but I've followed his Instagram page "Master the Mix" for a while and learned lots from it when I was getting started and even now. He obviously has the creds to back it up too.
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Both. I love analog eq's for boosting because of the added saturation but when doing fine-tooth reductive eq'ing I need my fab filter Q3. I guess I lean towards analog though because it's so important to use your ears and not your eyes, and using analog equipment makes me do exactly that.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: That it never feels like work.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: Them: "Is there a way to make my song sound really loud on Spotify?" Me: "*Explains audio normalizing*, so no not technically, your best bet is to make a clean dynamic mix with fewer instruments playing at once which will in some cases trick the listener into thinking your song sounds louder than the others when it's just the instruments themselves that are louder."
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: That I simply turn up the volume and twist a couple knobs along the way.
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: What was the overall feeling you were wanting to come across? What artists or songs inspire you the most? Who are your favorites? Are you more into analog warmth or modern and clean? Or a mix of both?
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: I would tell them to make sure they're happy with where their song is at before sending it to me. Nothing worse than getting your master back and realizing you hate your snare...
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: laptop, prophet 6, sylenth, Kontakt and my headphones.
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: I would say indie-electronic
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: I'd love to work with Flume. It may sound generic but I think that guy is from a different universe when it comes to his production and innovativeness. I'm all about unorthodox production techniques.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: I mainly work on electronic music but have also worked on hip-hop and R&B tracks.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: My strongest skill would be mastering but if not that, then a good ear for harmonics. I'm all about the feel-good stuff.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: In my opinion, I think I bring a lot of happy accidents. I love to just run away with an idea that I had no intention of making but just feels right.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: I'm a big fan of drawing before I get started in the studio. I suck honestly but I love to just doodle to get into a creative headspace!