Mixing and Mastering Engineer

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

A: How much do you charge? It all depends on the material, size, length and complexity of the arrangement. A short tune with a small track count costs less than a 7 minute epic with 150 tracks

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

A: In high school I began recording jam sessions and bands to a VCR recorder. In 1999, at 19 years of age, I landed an internship at a big studio where I really started learning. That lead to other opportunities in remote recording, radio and staff engineer positions at several other studios. I've been at this whole audio and music thing for 18 years now.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Always step back and ask yourself, "have I gone deep and far enough with the vocal production and background vocal arrangement?" Songs often fall short when the vocal arrangement isn't as developed as possible. Also, you should probably add a tambourine or a shaker. Or ask me to do it for you (no extra charge and I'm pretty good at it...)!

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

A: The difference between mixing and mastering.

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

A: Do everything you can to find someone whose work you like and humanity you appreciate. Mutual respect of people as creative individuals is so important and you should hire someone who gets that and sees your potential. Does this seem like a rent gig for this engineer? Or is he/she going to own your project like it's the last he'll ever do?

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Energy and vibe. Like most audio pros I'm obsessed with sonics, but I'm first and foremost interested in feel. My number one goal is to take the energy, vibe and emotion of the song and amplify it. I like to make things more interesting, exciting and emotional. Some mixers have a more defined "sound" or stamp they put on things, which can be amazing. My style and sound is a bit more invisible, and I really try to stay out of the way and let the band/artist sound like themselves.

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

A: I mix! Sometimes people have me tune vocals, edit, polish and make a nice cup of coffee. I'm also available as a producer and tracking engineer and love to dig into capturing some great tracks and making songs come alive.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My world revolves around Pelonis 4288 monitors, Yamaha NS-10's and an ASC Attack Wall in Hollywood, CA.

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

A: This is an impossible question for me to answer. There is so much good music and so many incredible producers, engineers and musicians out there. I draw a lot of inspiration from my roots in classical and jazz, and that has really informed my approach to rock, pop and other styles.

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

A: Check out Jake Antelis. He's the man! I love losing work to Jake.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Dynamic, up-front and present.

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

A: Probably Jimmy Eat World. Their songs are always incredible. A list of who I'd like to work with could go on forever, however.

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

A: Mostly pop, rock, singer/songwriter, etc. I recently did a beautiful bluegrass record as well as a metal band that slammed. I'm really fortunate to work on a lot of styles

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Knowing when to use a heavy hand and when to stay out of the way.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: We start with a creative call/email discussion about the project. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the songs? What kind of sound are you after? Do you like the rough mixes? Do you want me to do something specific, or do you want me to put my spin on it? Every artist has different needs and wants, and I'm here for you. From there, I mix! I usually do about 1 song/day and send mixes as I get them done. We can work on revisions over the course of the project, rather than putting them off to the end. It helps me move faster and gives you more time to listen. I can stream the mix to you live over the web and we can do changes in real-time, or I can just send things as I get them done.