Mixing and Mastering

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

A: Whether it concerns classical music, hardstyle, country or chillout music, I can ensure that your music comes into its own.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Mixing and Mastering

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio is acoustically balanced. This is done by placing four customized membrane bass traps on critical positions. This results in a listening environment that has a low frequency response that is as flat as possible. Diffusers are mounted on the ceiling and side wals in order to minimize the sound reflections. This results in a listening position with a clear understanding of the stereo image. On the rear wall, a large absorber is mounted, so that the reflections from behind are minimized. The shape of the desk is also designed in such a way that there is no direct reflections of the speakers audible. Software vst’s still do not have the characteristic sound of high end mixing and/or mastering hardware. But software has the advantages like look ahead functions, automation and multiple side chain instances. On the other hand, high end mixing and mastering hardware often has very nice sound characteristics caused by tubes and coils that we really like to hear. To get the best out of your tracks, a combination of software and hardware is used. Translating digital sound into analog sound has to be done by a sound card. There are many brands and types of sound cards, but Prism Sound produce one of the best. For translating digital to analog, I use two Prism Sound Titan units which gives a total of 16 analog outputs. These outputs are directed to a Dangerous 2-Bus+ analog mixer. Translating the mixed and/or mastered sound back to digital sound is done by a Prism Sound Lyra unit. Mixing of stems is done in the box with high end software vst’s. The mix is then divided into 8 stereo stems which are routed to the Dangerous 2-Bus+ analog mixer. From the Dangerous 2Bus+ unit, the sound is directed to a Roll Music Super Stereo bus compressor in order to give a slight glue the mix. After this compressor, the sound goes to an Elysa Xfilter. With this unit some adjustments can be made or some character can be added to the sound. The modified SPL Vitalizer can give some tube characteristics to the sound and can give a wider stereo image. After the SPL Vitelizer, the sound is directed to a Maselec MEA-2 equilizer. This unit is the most subtile and effective mastering equalizer that I know. With the Gainlab Audio Empress equalizer, some nice tube character can be added. This Empress unit is based on the same principles as the Manley Massive Passive, which means it is also a multiband Pultec equalizer. But the Empress also has an Tube function, which gives magnificat extra character to the mix. At the end of the analog chain, there is a WES Audio ngBusComp. For me, there is no better mastering compressor to have on the end of a mastering chain. It is a very subtile compressor that adds very pleasant musical characteristic to the mix. After the WES Audio unit, the sound is directed toe the Prism Sound Lyra in order to translate the analog sound to digital. In the box, some vst’s are added to finalize the mix