Live horn tracks

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: At the moment I’m juggling several SoundBetter projects: • Brass stack: Dub track • Brass/sax stacks: big band/vocal track • Full production: big band track • Score editing and transcription: spiritual orchestration. In the past few months on the platform, I’ve also provided: • Brass stack, clarinet: circus tune, radio drama • Brass stack: Edm track • Brass stack: Latin Reggaeton track • Brass stack: Trap Soul track • Full orchestral production: vocal track • Score editing and transcription: 8-cello ensemble • Score editing and transcription: spiritual orchestrations • Trombone stack and solo: repair and replace.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The feeling of creative collaboration. Being and remaining in my flow state. Building rapport with diverse individuals. Effective, constant, artistic, and productive application of my skill variety. Growing with each project. Feedback, which runs from instructive to delight to outright astonishment.

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

A: My horn stacks have been utilized in various contemporary styles including EDM, Reggaeton, Latin, Dub, Hip-Hop, Trap Soul, and ambient music. Additionally, they have been featured in genres such as jazz, African, World, classical, soundtrack, and more. Full productions have incorporated orchestral, jazz, spiritual music, African, Wind Band, folk, Klezmer, and a diverse range of other genres.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: If the brief fits my areas of expertise, I provide a proposal clearly outlining options and quoting on the most likely one. Upon funding, I go through the track, taking notes on sections (verse 1, etc). I create a written score, then play in each part. Once this is complete I’ll usually make a brass-forward rough mix mock-up for the client’s reference.

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

A: Performing with African musicians has allowed me to develop as a performer, arranger, composer, and producer. This has led to some wonderfully innovative collaborations. Arranging/composing commissions from South Africa, the U.S., and Europe for big band, jazz band, wind band, and orchestra-plus (orchestra plus big band, pop band, African band, 20 tenors, etc) have brought about a comprehensive understanding of the process of crafting music from the ground up. On the whole, my work at SoundBetter has been gratifying, with highlights being the sometimes tremendous feedback from artists.

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

A: I’m very consistent with quality control, reliable, creative yet sensible. If you like some of the examples on the demo track, you can trust I’ll create something that works for you. I wouldn’t have taken on the job if I wasn’t sure of this.

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

A: Can it be done in a week? Yes, but not if funding arrives on day six. Can you replace the midi tracks with live brass/instruments? Yes, but you might like my take on things as well.

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

A: Perhaps that brass performs only the narrow role of hits and stabs. There is so much more live instruments can do for music!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: In what ways do you imagine the live instruments might enhance your song? How close to the provided midi tracks must the live instrument realization be?

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

A: Please remember to include your track and be clear about your requirements. Let me know how you feel about your music. Then trust me!

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

A: I started trumpet at four (not a good idea), and began writing music at nine. I’m turning 62 and still waiting for a mid-life crisis.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Eclectic, steeped in the heritage of great music, centered by an overarching aesthetic vision, blessed by the spirit of Papa Bach.

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

A: Jacob Collier’s young and hip. Taylor Swift’s music desperately needs my input, but I’d doubt she’ll admit to it.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Seek expert advice.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: This is a loaded question, particularly as I take pride in both my capacity as an arranger as well as my ability to realize my scores through performance! Overarching everything perhaps is a multi-layered imagination that allows me to deeply perceive the artist’s vision while conceiving what might be synergistically added to a working track.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: In general, live instruments uplift a song’s character and humanness, adding depth, fullness, and sometimes a necessary complexity. Also power and punch, depending on the song. In addition to this, my contributions tend to have a delineating and clarifying aspect, revealing or enhancing features that are there, but not yet fully realized. This may be why reviews often refer to the transformative quality of my work.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I run a boutique studio setup with very carefully chosen gear in a controlled environment. This yields the purest and richest sounds from single instruments and vocals. I hire larger studios for larger groups such as rhythm sections, strings, choirs, orchestras, etc.

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

A: Contemporary vocal and instrumental artists, jazz artists, classical artists, world music, and African music.

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

A: I produce brass (trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, trombone, bass trombone, euphonium, tuba) stems to create a brass section for tracks. This accounts for about 65% of my production work.