serving YOUR song

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: A demo EP for a vocal ensemble. And some audio plugins.

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

A: Mostly mixing and mastering, a lot of the times this also invovles some (vocal) editing.

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

A: The engineer can make it sound awesome later.

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

A: I did an editing and mixing job for "Uncompressed World Vol.4" that's been my first "officially" released work then.

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

A: Keep Calm, I am here to help you!

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I use a in-the-box setup with the latest Cubase Pro version as my main DAW. For conversion I use RME and for monitoring I have a pair of Neumanns, Fluid Audio and some decent Headphones (Beyerdynamic, Audio-Technica, Shure). As "Instruments" I use a Roland RD700, a Novation Impulse for Keys and a Roland TD-30 kit with custom (real, modified) bassdrum, triggering SuperiorDrummer.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: First thing is the rough mix, that's mostly levels and panning for me. That's also were I will get my first impression and which will define the overall direction the mix will go. I also try to quickly work out ideas that I get on first listening or at least write them down. It is important for me to capture my first impressions and ideas before getting used to the raw tracks. All following steps vary from song to song. Depending on the style, there may be multiple layers of group channels with what I call "incremental compression stages" - or even nothing at all. It really depends on the material - so how "typical" can the work process be? ;-)

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

A: I have been doing music since I was 4 years old. I wrote my first "songs" (it's all instrumental stuff actually) in the age of 12 that I played with my band in music school and in the age of 15 I started recording. I kept doing this more or less intensively throughout school and university and in 2011 finished a one year course at HOFA College which got me into acutal mixing and mastering. Now I am mixing on the side for about 7 years now. I also play keys in a jazz-fusion band and do some consulting in the field of computer based recording and live electronics. I also do some audio plugin coding.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: A combination of strong theoretical and musical skills. I have a deep understanding of digital technolgy (Dr.rer.nat.) as well as music theory and at the same time a strong experience from playing piano, synths and drums in a variety of bands for over 25 years. Together with my education as an Audio Engineer I think that's a sound foundation of skills.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Focus on your arrangement. And tune your instruments before recording ;-)

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What's your vision? What's your status quo? What do you want to achieve with your "product" in the end? If those points are clarified it should be easy to figure out the next steps and whether we are a good match for the project's needs.

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

A: I will do my very best to help you achieving YOUR goals!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. Money. Workflow.

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

A: Soundwise I like Michael Brauer for his "a little more bass" sound as compared to most other mixers. I also like Sting and Toto for their musicality and also the great sound of most of their recordings.