Audio Editing/Music Production

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

A: Fabio from Portland, OR, is a great songwriter, audio engineer, and producer! He can help with almost any type of project, and is well versed in recording, composition, and audio editing.

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

A: I am proud of the material I have been producing for my solo album. It has a lot of influences including acoustic, alternative rock, and metal music. For this album I have been involved in every aspect of the production: recording, mixing, mastering, guitar, bass, vocals, and songwriting. The only parts of the album I have not done myself are select tracks with a live drummer.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Sound design and composition for upcoming games: BattleCasters and Juice Galaxy. I am also currently mixing/mastering my solo album, helping artists with digital distribution, and editing and mastering audio for podcasts recorded at Hello Studios.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Analog is awesome. Analog gear is also extremely expensive. For the mastering stage of music, I would say analog gear can really add the next level of quality, but for a cost to results comparison, digital wins here. In addition to cost effectiveness and portability, digital plugins also offer some very high quality representations of their analog counterparts. Summary: Analog is better in a world where money and space is not a factor.

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

A: I promise that if I am not capturing your vision, we will delve into the depths of the project together and find what it needs.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love helping artists. I don't think about how I can make money off of them, I genuinely just enjoy offering what I can to progress the career of musicians.

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

A: That my company is just a normal record label. In actuality it is equal parts production studio and traditional label with a new spin catering to the well being of artists such as: Artists keeping 100% of the rights to their music, genre diversity, and no signing lengthy contracts.

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

A: How long does it take you to do (Project aspect?) I am happy to review the material free of charge to better estimate what needs to be done!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What type of work do you need done? (Editing, Mixing, Mastering, Recording, Composition, Sound Design.) How would you like to transfer files? (Google Drive, Dropbox.) What is the time frame for completion? What is an estimated budget for this project?

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

A: Do not be afraid to reach out! There is no obligation for you to invest money before we arrive at a mutual agreement, and I would love to hear about your project even if it doesn't turn out to be a paid gig!

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: A laptop, an interface, an Aston microphone, a good plugin bundle, and an electric/acoustic guitar.

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

A: After graduating with a bachelor's degree in music production for Oregon State University, I started my own record label and production company, BCF Records LLC. I have been running the business for about two years now, and have been involved in many different projects such as video game sound design/composition, artist management, distribution, mixing/mastering music and dialog based recordings, and recording.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My style is broad, but I enjoy heavy distorted sounds and moving bass whether it's in electronic or band-focused music.

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

A: I would like to work with Shattered Sun. I saw them as an opener band at a Soilwork concert and they had very compelling songs. I enjoy heavy music with clean vocals intermixed.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Making sure every instrument or aspect of the music has a place to reside with EQ and panning will really clear up a track and bring it to life.

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

A: Alternative Rock, Metal, Electronic, and Video Game Music.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Audio editing.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: When editing, mixing, or mastering music, I hold a lot of value in professional quality including: correct timing, correct pitch, comping the best takes, creating a diverse spectral range, creating a place for each instrument to shine, and providing a finished product with proper dynamic range, loudness specs, and meta data. I take songs and make sure that they are cleaned up, well put together, balanced, and ready for the world to hear.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I am involved in many facets of music and audio whether it is composition, sound design, mixing, mastering, or editing. My work process with a client begins with assessing the scope and type of project. This consists of: Communicating with the client (Touching base on their vision, the type of project at hand, the time frame.) File transfer (Receiving files for a project. Usually google Drive works for this.) Loading files into Pro Tools (Get a hands on look at the material, see what needs to be done, and how long it will take.) After this assessment, finding a price and time estimate that works for myself and the client is discussed. When the logistics are negotiated, I get to work applying my knowledge of music production and audio editing to the project at hand. The turnaround is typically about two days depending on the size of project.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have a compact portable home studio setup: Dell G3 gaming laptop with 16GB RAM, Pro Tools 2019, Aston Origin mic, M-Audio Interface, Waves Gold Bundle, iZotope Elements, and Sennheiser HD 280 PRO Monitoring headphones.

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

A: Juan Urteaga (Audio engineer for: Testament, Machine Head, Vicious Rumors, and my band Grit.)

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

A: Audio editing (Cutting, fading, timing correction, pitch correction, gain matching.) Mixing (Compression, EQ, Effects.) Mastering (Final EQ, Compression/Limiting, Dithering, Metadata, Loudness Standards, File Output.)