Creatively Mixing & Mastering

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

A: Summer Walker, SZA, YNW Melly, Sway Lee, Kanye West, Bhad Bhabie, DRAM, Bryson Tiller, Kali Uchis, Yung Pinch, Erikah Badu, Sabrina Claudio, Mike Dean, Vikter Duplaix, Ty Dolla $ign, 6lack, Sevyn Streeter, Y.G. Travis Scott, Tori Lanez, Lil Yacty, Trippie Redd, Rich The Kid, Thundercat, Robert Glasper

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: 2 future-soul / trapsoul albums

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

A: Under $1K/per song, I'm the best to mix trapsoul/futuresoul type of music. I can easily name you 3 top-level mixing engineers who MIGHT do it better, but their pricing model is waay different.

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

A: If I can do a demo mix. If I have more samples of my work. Sure I can do a demo mix, why not.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I ask about music they like. If there's a song which my client wants to sound like. I need to know about it.

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

A: Have STEMS of your instrumental. It makes the most difference. Have your voice recorded properly and have it all DRY and uncompressed. And finally - no mp3's. It's also great to have a reference of what the song should sound like more or less:) It can be 3 songs - "drums like this one", "vocals like here", "everything more like this one". It actually helps.

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

A: Distressor or Avalon...maybe some porto-studio. Prophet, MPC. Pair of really good speakers and Slate's microphone set. I didn’t mention laptop & stuff because it depends on what you call "gear" ;)

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

A: I've been making music my whole life. That's ~30 years. I learned how to mix, so I could mix my own music. One day, I realized that most of my producer friends wanted me to mix their songs. Two years later, I found Soundbetter :)

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Trapsoul 2020

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Have the picture sonically in your head before you start tweaking. The DAW isn't there to inspire you. The DAW helps you to bring your idea to reality, but that's it. Every decision you do with your mix should have a reason - don't "just do" stuff.

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

A: I specialize in Trapsoul R&B and Trap Rap.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Creating space and adding feeling to the song.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I mostly mix in the box. Gear is for a parallel processing.

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

A: Summer Walker, H.E.R., Kesha Lee, Robert Glasper, Kaytranada

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: References; tracking, processing, bus-routing. Effects & multi-band side-chain compression. Gain-staging & automation all along the way.

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

A: Mixing songs and albums

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I like most of the music I work with. It's great.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Dimension.