Remote Mixing and Production

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I get a variety of work each day. Currently, I am working on marketing my services.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: ITB has come a long long way. It's getting harder and harder to tell the difference. And it's much cheaper and faster. Digital.

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

A: That anyone can do it.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What's the purpose of the song? What are you trying to say? What would you change about it? What's your favorite part about it? What specific things do you want me to do with your song? What do you absolutely not want me to do? Do you trust me?

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

A: I was a hobby beat maker in HS (late 90's) through college. I then interned at a studio and started doing small home-recording projects with friends. I took a "real" job, and still did music production on the side until opening my podcast studio. I then began doing production professionally.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Efficient. Song-focused.

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

A: Cliched answer : Pharrell. Been a fan since 2000, and would love to be in the room while he creates. I also look up to any artist who "owns" a sound. You know a Pharrell/NERD track when you hear one. Same with Timb.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Mixing is mixing, not creating a pile of plug-ins.

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

A: Hip-hop, Singer-songwriter, indie rock, instrumentals.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: While working with me : communication and transparency. Practical skill : Vocal mixing and comping

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: My perspective. Each person has a perspective unlike yours. I will do my best to honor your original message, and then try to use my experience and specific workflow to bring it to life in my own way. I am a minimalist with mixing. I try to get as much as I can accomplished with the least amount of processing. I like full vocals, rhythmic bass, and making each track as wide and deep as I can get it.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I listen as much as I can. I try to "hear" the final mix and let it come to me. I want to know what the song is saying, and try to understand what the artist was trying to say. Then, I do a dry mix before anything else. No effects, comp, eq, nothing. Just a dry mix of levels and panning to get the song into an artistic zone. This is the bulk of my mixing time. After that, I make the tracks work together with the appropriate processes. As for beat making, I am not a traditionalist--as in, I usually do the drums near the end of the creation. I like to find a sound or melody that I love, and build on that. Then I bring in the drums so there's cohesion between the melody and rhythm--rather than forcing a melody to fit the existing syncopation. I tend to learn toward more somber, melodic, atmospheric music; but I also love grabbing some horns and maybe a couple bongos and doing something upbeat and fun.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My build was centered around ITB mixing and production. I have multiple midi controllers, multiple sets of monitors (main: Yamaha HS7's) and multiple monitoring headphones run through a rack headphone amp for easy A/Bing. I do have a Mackie ProX16v2 routed through some outboard gear in the event I need to record vocals, or acoustic guitar, or something. I mostly use a Heil PR40 or an AKG c214. I do have a Sennheiser K6/ME66 shotgun mic with a Tascam 60d-mkii for if I want to capture unique sounds away from the studio. I also have 8 custom built acoustic panels and traps with air gaps, OC 702, and oak framing. They are strategically placed to suit my room.

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

A: Post-production of both music recordings, and spoken-word recordings. I also sell hip-hop instrumentals.