Intermediate Prod/Mix/Master

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

A: I will be honest with you about what I can and can't fix, and what I think is holding the song back and how to make it better.

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

A: There are so many artists I admire ... but I really enjoy working with burgeoning amateurs who aren't afraid to be experimental and creative and have fun.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: When the artist goes "holy cow that's ME ?!?! " It's the happiness, the delight of making others happy.

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

A: Some people don't realize their talent and don't understand why a random stranger would spend their own time investing in the happiness of others. I truly enjoy mixing, and bringing delight to amateur musicians is a huge reward.

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

A: So many people think mixing is about EQ and Volume. Man, there are SO many little details behind a proper production, it can actually be quite technical and tedious. Often I will have artists come to me and say "I have tried to mix this myself but I am just sick of listening to it now".

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I want to mostly understand their creative thoughts behind the song and how they envision it. I also like to know their perception of it as that will also guide me.

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

A: "You get what you pay for" is sometimes true, but sometimes false. Talk to folks, listen to their work, think about how willing they are to work with you. I have had my own bad experiences spending a lot of money to get very little from it, and I have heard this from others so many times. It's all about the people, so take the time to find the people who are right for you.

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

A: 1. My laptop !! 2. a mobile internet connection 3. My headphones 4. An electrical generator 5. A Chinese buffet. Fun fact - In my previous life I have actually lived on a desert island, surrounded by minefields. Good times.

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

A: I started learning the basics of audio a little over a decade ago just while playing live, and got more serous about learning for myself after paying a TON of money for a local studio session.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Communicative, responsive and consultative. I've always believed that *every* job is a customer service job, and that customer service starts with communication and responsiveness. I'm not that kind of guy who says "yeah give me files" and then "here is your mix". I want to talk with you and understand what your song is all about, where you want to take it, your perception of it. I'll go back and forth with you on ideas and tweaks until we nail it.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Take breaks. Listening fatigue is REAL. Learn to work only a bit at a time and walk away from it, whether producing, designing, or mixing, let your ears and brain recalibrate, and then come back to it fresh.

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

A: I listen to and have mixed (and even made) such a wide range of music, from classical to metal to pop to electronic. Most of my projects seem to be a combination of recorded instrument and programmed production, although I've done quite a bit of topline vocals as well.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I can juggle three bean bags at once ! Like most mixers I also have this uncanny ability to take 10 seconds of music, and listen to it on a loop 100 times without going insane.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I am not the least bit afraid to get detailed and manual with a track editing and correcting it, versus just slapping more processing on it. I also work and think like a producer - not just mixing what you give me, but offering suggestions on how to actually improve or change it for the overall song. This part especially is really, really welcome by artists.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I do a ton of manual editing and correction. You wouldn't believe how much noise is left in recordings, whether it's the bump of a mic stand or fingers tapping a pickup before playing a guitar part - all of this contributes to noise and resonance. I often also manually adjust the volume of specific small parts of a song, and then from there I will typically focus on the low end, checking the kick and tuning that up, then separating bass from kick but really this all depends on the song.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: First and foremost, having a quality audio path is key to mixing - you need to be able to hear the mix as flat as possible and in great detail. Unfortunately, this can get a bit costly. I mix on Yamaha HS-7's and Sennhaiser HD 6xx's, through Universal Audio or Apogee devices. For my workstation I use a wide variety of tools from manufacturers like UA, Melodyne, Izotope, Melda and more. Yes this is all expensive and then learning how to use them properly takes time, which is why I suggest that artists focus on their own creative process and art, and leave the very technical (and pricey) mixing and production to those who focus in it.

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

A: My personal musical tastes and influences are so broad and eclectic I could never hope to narrow them down. I can't even narrow them to a short list of genres.

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

A: I mix and produce amateur musicians and act as a part of the creative team to help arrange, produce and mix their songs. I'm typically working with musicians who are just like I was when starting off - talented and writing great music, but overwhelmed by the act of actually putting it all together the right way.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: This isn't even a question anymore. Digital audio production has been around a lot longer than any consume would realize, and an amateur may not even realize how common place it is even with professionals; from tuning vocals to completely replacing drums with samples. Even from a consumer market the crossover happened a long time ago. Even famously fetishized ancient gear has been expertly modeled and improved upon, with digital designers leveraging Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Neural Networks and more. Even something as simple as a guitar pedal - when doing a blind listen test of a very expensive famous guitar pedal vs a free plugin, the plugin won every time - a FREE plugin vs a pedal that cost well over a hundred dollars. Yes, of course there may still be scenarios where outboard hard gear or even analogue gear may have a real advantage, but these days the question isn't "why would you use digital", it's "why would you use analogue". That's not an argument against outboard or modular gear in general - for instance there's a ton of reasons it makes sense to have seperate AD, DA's and pre's etc, but the whole analogue vs digital debate is just silly at this point.