Producer, Mixing & Mastering

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

A: HIP CULTURE - https://hipculturemusic.com This project allowed myself and my client to create a diverse selection of musical genres with different vocalists and instrumentalists.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: HIP CULTURE second album

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

A: Do we need live musicians? It depends on the genre.

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

A: Doesn't happen very often but some clients think that professionally producing a song will make that song famous and heard on the radio. It doesn't. You need good writing. If the writing is bad there only so much you can do to make a song great.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: If you have good ears and are creative, Analog or Digital is irrelevant. It's what sounds good and what fits best.

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

A: It will be close to perfect and as good as it can be.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I can do it from anywhere in the world.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What's your target audience? Do you want to sound like a particular artist or group? What style or genre? What is your budget?

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

A: Know who you are and try not to be something your not. Try to be genuine to yourself so that your music is genuine. Use your gifts to their limit and try not to be something your are not. Know your audience.

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

A: I would take an L22 Sphere mic, Mac Pro Laptop, Apollo x6 | Thunderbolt Audio Interface and my sample library with a set of headphones.

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

A: 20 years.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I describe my style as something that is always changing and developing. I push myself on every project to do something different so that it varies from artist to artist that I work with.

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

A: I would like to work with anyone that has a the need to express themselves through music. Together we will make that dream a reality.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Keep it simple and fresh.

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

A: Singer/Songwriter, Instrumental Music, Corporate, World Music

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Creativity is my strongest skill. Whether it's arranging, mixing or tracking programming, I try to bring an identity to every project that sets it apart but has a familiarity.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: With a strong understanding of world music, combined with his Canadian roots, I offer a diverse musical knowledge as a producer, composer and arranger. Being a successful “gigging” musician myself, I understands the public and my client’s needs thus creating a harmonious musical environment that always produces superb results. I am perfectionist to a fault.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: The most important step for me is to have a discussion with the my clients so that I can get in their head and find out what is the best direction the project will go in. Creating a vision from start to finish before any instruments are recorded is the most important stage for me. Once I know where we are headed, I will start programming, mapping out the song, and creating a MIDI representation of the song with full arrangements. If my clients are happy with that then I will hire musicians to compliment.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have a custom build home studio roughly about 220 ft. My Gear: -L22 Sphere Microphone -2 x Apollo x6 | Thunderbolt Audio Interface -Dangerous 2bus - Yamaha NS10 Reference Monitors - Focal Shape 65 Reference Monitors - IMac Pro (2017), 3.2 GHZ 8 Core Intel Xeon with 32 GB RAM Memory - Komplete Kontrol S61 Keyboard Controller Music Software and sample library total Size (4TB): - UAD Plug ins - Spectrasonics Library (Trillian, Omnisphere, Keyscapes) - Toon Tracks Drum Library - Kontakt Libary - Waves Plug ins - Cubase 12, Logic Pro X DAWs

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

A: I am inspired by the old school mixing and mastering engineers that made legendary hit records without all this technology at their disposal. Their best weapon was their ears. Guys like Bill Putnam, George Massenberg, Bob Clearmountain and Chris Lord-Alge.

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

A: Specifically for Singer / Songwriters I take on the role of producer. As a producer I will work with the artist to create a sound that expresses their vision the best. I will then take on the role of Mix Engineer, Arranger, programmer. If the song calls for live musicians I will contract out appropriate players that will make the song shine.