Damion Matic Hill on SoundBetter

Mixing & Mastering from one of Toronto's most consistent engineer, true to the source, true to the sound true to the ear.

Hi, I'm Damion "matic" Hill, mix and mastering engineer in Toronto Canada, I have been mixing and mastering urban music since 2003 after finishing Trebas Institute Audio Engineer program. Over the years I have mixed and mastered for local artist and some real heavy hitters in the dancehall music genre, artist such as, Fully Bad, Chi Ching Ching, Vybez Kartel, Kibaka Pyramid, Fanton Mojah, Iwayne and more.
In a well treated room build primary for mixing and mastering, the dsp tool's I use for mixing are somewhat different than the mastering chain. My mastering chain could consists of, Millennia EQ, Manley passive Eq, Spl iron , Manley vari mu, PA master desk which has compressor / limiter and desser built in, along with waves L series. This chain brings your levels up and add polish, depth and sheen to your mixes.
For mixing I clean (edit) up your audio, organize the session if it's not organized and labeled, some of the dsp I use for mixing are, SSL Native channel strip & bus compressor, uad 1176, uad la2 , uad Lexicon verb, a variety of uad delay, Cambridge EQ and uad Api 2500.
Note also auto tune and any trick or effects needed for your project I have the plugin to tender that work mixing in protools and mastering done in Studio One @ -9 to -11 LUFS
- Audio Mastering for every format:
Radio, Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music, CD

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Interview with Damion Matic Hill

Q: What's your typical work process?
A: First I listen to the session presented, if it needs editing that is the first thing I do along with organizing the session so that I know what I want to compress, from there I select the effects I want to use , balancing adding eq's desser etc. What ever the track needs I do it them send to client and the client reviews it after.. My mastering process is pretty simple, people use my service because I get there work to that industry level, I'm usually sitting at -9 to -11 LUFS. If the mastering needs eq, I use the Manley passive or Millenia eq, for compression, Manley vari mu or SPL iron, limit PA master desk which has limiting and compression also a desser which is pretty use full and waves L series for Brickwall limiting
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: Reading audio article to stay current with techniques and what new dsp or gear that is out Making beats Mixing and mastering some recording
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Both Love both, digital for all the recall, and analog for that smooth open sound, you can also achieve this in the digital domain
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: The creativity and making clients feel good about there art and what they are trying to achieve
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: During high school I guest dj for a couple of community radio stations in Toronto playing reggae and dancehall music and playing in clubs before I went on to study audio engineer in 03 because I was curious to know how to get sound on wax (vinyl). no I'm in the audio field recording making beats mixing and mastering for almost 2 decades
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: One of my most inspiration and inspirational person is Noel "Gadget" Campbell who is drakes mixing engineer. we met over ten years ago as I was a pretty hot dancehall reggae producer engineer in Toronto as a younger dude coming up and we hung out a few times had couple joints and had a few drinks but nothing ever came out of that connection as I had mentaller health issue's and was not mentally able to handle so much load and demand so suddenly. Apart from that my other inspiration is Donavan "Don Corleon" Bennet, he is a super dancehall reggae producer, we use to go to the same school back in our home town of Jamaica, he was Sean Paul and vybez Kartel producer, we still keep the connection over social media.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: My current set up now is a analog console ,audient interface above average monitoring and carefully picked digital signal processor wich has been proven concistantely for mixing and mastering.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: 99.1 percent of the time the work I do is Mixing and Mastering for clients. The DAW I use for mixing is not the same daw I use for mastering. I use protools for mixing and clients either send me there protools session or, there WAV, Audio or high resolution mp3 files, if the client is new to recording and client doesn't know how to export I show the user who to export and provide short cut. (Mac or pc). Still on mixing, because I have been mixing for so long my mixes sounds real seasoned. so applying all my trial and errors over the years have really been benificial for clients as they get a well balance mix with 3d elements. for mastering which is my main strength, is unique because I went from out board rig to in the box a decade ago and I most say, my clients never lost the the sonic print as I did extensive research for my in the box chain which consist of various tube emulation for that polish and sheen.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: The price And I tell them my prices the format they want can they get a version for performing live
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: What u will be doing with the project what sound are you going for
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: Authentic, smooth and big
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: The music I mostly work on dancehall and trap music amd some indie pop.
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: Worked on a few major dancehall progect, a progect with Luciano, Fanton Mojah, Iwayne , kibaka Pyramid, vybez kartel and a few remixes for wayne marshal bounty killa and elephant man
Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?
A: Not yet
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: You will definitely get that industry sound
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: People overall thinks it's easy, should be cheap and anyone can do it
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Always use someone that is genuin and someone that knows the craft well
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: Buzz audio mastering diode Handcrafted labs varies Overstar mas Manley eq Rme converter
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: We all say drake , why because I met with his head engineer before drake came on the seen ..Yonkers of years ago
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Before you you start producing have an I idea for your end result
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: Communicating with people and for audio My strong point is mastering then mixing the beat making for fun for my peers
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: After my work is complete expect more energy in the sound, depth width and 3 sounding product