Hip Hop Mixing & Mastering

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. For one simple reason- RECALL. Once upon a time your average independent artist wouldn't ask for revisions because the process of mixing was literally printing to tape. Done. Finished. These days with digital mixing and mastering, revisions are an inevitable part of the job, and working ITB makes that possible. Digital plugins are getting to a point where they're achieving the best sounds in the industry. I will say I like to use analog gear for tracking, but it's digital all the way for mixing and mastering.

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

A: Get in touch and figure out what you need to do in order to be ready for this step. Sometimes a song needs to be recorded better (or just differently), sometimes you need production, editing etc. before even thinking about mixing. We're here to help you navigate the journey!

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

A: Music has been my biggest passion since my teens. I've been recording and mixing music for myself and my friends since the early 2000s. I took on floor sanding and polishing as a career and in recent years have decided to quit damaging my back and focus on damaging my hearing! JK.

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

A: Rap music! I love to work on heavy stuff too- Punk, hardcore, metal...

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Rap vocal mixing.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Power. Grit. Energy. While I do a great job of making vocals clean and crisp, I don't like songs to sound too pristine. I'll give your song an energy that a lot of engineers shooting for what they consider to be 'professional' quality miss.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I track vocals with Neumann TLM103, Shure SM7B and Rode NT2-a. I record with Focusrite preamps and Art PRO compression. Mixing and Mastering is all done ITB with Logic Pro X using a combination of stock, Waves, Izotope and Focusrite plugins (plus many others when the job calls for them). I monitor with KRK and Yamaha monitors, Beyerdynamic and AKG headphones, and I check mixes on bluetooth speakers, car speakers, consumer headphones and earbuds.

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

A: Recording, mixing and mastering for rappers. I'm usually working with rappers who spit hard bars, from boom bap to trap to grime, I don't do a lot of wavy sing-song type rap. I also mix and master a mean punk song.