Mixing & Mastering Engineer

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: If you need any writing services or reference performances or anything if that nature, check out Danny Aro. He’s a long time client of mine and will not disappoint.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: A healthy mix of both. Nothing replaces the sound of analog harmonics, but the speediness and versatility of digital gear is unmatched.

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

A: Always make sure you have the proper headroom in your tracks. -3 to -6db of mix headroom is perfect, and make sure no audio files are clipping within the session. The final mix or master will only be as good as the quality of the recordings.

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

A: Laptop, Apollo Twin, U47, PRS Silver Sky Guitar, and an MPC.

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

A: I’ve wanted to engineer since I was 11. I’ve been doing this for 11 years.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I love very wide and immersive mixing. Big midrange and fullness is my style.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Always leave headroom. You can make things louder, but you can’t undo clipping.

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

A: Hip hop, trap soul, and pop.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Bringing out the dynamics and emotion in a track.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring creativity, a vibe. I love the songs I engineer to big and full, full of dynamics with rich bass and kicks that smack your chest, and silky smooth, polished high end. Whether it’s a simple old school boom-bap hip hop song or or the deep rumbling 7 string guitar in a heavy metal track, I bring out the sparkle in the music I work with.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I like to start by setting the tempo and key. Then I gain stage, leveling everything and automating some gain to get levels where I want them. Then I start to clean up tracks like removing clicks and adding gates to remove background noise. After that I start to mix down the project. Once I’m done mixing I will give the track the “car test.” If I feel I need to, I may let the track rest for a day and come back the next with fresh ears and polish it up before I master it (if I’m mastering the track.)

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

A: I’ve always looked up to the work of Manny Marroquin. I love his mixing and his style, every song he’s touched is so full and punchy, one of the greatest mixing engineers on the planet.

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

A: I mainly do mixing and mastering for my clients. I do primarily music, but also work on podcasts, short film post production, TV post production, commercials, audio books, and spoken dialogue.