Hip Hop Mixing and Mastering

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I have been working with many different artist and bands for sometime now. Im now ready to bring this to a new level and maybe make it my career. So at the moment I am working hard everyday on getting my name out to the world on how my ear can bring a different to the music industry. At this point of my life, I'm thinking more about my career and the longevity standings in this industry.

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

A: Thats a cool question to approach and answer. The five pieces of gear I can't live without is most of my analog gear! In my opinion, you just can't get the headroom and width and depth from plugins like you can with analog. So the list is my Dangerous Bax, Neve Master-bus processor, Elysia X-filter, the TK-BC501 bus comp and my Dangerous A/D converters.

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

A: When I first got into the music path, my original goal was to become an online beat maker. I made beats for 10+ years before I every had the thought of mixing and or mastering. I kind of stubbled upon the mixing and mastering concept in the middle of a production session I was having one day. One of my artists asked me if I could record him after a beat we built together was done. At the time I had no gear to provide a quality recording to help the process for the artist. So I took a ride to guitar center and bought my first studio mic and decent audio interface and off we went. Once I went through the recording phase, I fell in love the process of and began my journey as a mixing/mastering engineer. That was about 7 years ago. I have never looked back and I absolutely love what I do!

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: If I had to describe my style I would call it very open and not over processed. I think with all of the tools we have at our disposal, we can fall into the trap of using processing that is not needed or we think we may need. I try to live by the saying "less is more" when it comes to mixing and mastering. I think that gives me a-lot of my success in what I do.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: If I had to give one piece of advice when making music that would be to allow it to come from life its self. Let it be natural and flowing. When we have a conversation with our friend or loved one, we have a natural way of speaking or giving someone our opinion. I believe music should have that same reflection when it's created. I think if this is taking into consideration when producing, good music will be the result.

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

A: I can work on any music that I feel inspired by. My majority of my work has been rap, hiphop and soulful genres, but I can work on anything that gives me that sense of life and inspiration. No matter what the style of music, I love to bring the artists or creators ideas to life.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is defiantly my ability to hear so well. My ears are for sure my strongest tool in my entire process of mixing and mastering. There were earlier days when I still put out amazing mixes and masters with less access to high end gear. Having the upgraded and industry standard tools do make the process much easier to get to the finished product, but none of those tools work well without the ability to hear well. My strongest ability is that I have good set eardrums.

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

A: One artist that comes to mind that I always wanted to work with is Andy Mineo. He truly brings his heart to the table when creating and does it in a natural way. He doesn't have the forced feeling to his music. I believe I'll work with him and some of the guys at Reach Records someday soon.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I always mix and or master a song as if it was my own material going out for a release. I really try to connect and relate with the material Im working on. In the end of the day, music is life, a reflection of some situation or experience someone has faced. I put efforts into making that come to life and adding the Wax to make it shine!

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: My approach to mastering is a hybrid work flow. The analog gear I use for the chain is Elysia Xfilter, going into a Tk-BC01 for my gluing compressor, then if needed I hit the Dangerous Bax eq for some tone shaping. After I run that chain as needed, I process the song through the Rupert Neve master-bus processor, then through my Dangerous audio A/D+ conversion before I go back in. Once I get that chain printed, I then do my maximizing and Limiting to finish out the master.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: The outboard gear I use are as follows: Elysia Xfilter equalizer, TK-BC501 bus compressor, Dangerous Bax equalizer, Rupert Neve master-bus processor.

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

A: Mixing and Mastering engineers that inspire me are Chris Lord-Alge, Lu Diaz and Dave Pensado to name a few.

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

A: I do mostly mastering jobs for my clients. I provide mixing service as well but by far do more mastering work. There are many artist who tend to mix their own songs and projects, but for some reason are very timid about the mastering process. Thats where I come into the process. I provide a very analog feel to a lot of "in the box" mixes and do so very well.