Mixing・Mastering・Violin&More

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

A: Some think I achieved a high quality sound with the pristine gear that I owned, but it's actually the human behind that matters. While it's cool and fun to be geeking out about gears, they are tools after all and people are romanticizing too much in my opinion The best composer can write good music with only paper and pencil without a fancy studio.

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

A: Alec Shea's album Plane Prepared Vinyl Past as a Mastering Engineer & a Violinist. a beautiful album full of sonic surprises!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Bringing artists from the west and Japanese musicians together because music is about fun collaboration!

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

A: Not yet, but I am looking forward to work with some singers on SoundBetter so hopefully can recommend someone soon!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Whatever Necessary.

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

A: Doing the bare minimum is not my way of working. I will do whatever it takes for the project to become something truly special.

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

A: They asked about why don't I either choose either to be a composer or fully make my transition to an audio engineer. That's because it's extremely difficult for me to choose only one identity after working professionally in several aspects already but not to embrace how multiple skillsets compliment each other so well and how they made me an unique and also a more all rounded musician at the same time.

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

A: DAW, plugins, sample libraries, Lynx hilo AD/DA, Audze headphone.

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

A: I first encountered audio engineering when I was studying at the Royal College of Music in London, 2016. I was mentored by Gramophone BBC Music awarded Engineer Benjamin Connellan in this field and the craft of capturing beautiful sound, communicating with musician, enhancing and quality checking are simply too fun to quit. ​ Engineering has a lot of similarities in playing the violin especially with critical listening where I have been intensively doing for basically my whole life. Once I figured the equivalent terminologies in the engineering realm, the transitions in between are seamless.

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

A: Honestly anyone respectful and is open mind! There's something special in everyone.

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

A: Up till now most have been classical, soundtrack, instrumental, game, ambience, lo-fi, minimal, Neo classical music given my background but I like blurring the gap between genre and really drawing influence from different type of music. I am also looking forward for music out of my comfort zone!

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Bringing the best out of the artist. Offering solution that backup with good understanding in music/sound fundamentally.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Quality with no compromise. Hopefully something Artistic.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: That we learn and grow together as musician.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Tell me about how you are unique comparing to others and how does it reflect in your music.

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

A: Enjoying the creative process is important but embracing the hardship as well is crucial. I am ready to share the same dedication to achieve the same goal.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I usually grab coffee / zoom call (online) with my clients because I think while understanding the music "musically" is important, understating the artist personally is equally important in order to share the same vision of the project. Then I will propose how we tackle the project in order to bring the best result accordingly given the flexibility that I can offer.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I carefully picked some of the most sonically beautiful equipments one will ever needed that will complement all the things I do. Check of gear highlight on my sound better profile or Full setup is on https://www.vibestokyo.com/studio-1

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

A: Hildur Guðnadóttir inspire me most as an musician/artist. People making too much excuse trying to fit industry standard but in reality no matter you are starting out or at the top being able to freely express your art is crucial. In terms of engineering, I LOVE the works by GAVIN LURSSEN, REUBEN COHEN from Lurssen Mastering and ZINO MIKOREY. They are just too good.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Experimental yet beautiful

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Dare to be different.

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

A: Hi, thanks for checking out the interview section of the page! As some may already noticed, I am also primarily a composer and a violinist before I started my own studio business at VIBES TOKYO as audio engineer which mainly provides your usual studio services i.e Mixing, Mastering and Recording. Most of my clients take advantage of all the skillsets that I could offer at once to make the most out of the whole collaborative experience. So I could give very some very practical production advise, do some arranging in the project or even layer some strings above your song if it needed before proceeding to mixing and mastering!