Mastering/Mixing Engineer

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I´m soon done with a song that I´ve been working for a long time. The instrumentals are pretty done and now it´s the vocals that need some more mixing and litigation.

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

A: Tom Frampton from Mastering the mix did a great mastering for me like 8 years ago. Mastering the mix´s newsletter is really some interesting reading every time.

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

A: I´ts very different so it´s a big variety of questions. Some people want to know every key command in logic but I don´t know all of them.

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

A: I played guitar in a band for a while and after that I started with music production. I´ve been producing and mixing for about 12 years now. In music production you´re playing every instrument in a way so I never get bored with this.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I want to keep it very simple and straight forward. To not complicate things and to focus on small details that doesn´t matter to much. Some songs are a bit complex and require another type of mixing and some other songs don´t require to much harmoni, automation and effects and so on. It´s all about what makes the song better.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: When somebody sends me their song, the first thing I do is just listen to it many times. To hear what happens and the vibe the song has so I can figure out how to make the best with what I´ve got. If somebody wants me to do a soundcheck on the song I listen to it in many different headphones and speakers, and I listen to others pro tracks that are similar to that song. When I make my own songs or songs for other people I play around with the piano and try to come up with great melodies. Then the best melodies maybe can be made into songs. After picking out a melody I try the tempo, key, arrangement, picking the right instrument and the last stage is mixing.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Maybe I´m a part of the lazy generation but for faster workflow and to keep the budget fair I would go with digital. The music I´ve made have mostly been electronic so the only "real" instrument have been the vocals. If I made rock music than I would probably record with real instruments. If you have an endless amount of time, space and money you can go for it.

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

A: It depends if it´s about producing or mixing. Producing a song can be very far-fetched. When it´s mixing, try to make the recordings as good as possible, choose great sounding synthesizers etc. Make the rough mix as good as possible and be clear with what you want with delay, reverb on specific tracks. If you need more revisions, go for it, don´t settle. If you feel the person you´re working with doesn´t really get what you´re looking for, maybe it´s better to look for another engineer.

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

A: My laptop, headphones. I think it´s easier to hear the details of a mix with headphones rather than speakers. I guess you could build a studio with the materials on the island, so that process would be interesting. Maybe I could bring my guitar to pass the time when the batteries are all out ;).

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I dont have too much analog gear, it´s basically just me and my laptop. I have my Apogee soundcard that goes well with Logic. I´ve had a Zoom recorder when I´ve done sone some vocals for my demos. The plugins I usually use are Valhalla, Fabfilter, Waves. I belive stock plugins nowadays are pretty good so I use them alot aswell. Maybe in the future I need to buy a new delay and reverb plugins.

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

A: It was a song I made some years ago when I was still learning how to mix and produce. The song took a long time because I always heard that it wasn´t really sounding like the pro-songs so I had to redo it a couple of times. I would say that´s the song that made me go to the next level when it comes to mixing and producing. When the song was finished I was very releived.

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

A: I am a perfectionist so I never want to complete a song if I feel it´s not the best it could be. Then I think it´s better to work a bit longer to recieve 25 % better quality. When you listen to your songs again after some years making them you can always find something in the mixing you could´ve done better, so I guess it´s hard for a song to be totally flawless. I always treat peoples songs with they same respect as for my own music whether it´s me giving feedback or mixing.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I think I like everything that goes into the process. To be creative and to help/teach others is a very rewarding feeling. The passion I have for music I don´t have for anything else in the same way.

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

A: I think when it comes to mixing, people asume that it´s the plugins that mix and not you. That some plugins have some type of magical sound which is not true most of the time. Many people think you have to have the most expensive gear to get things to sound good or to have an advanced soundproofing facility. That can be all great but you have to listen to the song in the same enviroments people listen to the music on, small speakers, bad car stereo. Listen to the song in many different speakers/headphones is my tip for the day.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Mixing and music making is also a taste thing. So when it comes to taking on a new track you can play around for a long time with reverb, ambience, panning, effects on vocals, what should be upfront and further away etc. It is up to the customer to tell how he/she wants it, more compression, less delay. You can always mix a song in many different directions.

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

A: I don´t have a particular artist that I dream of working with, but to be part of a big song with a big name would be very cool.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Production: When I made my first songs I only used a single note on every pad or synthesizer instead of having chords and using both higher and lower octaves. So to get it to sound fuller it´s better to have a combination of higher and lower frequencies. Mixing: In my first songs I never used widening plugins so the mixes sounded very narrow and mono, but when I used wideness both on the mastering and on different tracks the mixes started to sound alot better

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

A: It been mostly electronic music over the years like traditional pop music. I haven´t worked so much with real instrument but when it comes to giving feedback I have alot of competense there too.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I listen to so much different music so I can tell pretty fast regardless of genre if it doesn´t sound right. I have a big passion for music so I don´t really see it as a normal job. I´m a perfectionist so I want everything to be as great as it can be.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Nowadays I have so many years of experience and worked with so many different songs that I know what to do in most scenarios. I think I have a pretty broad expertise when it comes to making music sound better. To listen and hear if the melody is strong enough or if the mixing/producing can be better.

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

A: I´m a big fan of all kinds of music so I have alot of inspiration. I really like heavy metal and rock music, so there you have many bands that I like. I also like pop music and electronic music and I would say that´s the music I have worked on the most. I admire the work ethic of film composers very much. To write and produce maybe 20 songs for a movie, and do that twice a year is respect.

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

A: I like to help people get better with music production. I give feedback on peoples songs, mixing, production and the songwriting itself. Some weeks ago a listened to the songs of a friend of mine and I heard pretty fast the issues with the songs. It reminded me about the first songs that I made. There was no wideness, wierd automation settings, to many melodies happening at once, vocal samples that didn´t fit the key of the song etc. I have also mixed some songs for many different types of artists. I like to work on different types of music because that keeps it very interesting and fun.