Music creator and producer

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I often make a free one-minute preproduction for new clients so they can have a taste of what I can do with their music. Clients that hire me often send me basic tracks with guitar or piano and vocals. I ad my arrangement ideas and discus this with the client and if he/she likes i'll start building the song up with production ideas and make a concept mix. If everyone involved in this song is content I'll make a final mix and master.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have recently upgraded from a pc to a Macbook Pro M2 that runs Cubase Pro 13 and many thirt party plugins. I have a hybrid setup so I can also insert outboardgear to my tracks in Cubase. I have my Apollo X6 interface and a Cranborne 500 ADAT to convert analog to digital.

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

A: All kinds of music actually, but lately my productions are more electronic with beats. As a guitarplayer I almost always ad some guitartones to a track, cause i feel it helps to make the song come alive.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring my inspiration, my ideas and my experience that I gained over a period of twenty years. My role is facilitate the creative proces from start to finish and motivate the artist to get the best out of his/her performance. I also make decisions if necessary to keep the proces going. The latter is really important to prevent the proces getting stuck and loose the vibe.

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

A: I have many people I admire in the music business. Mix engineers like Dave Pensado or Robert Kinelski or a producer like Jack Antanoff.

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

A: I produce songs voor clients from start to finish. Sometimes I'm asked to ad guitar, bass or keys to a song, but I'm arranging and mixing songs most of the time.

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

A: Any independent artist that writes great songs and is true to her/his art. I would like to work more with artist outside my homecountry (The Netherlands). I have worked with several people from Canada, England, Italy and the USA and that really worked out well.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: The best tip I can give is listen very good to what the client wants and never stop learning. Listen to many different genres of music and music from different eras.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Listening to what the client wants and translate that to the project or song we are working on. I'm also a motivator and, if Ithink the song needs it, I stimulate clients to try another approach.

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

A: I've worked on several musicprojects in my homecountry (The Netherlands) over the years as a music producer en musician. Varying from music for theatershows, recording audio books for kids and record, mix and master tracks for local artists.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm working on a view songs, producing a audio book and making a soundtrack for a poet. They're all very different projects and that the way I like it.

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

A: I would recommend Tom Dupree III, he is a great drummer en very nice person.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both, cause I like the convinience of digital and the sound of analog. I use outboard gear to colour my productions but can't I do without the possibilities of digital recording, mixing en mastering.

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

A: That they will be satisfied with the result of my work and that I work hard to get the result they want.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Making music, cause that's what i want to do, and the creativity that comes with it. Meeting people and talk music, recording and mixing techniques. Getting better at it!

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

A: Musicians tend to listen only to there performence, not the complete picture. They want their instrument or vocal louder in mix most of the time. I do listen to this of course and try to fix it, but at the same time explain that the instrument or vocal has to be in balans in the mix to achief a good sound with impact. My clients agree with me most of the time and if not, I do it the way they want it. It's their product after all.

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

A: That I can make a bad performance sound good. The base of a great mix is the performance. It doesn't have to be perfect, but if it sounds good and coherent it will work in the mix.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: How they see my role in the proces? How they want the track to sound? What was the inspiration to the song? What kind of music do you like? Are you satisfied with what you recorded or can you do better?

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

A: Figure out what you want with a song. Don't be coy, ask me and we can make your project or track better than you imagined.

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

A: My acoustic guitar (Taylor), Neve preamp, Miktek CV4, desktop and my Barefoot monitors so I can play en record music. Cause that is what I want to do.

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

A: I've been a musician for all my live and started tot mix and produce music on a regular base 12 years ago.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Wel I'm kind of a chameleon and like lots of styles. I think my main style is hybrid Electropop, programmed music mixed with real instruments.