Creative Mixing and Mastering

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

A: I've been a musician my entire life, and when I left high school I decided to pursue music theory studies as a performance major. This led me towards the recording studio where I quickly realized my true passion was waiting to be discovered. In 2006, I began studying the art of audio engineering at SAE institute in Los Angeles which was followed by several years of internships / apprenticeships and mentoring from industry professionals. This gave me a great foundation of knowledge, and as I built my skills and experience, I soon came to the point where I was naturally attracting my own clients and projects. In 2012, I acquired the necessary support and resources to officially build my own studio, Seaborn Audio, and have been happily and gratefully assisting musicians and producers around the world in bringing their musical projects to life!

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

A: I've been a creative musician my whole life, and I understand the hard work, passion, and love that goes into your music. My promise is to give your project the care and dedication it deserves.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love being right in the middle of the process, feeling the song and figuring out how to pull the best out of it, but there is no greater satisfaction than when a project is finished and the client is totally thrilled with the results!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What are your goals? What is your budget? These are two important questions about which the client needs to be honest and realistic. If these questions are understood, I would ask questions about how clear their vision is for their project. Do you have a very specific intention on the sonic style you want to achieve, or are you looking for the engineer to help guide you?

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: First off, my room was acoustically designed by George Augspurger, a world famous acoustician. The acoustics of a room are, in my opinion, the most important aspect of a studio, along with speakers and the rest of the monitoring chain, of course. This gives the ability to actually hear the true source of the audio, allowing the engineer to make real decisions with confidence. Regarding my analog gear, I've tested through many devices selecting a combination of units that really compliment each other and provide me with a pallet of sonic colors to carefully craft the sound into the shape that most dramatically pulls the emotion out of the song.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Style is difficult to describe in words. Certain songs need: Clean, Clear, Big and Bold. While others may need the feeling of: Dark, Moody and Saturated. My style depends on the song. However I always want it to be pleasing to the ears. Harsh will never describe my style.

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

A: I love working on all styles of music. This comes from my conscious decision as a music listener to not place everything in a genre or category. When I listen to something new, I listen to it for what it truly is and for the emotion it creates.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Feeling the essence of a song, the intention of a song, and the direction a song can go from a sonic perspective that will help it tell the story. Even if it is an instrumental song, it has a purpose, a certain emotion its striving to evoke in the listener. My desire is to bring this emotion to its peak.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: For one, I bring a new set of ears. After all your hard work in creating your songs it can be difficult to keep a sense of where they stand and where they need to go in order to have them sound their best. This is my intention and this is the skill I put into practice everyday.

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

A: The songs created with singer / songwriter Sheena David from Deep Glass. I played an unusual role of creating and performing all the instrumental parts along with recording / mixing and mastering. It is a difficult task to play all these roles and keep a sense of perspective along the way.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Clearly it is entirely possible to create decent work in the digital domain. However, I am a firm believer in using analog equipment during the mixing and mastering process. When your ear and taste is developed I feel there is no alternative to the colorful character of a beautiful analog soundscape.

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

A: I am inspired by a vast number of musicians that span from the classics to modern music. My biggest inspirations come from artists I feel had the confidence to be incredibly creative and imaginative in the studio while also paying very close detail to audio quality. For example, Michael Jackson and Radiohead are two of my favorites.

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

A: I've built my room with focus on exceptional monitoring clarity with the intention of specializing in mixing and mastering services. With the ability to hear an incredibly detailed image of the audio I can go deeper into the finer nuances of the musical soundscape. This is my area of expertise and therefore the most common type of work I do.