Mixing & Mastering Engineer

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

A: Really after working with the best of the best in the music business the last few years have been developing talent and whether it be coaching them,, mentoring them, getting the right fit for some of the key people they needed on their team to get them to the next level, or being quality control guy to make sure everything the artist puts out is of the highest quality,,,, producer (finding the right musicians to fit an artists vision.Its been great to build with a bunch of artists getting them into a Professional state of mind to becoming a paid artist traveling the world doing music.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: a ton of new projects from big Indi artists to a new R&B superstar and a lady just coming offf a big splash on a Netflix stardom and wants to do her own album,,, a hiphop artist that is also a teacher INS(whom i met on Soundbetter) on top of mixing a couple first singles on 2 artists I've developed and now have major label deals.Its a very exciting time meeting some very talented superstars in the making.

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

A: Chris Adams is a producer i got to know recently and is amazing. Lance Powell is an amazing engineer/producer who works at Platinum Studios in NYC

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I use both,,,depending on the final client's overall music vision,,, if they were wanting a more "Live" music feel,,,i would use more analog pieces of gear. to give it a more gritty sound or texture. Nowadays the computers processing power can handle creating the analog sound without using actual analog gear.

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

A: My promise would be to put forth all my resources to make your song or album/EP/Mixtape as EPIC as it possibly could be. Last year I had taken on a little too much work and didn't meet a couple deadlines and had a couple people disappointed which was definitely a low point of my career becuz i set out to make every single client extremely happy with the final product i deliver. And becuz I never had that happened to me before,,,,,Those 2 incidences happened to come when my best friend who was helping me setting up my recording sessions and on occasion tuned some vocals for me becuz he was amazing at it,,,,passed away suddenly,,,, besides being devastated had to stay focused to finish a ton of clients that all had deadlines to meet and thats something I learned greatly from and will do everything in my power to make sure it never happens again becuz it happened on this website and besides letting my clients down ,,, i let Shachar down(the owner of Soundbetter) which i never want to do becuz i feel i was here for the beginning of the website and helped them smooth out the edges on their rules/procedures on how to better serve the clients .

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I don't like any one part more then any others,,,,I love the whole creative process from writing, to producing the music, to recording and re-recording a song to make it perfect, the entire mixing process,,,then the final mastering phase or final polish to the finished mix and even the encoding for whatever format the artist or label wants to sell it to the public or to show to potential investors.

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

A: What was it like working with Amy Winehouse? lol It was incredible,,almost surreal becuz it was at my beginning of my engineering career and they were my first 5 Grammys,,,,,which set the bar pretty high for anything else I worked on,,,lol,,,,But it was amazing seeing her sing every song ,perfect in 1 take…..Even though Mark Ronson did another take to possibly grab a word or 2 from the second take to comp it,,,but all 6 songs I was there for,,,she recorded them all on the first take.

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

A: The a completed mixed song takes only a couple hours to finish.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: 1-- I am finalizing a list i send to all my clients,,,, to help me get rid of any guesswork in mixing a song,,, 2-- Do u like AutoTune or don't like AutoTune? what degree should i apply it if needed to any of your vocals? 3-- Do u like the Lead vocal out front(in your face like a POP vocal) or do u like the vocal melted into the music more? 4-- Please send a couple Youtube links to a song thats been professionally mixed and mastered that is the most comparable to your song? 5-- How long have you had this Original Rough mix of the song? 6-- What elements of the Rough Mix do u want to keep the same? and what elements you want to improve on? 7-- If u have had someone mix a song for your prior to me mixing for you,, Please send that and explain what you loved about that mix? What did you still want to improve on in that mix? 8-- If the genre is HipHop or EDM or POP genres,,,,,do you like Stutter FX ? 9-- Do you have a specific deadline to meet for completion? 10-- what is the most you could pay to have me mix or master a song with you?

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

A: pretty much the possibilities are endless with what i can do with a song, so please use as much descriptive spellings or different ways how to explain the vibe or feeling u want to express in the song,,,or point out a certain characteristic in another song that u want me to add to your song….. or find someone who can explain what u want to me,,,,,also i don't get my first mix draft i send to you perfect on the first try,,,,i wish i did,,, but most of the time,,,the song will take a couple revisions to get it perfect to fit your personal tastes.

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

A: 1- Macbook Pro laptop 2- Antelope 10MX Atomic Clock 3- Antelope Orion 32+ 4- UAD Octo Satellite Ultimate4 box 5- SSL AWS 948 console

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

A: I first started learning how to play Sax and read sheet music in the 6th grade(1984),,,,then started writing my book of rhymes perfecting that rap craft (1992),,,,then bought a couple drum machines and learned how to create the drums to compliment my lyrics,,,,,,then after linking up with a DJ/Producer to sequence my drum machines patterns with my record samples after digging in crates to find that one cool horn sample(1994),, then i assembled an Experimental HipHop band in 1995 called JEDI in Wilmington NC. Then once we recorded and put out are own CD and got very known doing shows in Wilmington,,we got signed to a management/booking agent with Ken Grey( DeLaSoul, Jeru the Damaja, RUN-DMC, DJ Qbert, RocRaida, the Executioners) and were less then 2 months away from being the opening act on the RUN-DMC Reunion tour,,,,,then RUN-DMC's DJ…JamMasterJ got murdered ,,,,so we went on a hiatus to find out who we would go on tour with,,, and in that time my DJ and my drummer both "fell off the map" so to speak,,,,so i had to figure out how i was gonna do music for the rest of my life ,,,and decided to leave Wilmington NC in 2002,,,moved to ClearwaterBeach,FL,,, worked as a chef in a couple restaurants until i got into FullSail University in north Orlando,FL,,,,,,graduated with a 95%GPA & Perfect Attendance in 2005,,,upon graduating FullSail,,,,I took an internship (worked7 months for Free-48hours/week) at Chung King Studios in NYC and have been in the NYC area ever since. Now own my own Audio engineering Corporation, RoyalTmixes.music Inc.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I am an artist's mixer/mastering guy,,,,,meaning i have a tendency to put the artist first in priority instead of the music(producers) being the most important element,,,,, its the era we are in now,,,which a Producers name is what carries the most weight in if the record label will invest into the artist or the song. becuz they think if the song has a big name producer attached to it,,, people will buy it.

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

A: Justin Timberlake,,,becuz how hands on he is in every aspect of the song,,,,from writing to knowing where to push the producer to give him a certain feeling or knowing when to let the guitarist do his or her thing with it,,,,, He and Will.I.am did a song for the Hurricane Katrina album,,,,which Michael Stipe from REM was the singer on the song but how i heard he was in shaping the song,,,,instead of someone who sits back and lets everyone just do their parts,,,,and doesn't add anything else creatively to the song,,,, i like that,,,trying new things, experimenting if needs be to see how far u can push the emotions in a song to get the listener excited every time they hear the song.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: when recording vocals turn the music down 6-8 db,,,then get a healthy level of gain on your vocalist's preamp,,,,so the artists headphones can be loud with the music playing but also have the singer plenty loud enough so the singer/rapper isn't over singing or straining their voice so they can hear themselves against the music track. That helps so u don't have a distorted vocal and so you get a clear vocal performance. Becuz most producers put a serious L2 or a maximizer plugin to make their beats loud to help them sell the beats but it doesn't help when u need to record to it becuz most people leave the beat at the level loudness when u import the beat into the session. which makes for a very distorted vocal,,,,a mixers nightmare.

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

A: I usually work on R&B/POP, but definitely work on plenty of HipHop artists,,,EDM,,,and some occasional Jazz

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is definitely my minor in psychology & people skills. Out of the 12 years of being an Audio engineer, I think i have had 3 people out of the thousands of people Ive worked with , that I didn't get along with. On the psychology aspect, I help bring out the best in the artist, the best arrangement that the producer could create, and above all else,,, I never let my ego interfere with the progress of the client's overall musical vision for the song. If the client doesn't like a certain element in the mix that i creatively added or took away from their original Ruff mix of the song,,, i don't get upset about it and try to push my point of view or the effect i used on a sound to pressure the client into using my version of it,,,If they don't like what i did,,,cool, i just change it or mute a echo effect i added and keep it mix process moving towards the "clients futuristic vision of the song".

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring the knowledge of having been on both "sides of the glass" or meaning I once was an artist before i went to Audio Engineering school to learn how to be an engineer. I also bring the knowledge of seeing first hand how the best mix engineers, A-list artists, A-list producers,the best Mastering people make 13 Grammy Winning awards.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: My typical process starts with Listening to all the files as they were given to me,, and i make notes or issues i may foresee, to maybe address the client with questions about if they could maybe re-send a certain instrument or sound without any FX on it,,,,just so when get into the mix that i have the other DRY sound as an option to use if necessary. Then i import the audio into a Protools session. Typically i have a client send me 2 separate folders,,, 1 folder would have the Tracked out or individual sounds of the music for the song from the producer when a client purchases the fully tracked out music and the other folder would have the recorded vocal session and the music in that vocal session would be a stereo Instrumental. So when i get those 2 sessions, I would have one of my assistants import the "tracked out beat" into the vocal session , line up the separated music to the stereo instrumental,,,,then my assistant imports my FX busses and organizes the music & vocals into my favorite setup(Drums 1st,Percussion 2nd, Bass 3rd, Piano/Synthz 4th, then any other sounds left in the song….then the vocals in their preferred order,,,then my FX busses at the bottom of the session. Then its ready for me to do my "audio cleanup" , taking out the gaps into between recorded audio before the next audio happens,,, in case of headphone bleed,,doesn't clutter up the mix. Depending if any Vocal stacks need aligning to further tighten up the vocals or harmonies,,,,and sometimes a client requests the lead vocal to be "Tuned perfectly" (Melodyne or WavesTune) ,,,Then i begin the mix process which can typically take anywhere from 20-60 hours. I usually would break up the 40 hour mix into five 8 hour sessions,,,,to keep my objective viewpoint….Not all mixes take that long,,,sometimes the client only wants me to use the Stereo 2 track(Instrumental),,,then not having to mix the separated music would speed up the mix process considerably. Once i get approval from the client on the mix,,,which sometimes takes 3 or 4 revisions to get it to the clients tastes,,,,then I will master the song,,,and will revise the master until the client is 100% satisfied.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have a very portable studio setup the I can take with me anywhere. Upon Incorporating my engineering company "RoyalTmixes.music Inc." ,I found an investor to help build with, buy a couple pieces of incredible gear to make my mixes that much better. ITs in a 10Space rolling rack,,,Starts off with my MacbookPro laptop with 16Gb RAM, 500GB SSD as my main boot up drive running all my programs, took out the CD/DVD burner and put a DataDoubler in the optical bay( its a 1TB/7200rpm Hard drive) that has all my recorded audio sessions on it). THen a Thunderbolt-2 Hub,,,,so i can have my laptop & Slate Raven MTi running all at the same time. Then my Antelope 10MX Atomic Clock,,,my Antelope Orion32+ AD/DA convertors, a UAD Octo8 Thunderbolt Satellite Ultimate4-83Plugin bundle box, Bowers and Wilkins Diamond Series 805 D3 Speakers and a Velodyne Sub.

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

A: I go back and watch any old recordings of Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson & Quincey Jones in the studio,,,getting as much as i could on where that magic came from ,,,any tips i never noticed or learned before. Also me aspiring to be the next Rick Rubin,,,if thats even possible becuz of the many different genres he produced,,,,and did them well.

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

A: I mostly Mix songs or Instrumentals for a client. They send me the session or exported Wavs from whatever recording program they use. But 90% of the songs i Mix,, i also master them too. Mastering is coming in a close 2nd behind mixing. Then recording is 3rd