Mixing and recording

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

A: I will do my best and if that is not enough I respect a decision to try someone else. It’s the clients creation, and I respect that.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Bringing my ears and personal perspective to inspiring music created by others. Making an artist excited about how good the final product is becoming.

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

A: Gary Clark Jr., because I think he has a great record in him but hasn’t made it yet.

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

A: An E.P. By the Jakobins that I co-wrote, produced and mixed last year. It rides the line between classic 70s soul and more modern productions. We created a lot of fun sounds by manipulating acoustic sounds with processors and pitch manipulation. It was really intentional production and very rewarding.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: An electronic mix created with both analog and software synths and drum machines as well as indie rock and Americana records.

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

A: Yes, Melissa Bell at Sad Monkey Sound.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. Digital for speed, convenience, and modern recall requirements. Analog for vibe, color, and the creative feeling of tactile equipment.

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

A: How much do you charge per hour or song?

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

A: That a good mix and production will make a bad song a great song.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: How many songs are we working on? How long are they and how many individual tracks? Is there any major editing or tuning that needs to be done? What is the completion deadline?

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

A: For mixing, provide all of the tracks with proper lengths and labels and a rough mix if you have a reference. If you habe effects that are essential to the sound please print/export them to the individual tracks. Be clear about your goal and and any relevant references to an artist, song or album you have in mind. We can work together to get the result you want. I will be honest with you even if that means saying “things need improvement” or “there is a problem”.

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

A: A laptop with a DAW, my Speakers, a rack of API pres, and a condenser and dynamic microphone.

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

A: My young adulthood was spent as a drummer touring with bands and doing both personal and professional production work. I graduated from the Recording Workshop in addition to a Bachelor’s degree in business. The last 15 years have been a combination of song-writing, working on arrangements & production with artists through the recording and mixing process. Increasingly I have been hired as a freelance mixer for remote clients.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I have a deep knowledge of classic sounds and albums with an eye toward the future. I tend to like round, warm, and textured sounds but I always I bring energy and excitement because I am open to the artists vision.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Focus on what feels good. Music production is about capturing emotions and when it feels and sounds right, it is right.

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

A: Years of tracking acoustic and amplified instruments have given me a strong skill set with microphone technique. Rock, folk, electronic, pop and country have all been produced and/or mixed at AlchemieAudio.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: A good intuition when something is missing, lacking or unfinished with a tenacious pursuit of filling in those gaps.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: A great sense of feel, melodic and harmonic sense. I am usually just as excited about the song as the artist.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Discuss project, record and/or mix the song(s), get feedback from artist, complete any revisions and deliver final track(s) to artist.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Alchemie Audio is a ProTools HDX based multi room production studio with a collection of high-end microphones, preamps and outboard gear. Classic guitars, amps, drums, keyboards are available for tracking.

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

A: Michael Brauer, Jon Brion, Brendan O’Brien, Matt Chamberlain, Aaron Marsh, Marc Daniel Nelson, Lake Street Drive, James Mercer, and Jessica Dobson.

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

A: Tracking, production and mixing.