Mixing/Mastering Engineer

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

A: I produced/mixed/mastered a song by Connor Kane called 'Stressed Out' this song is my proudest mix and master I have done yet clarity and loudness wise. This was the moment where I really started gaining confidence in my mixing and mastering skills ! You should check it out for sure !

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: As I said earlier I'm working on my Album with my band 'Straif' which I'm super looking forward to sharing to the world and finishing. I'm also working on an EP with my friend 'Connor Kane' and it's incredibly exciting for us to finally start releasing more and more music, which hopefully could have an impact on one person out there!

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

A: Personally I haven't looked around yet, but I will in time and will come back here to update this message if I find anyone who I would recommend for sure :)

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Currently I'm entirely in the box as I travel a lot and its just a lot easier to mix on my laptop on the go, but as I'm getting older and more experimental I'll definitely start looking into analog.

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

A: I promise to no matter what, satisfy THEIR needs, at the end of the day its always the clients music, so if there's a decisions that we disagree on, I'm not gonna try and make it loud and clear, I will always respect the clients wishes and needs especially when it comes to their own music.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love the opportunity of hearing new music that's being created every day, its so fun to me. Its also great that every mix is different and the more mixes you do, the more you learn so i'm ALWAYS trying to improve and get better and better every day.

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

A: A big misconception would be that I just, 'throw everything in a project template and just change some volumes and then everything will sound beautiful'. This most definately is .. NOT the case, mixing engineers, myself included spend hours crafting and carving sounds to make sure they glue and fit well together and on top of each other, and unfortunately this process has no quick fix or automation. This has to be all done cognitively and micro decisions are made constantly which then all build up and lead to the final finished product.

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

A: oooooohh this is a tough one haha , ok ok so I've gotta first go, Laptop, thennnn ahhh this is tough ahahaha, I'm gonna say Yamaha HS8's, my Apollo Twin, SE microphone and....... hmmmm what else, and my beryerdynamic DT990 PRO headphones.

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

A: I am a producer and I make songs all the time with artists, but I also have a real love for sound engineering and mixing and mastering so I've just wanted to take that passion to the next level and start developing it to hopefully one day become one of the biggest sound engineers out there!

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My style, as far as mixing and mastering goes, I would say I like a mix that is loud, but not too distorted if distorted at all, with a solid low end and beautifully lush mid range, with crisp high end in the hi hat region. That is my style of what I'm going for when mixing.

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

A: There are many artists that I'd love to work with but two in particular would be the dream, Post Malone and Travis Scott. The reason being they are so diverse and could really make ANY type of music, so it would certainly keep life entertaining for an engineer. But yeah their songs are so dynamic and fun that it would be any engineers dream to take ANY part in the making of one of their songs for sure.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Always use yours ears and not your eyes, sometimes engineers (even myself before sometimes) can get caught up in what your looking at rather then what your listening to, whether its a fancy new plugin or the audio waves. My tip is to just close your eyes and focus and hone in on the sound rather than the look.

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

A: I usually work on Hip Hop and Trap, but I also mix and master Rock music. I play in a band myself called 'Straif' and we have music coming out within this year or so.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is Mastering, this is what I have the most experience in as I have been mastering for years, and really deep diving into how to make what I do the best I can!

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I feel like I bring an element of Harmonics and Clearness to a mix that wouldn't be found if I didn't complete my whole process. A big factor and positive for my mixes is that I bring Loudness to the table, as I have figured out how to get any mix as loud as it possibly can.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: When mixing, I start off mixing the instrumental initially - snare, kick , hats, percussion, Bass/808, instrumental instruments, melody ect. Then I start adding the vocals, process the vocals through my specific VOX mix bus, carve out and really get the best as possible out of the vocals by the use of - Eq, Compression, Limiting ect. Then I start adding Vocal FX such as - Reverb, Delay, Flanger, Air, Exciter ect. Once vocals are done I take a 15 minute break to rest my ears, come back and fine tune the mix to make sure every element in the mix can be heard loudly and clearly. Once the mix is complete, I print the track out into a stereo audio track, and I move onto my Mastering Process. When Mastering I like to initially carve out the mix a tiny bit with an initial small EQ, for a more well rounded sounding mix, after that I start using a Paragraphic Equalizer, a Multiband Harmonic Exciter, Multiband Dynamic adjuster, and Multiband Stereo Imaging, then i start boosting the volume with use of gain increase on any plugin. Then I start using soft clipper plugins and Inflator plugins to increase the perceived volume but NOT increase the volume by levels or make the mix clip. Once I'm happy with that, I add a bit more stereo imaging to adjust where I want the track to sit in the stereo field, and finally I add a Limiter at the end of the chain just to level out the mix. I like my finished masters to typically sit anywhere between -7 RMS to -5 RMS

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I run my whole mixes through pro tools, I've got an Apollo Twin soundcard, Yamaha HS8 speakers, Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO headphones, 2 Pre Sonus Erin 3.5 reference speakers.

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

A: Usually its the 'HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE' or 'HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE' and both those questions vary but you can check on my page profile for pricing and timing!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I ask - What are your mix goals ? Loudness goals ? To send me a reference (either their own past mixes or a finished mix from another artist out there), Any other specific requests ?

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

A: Not everyone is gonna be satisfied with every mix out there, that's why I would recommend looking at all us engineers style of mixing as everyone wants something different, and that's totally ok, you've just gotta make sure the engineers style matches the style YOUR looking for in your final mix, and you should then hopefully be more satisfied by the end result.

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

A: Post Malone, Louis Bell, Mike Dean, Finneas, Leslie Brathwaite, Jaycen Joshua ect

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

A: Mixing and Mastering