Mix/Tracking Engineer

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

A: im proud of everything I have worked on, obviously some sound better than others, but they were all fun.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: A mix for a local rock band Bel-Air and the Burbs

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both, analog is what I learned on, but digital is crisp and easy to work with. I use a hybrid of both.

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

A: My promise is as long as you have a vision and an idea I will work with you to hear what you have in your head.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Getting to help someone create something from silence.

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

A: Most artists I work with have a basic know how of recording or mixing and they ask why I'm doing what I'm doing, so i explain as bast i can without taking too long on doing so.

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

A: That I'm a one stop shop and what they get is a finished product, tracking is step one, mixing is step two, mastering is step three. Everyonme wants me to master their projects and I guess I can do subtle mastering, i.e. adding overall eq and add punch, but I'm not a mastering engineer and I don't have a mastering room, people get put off at this.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: They differ each time, how many songs, do they have a whole album or EP, is there a feeling they are trying to convey.

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

A: Think about your song as a whole, the energy of it and how it tells the story you want it to. Even an aggressive Hip Hop track has a life to it.

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

A: an sm57, an avantone cv-12, the avalon ad2022, a portable recorder that can do 24/96, a generator.

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

A: I just want to continue helping people find their voice, weather it be their actual voice, their guitars voice, the voice or message of a song as a whole.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Laid back but so far the results have always been pretty BIG sounding.

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

A: I like working with lesser known indie bands, because we then get to "find their sound" together, things like that are the most fun.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Learn your gear, how it sounds doing drastic things as well as subtle things, also knowing how to get the best sounds from what you have.

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

A: The two main genres are Rap/Hip Hop and Rock.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I think my strongest skill is delivering what the artist has in their head. In taking the time to understand what they want we can really work together to the same idea of the song. That and making the space a cool and laid back atmosphere to work in.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I try not to bring too much to the song, I just try and sculpt what the artist wants, bringing out what is there and making what they have shine.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I always start with a meeting with the artist and find out what they have in their head and we go through our plan of action in capturing it, during mix process I try to identify the favorite parts of the song and bring those out as well the driving parts so we can play on them and give the overall track life.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My room is setup for a hybrid workflow, I use the Toft atb as an analog front end and everything goes through the HDio into ProTools 10. I mix using the waves mercury bundle wither in the box or submixing in the box and working on the console.

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

A: Andrew Scheps, Chris Shepard, Kevin Guarnieri, Manny Marroquin, Mat Lejune.

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

A: Vocal Tracking or full song Mixing with a full band tracking here and there.