Mixing, Mastering & Production

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The people! And that I am still learning! I love how musicians passionately talk about their instruments or when artists share their personal story. What I have learned is that basically one way or the other, we all want the same thing from live. And if you share those moments together, what comes next is usually beautiful music.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My mixing setup is based around the SSL XLogic X-Rack with summing modules and line modules. It is basically the audio path of an SSL Duality and/or AWS900. I have two Universal Audio Apollo interfaces that feed the SSL. I also have an older Roland/Edirol interface that I feed ADAT from one of the Apollos to go to my headphone system and Bluetooth transmitter. (To test my mix on Bluetooth speakers). On the SSL stereo bus output I have inserted a Bettermaker mastering equalizer, a Bettermaker bus compressor, the Kush Audio Clariphonic MS parallel equalizer and a the Bettermaker mastering Limiter 2.0. Before the audio is going to my speaker monitor sets, I have a Trinnov Nova for room correction. Look it up, it is a beast! My monitors are the fantastic Dynaudio Core 59 speakers and two DMAX Audio Super Cubes 5 auratone-like speakers. A big shout-out to Andrew Startsev and his team who make these Super Cubes 5. These guys are amazing and deliver an affordable complete package including DSP amplifier, cables and what not. As additional outboard gear I have some preamps and effects going back to the 80's. My plugins are the usual suspects from Universal Audio, Softube, Klanghelm, Waves, Wavesfactory, Native Instruments, iZotope, VSL, Steinberg, Xfer records, oeksound and the wonderful Plugin Alliance. Specifically for vocal tuning I usually choose between Steinberg VariAudio, Revoice Pro/RePitch or Melodyne, whatever the job needs... My composing setup is based on servers running Vienna Ensemble Pro with orchestral libraries from Vienna Symphonic Library, EastWest, Native instruments Komplete and Synthogy Ivory II. And on the main machine I also have Native Instruments Komplete, ReFx Nexus, Ravenscroft 275, Spectrasonics, BFD Drums, WavesFactory, Amplesound, u-he, Music Lab and some additional orchestral libraries from Cinesamples and 8Dio. Also I still have some outboard gear going back to the eighties. For example my back in the day dream synthesizer, the Roland D-50. I still own my first one and also the rack version D-550 with some great (non Roland) ram cards as well. But also other Roland, Korg and Alesis gear. For control of the studio I use an ICON QCon Pro G2 daw controller. These ICON people are amazing. There was a technical issue where the (not to be named) store did not want to act since it was a few days out of warranty. The people at ICON Pro Audio stepped up and quickly replaced the faulty board all at their expense. That is what service is all about! And next to the QCon Pro G2 I have an iPad running metasystem Metagrid. It executes all my (sometimes complex) macros for my daw.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: As you can tell from my setup I really love analog but with the benefits of digital. For example, my Bettermaker analog gear has full total recall capability. But in general, I feel that the analog components in my setup are working with me, they are doing what I hope they're doing. On the other hand, from the plugins I own I can tell that I can probably do a as good of a mix with analog vibes fully in the digital domain. I feel the gap has been bridged the last couple of years.

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

A: I don't really have a promise. Maybe: no cure no pay. It is important to me that my customers feel comfortable. That doesn't mean there will never be friction. No friction, no shine, my wife always says. If you both have the same goal, you can make each other shine. The bottom line is that I will always respect the artist.

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

A: That a piece of fancy gear or a plug-in can save your life!

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

A: I wouldn't know any advice. I'd have to talk to someone first to find out where they are. Everyone has their own path, their own qualities, their own vision and their own story to share. It is all so personal and sometimes very intense that it all needs space to develop. I would hate to give advice that could potentially limit anyone. So that's why I need to at least talk to someone first...

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

A: Ah, there you have that question too! 5 devices... I could name 5 fantastic devices, but if they don't match, what's the point of choosing them. So I'd pick 5 items that would work together as a unit, then I'd pick: 1. My laptop 2. Universal Audio LA-610 channel strip (it's versatile all-round) 3. Apollo x8 interface 4. Nuemann Mic, I think the TLM-103 (because it's also all-round) 5. Dyn Audio speakers (I'm used to them). So nothing outrageous, but it will do the job!

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I think you should ask someone else. Music is so personal and up close that I can't judge what my style would be...if there was one.

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

A: Interesting question! I don't have a single artist I can think of. I think my answer will change almost every week. But I find artists interesting who have been around for a while and are constantly reinventing themselves. Or artists who really have a story to tell and want to get back to why they originally started in the music business. But if I had to name a few, I'd say: Mary J. Blige, Celine Dion, Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera... (I'm not sure why I'm only mentioning female artists now)

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Keep space available for all instruments and start with that early in your recording/arranging process (unless it's part of your sound). Also make sure you can still feel the emotion or groove if you play your music production at a low volume (like normal speech level). And if you don't feel it, just say out loud to yourself what you do hear (or how it makes you feel).

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

A: I usually work on contemporary Christian music, pop music, EDM, Tropical, Singer Songwriter and (hybrid) orchestral music.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I just finished mastering a Christian album in between another large mix project. And oh yeah, with a life long friend producer and songwriter, we are working on the follow-up track for a Belgian group. We also did their previous single and it topped the charts in Belgium.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I invest in my client. I dream the same dreams, I take on responsibilities, I share the same goals and where I can I share whatever I have in my box. That can be anything from some experience or a network connection. True, there are clients with bad behaviour who basically do not deserve that, but still I like to do the same for them anyway.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I hope I bring to a song whatever is needed. In some cases that means being silent and follow the artist's direction. On other occasions it means going into a full-blown creative partnership with the artist. I have had it happened that artists even donated parts of their royalties when I got that involved.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Usually everything starts with a conversation with the artist (or client). I will try to capture the emotions and the image they envision for the end product. But also, what type of person is the artist, what makes them tick, just to get an overall sense of character. And then I try to focus on to what is expected from me. If there is any reference material, I will request that too. Reference material can be anything from another track but also sketches, images, poems etc. everything can be useful. And in the case of music to film or video, I will probably get the (rough) film material with temp tracks if any... When you are talking about doing a mix, I usually bring up all faders (not too loud) and start listening while taking some (mental) notes. I will try to notice weak and strong points, listen to the groove and/or the breathing of the track. And then, I usually start organizing and colouring all tracks, perhaps while listening to a reference track. At the second time listening I will start making little adjustments, balancing faders, doing some eq. And then after I have a rough mix I will work on the weak points. If there any major issues at this point I will discuss these with the artist. And from there on I just listen to what the song is trying to tell me and make my mixing decisions based on that. I also make sure that I take my (mini) breaks on time. Then, when I believe the mix is near completion I will have the artist sit in (most of the time virtually/online). When an artist is a recurrent client, and I am completely aware of what the client wants, I just send the finished product.

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

A: I love the legendary albums like Songs in the key of life from Stevie wonder or Earth, Wind & Fire albums. There is a lot to learn from those albums. But also newer albums like 24k Magic by Bruno Mars are a great inspiration. I think from every genre I have inspirational music playlists. But as a child growing up I already listened to the production aspects of music. So my early inspirators are: Quincy Jones, Arif Mardin, the duo Alby Galuten and Karl Richardson, Bruce Swedien. And when it comes to artists that inspired me, I think you need to invite me over for a day... But nowadays, there are so many great talented music professionals. And most of them are very accessible, it is mind-blowing!

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

A: For my clients I usually do a lot of editing ahead of the mixing. This ranges from tempo editing to vocal tuning. I do not work with a mix assistant that does those kind of things. So when after editing I come to the mix stage, I already did a lot of mixing in my head. True, sometimes that is not beneficial to the track when a lot of editing was needed beforehand, it looses momentum and a fresh view. But I have learned how to deal with that. Most of the time the solution is doing a completely different track from another client in between. At the other end I also compose music for theatre, festivals and film/video.