Custom Production and Mixing

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

A: Nostalgic Ave by sunday was the first album I ever got to work on in its entirety. I was a co-producer, mixing and mastering engineer, and played piano on multiple songs. I truly feel we captured each emotion and told my friend's story as best as possible. That album has a total of nearly 1 million streams so far.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: My second album is in the works and I'm always pushing my skill and limits with music to grow as an artist and engineer.

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

A: Not yet! I'm new here and looking forward to the journey

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I run 80-90% digital, and the biggest factor is the cost of the equipment versus the cost of the plugins. I try to use at least one analog instrument, besides vocals, in every project because I do believe there is still a texture there, a humanness to it, that is hard to replicate digitally.

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

A: I promise to capture your story in your music and to be open for more projects together in the future

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love making music and contributing to it in all forms. Helping an artist reach their vision, making their idea come to life drives me.

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

A: The most common question is usually just asking for my opinion on their project. I will give honest feedback and highlight what I liked and if needed one way to make it even better.

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

A: Most people think of mixing a song as just pushing volumes up and down, or panning left and right. Until you've heard what all the tools like eq and compression can do, how they can really shape sound, you won't understand everything a mix engineer puts into it.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What is your inspiration for this project? What was going on in your life when you first started this project? Are you open to creative input? Where and how do you plan to release your project?

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

A: Trust your ears and ask yourself a few questions. Listen to a provider's previous work, is it close to how you want your project to be? Can you clearly hear each individual instrument? If they produced or composed this work, do you like their style?

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

A: A grand piano, acoustic guitar, solar-powered battery, Cd player, a complete mac miller cd set

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

A: I've been a pianist for 20 years, writing songs for many of those years, and practicing digital production for 5 years. I went to Temple University studying Music Technology and wanted to get more into the focus of Audio and sonics. I transferred to and graduated from Full Sail University for Audio Production in July 2022. I plan on offering all of my services and increasing my repertoire and slowly growing my studio over time.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I would describe my style as the swiss army knife of the studio. I love to work with keys, but actively work with guitar, vocals, and a mix of production techniques.

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

A: Mac Miller was and is my biggest inspiration. Although we will never get to meet, I would've loved to work with someone so genuine and talented. Every album captured a story entirely, and always raw emotion behind it. He expanded and grew as an artist, reaching a different genre for each album from 'Good AM' to 'Divine Feminine' to 'Swimming' and 'Circles'. He embraced his vision and focused on the art versus the reception of it.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Always do the car test. It may sound dope at your studio, but play it in the car and you'll hear what you still have to work on.

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

A: Pop, hip hop, and rock are the most common genres I work on for clients, but for myself I try to produce as many genres as possible. Blues, Hip hop, Rock, Orchestral, Classical, Funk, Alternative, and Peaceful/relaxing are all genres I hit on my last album.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Piano playing is my strongest skill, and something I frequently utilize while producing and composing.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I'm an understanding and experienced musician, as well as a trained audio engineer. There are plenty of engineers who can make something sound higher quality, cleaner, or however they want. However, being a musician and having an ability to visualize and match emotions in music allows me to expand and grow an artist's project while making the sound higher quality. I'm a multi-instrumentalist, multi DAW user, and understand the story between the lines.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: When mixing: The first step is always listening through and organizing a project. Next, labeling tracks, grouping similar tracks together, and taking note of any clicks, buzzes, and unwanted noises and where they happen in the project. Communicate with the artist to discuss direction after hearing and understanding project. Find the focal point of the project and shape/color everything around it, capture the feeling. Deliver project to client and revise as needed. For Producing: Listen to the artist's inspiration and direction with their project. Ask questions about the emotion or story to visualize it. Start jamming and brainstorming with keys, guitar, percussion or samples, and follow what feels right. Cinematic and film scoring experience allows for capturing the story behind artist's ideas.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I use ADAM TV8 monitors, a focusrite 18-20 interface, an 88-key weighted keyboard, WA 47jr mic, AT 2030 mic, Keyscape VST for incredible piano sound quality, variety of waves, soundtoys, and fab filter plugins, running on Logic Pro X and Pro Tools.

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

A: Musicians from across the spectrum inspire me. Everything from Queen to Mac Miller to Ray Charles and Kendrick Lamar.

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

A: Most of my clients come for mixing and mastering services.