Mixing Engineer

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

A: I was the composer for a short film recently, for a 48 Film Contest. Long story short, I needed a cheesy country song for the credits, called "Don't Forget Your Hat." I brought in Boone Graham to write and perform the song. There was a huge time crunch, and we got the whole thing written in about 15 minutes. I somehow managed to keep my laughter silent and avoid ruining any of his takes. It was so much fun, and it was all worth it when the cast and crew were sent the recording in the middle of their grueling shoot, and it brightened their days. Boone really nailed the tone and the playfulness I was asking for. We had such a good time.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Right now I'm working on a new Jupiter Mountain album, as well as continuing to mix songs for other artists.

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

A: I hired Kristel Birkholtz to play violin on a track I did a few years ago. It was a very emotional song, one I'd written for my dad as he neared the end of his life. Needless to say, I really wanted it to be a good, emotional performance. She was extremely kind and professional, and she knocked it out of the park.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. Digital is what makes recording possible for the largest amount of people. Digital is the key that gets people through the door when they don't have a ton of money to throw at their dreams. There are countless artists, myself included, who wouldn't have been able to compete with big budget artists if they had to buy analog gear to make things sound good. I love the way analog gear sounds, but it simply is not necessary. It's great. It's a bonus. But, it's not necessary.

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

A: I promise to do everything in my power to get your song sounding exactly how you want. I promise to be kind and patient during the process. I promise to be honest if you ask for something that I feel will require a few extra stems to be recorded, because I'm not going to meet your expectations if I don't ask for what a production style needs.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love how different every song is, and I love helping someone get their song to the next level. I've been on the other side of this transaction before, and it feels really good to exceed expectations, and give someone the least-stressful, best experience possible. I want people to be glowing when they show their friends or post a song on social media.

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

A: How did you make the such-and-such sound like that? I generally answer with a detailed description of what I did, with screenshots if necessary. I love production questions, and I think that showing kindness to others is more important than guarding engineering secrets. I want you to grow, I want your music to succeed, and I want to be a person that showed you compassion and support.

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

A: I'm not sure. While not everyone understands what goes in to mixing a song, everyone understands that the idea is "to make a song sound better," which is accurate. The main reason for an artist to gain a better understanding of mixing, is so that they can provide the ideal tracks to get a good mix, but that comes in time. If you don't understand mixing yet, be kind to yourself.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Is this track going to be mastered by someone else? Have you provided reference tracks? What do you hear in those reference tracks that you'd like me to emulate(is it the drum sound, the vocal processing, etc...)?

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

A: Look for someone who's production style will work well with the sound you're going for. Also, ask questions. If there's a specific sound you're going for, it's generally a good idea to ask what the engineer needs in terms of alternate takes, etc... to achieve the sound you're looking for.

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

A: I'd take the boombox The Mountain Goats used to record all the early albums. I'd take a trunk to store all my desert island lofi recordings until someone discovered said recordings next to a pile of my bones. For my remaining 3 items, I choose a sewing machine and 2 dogs.

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

A: I've been recording and mixing for 23 years. Like a lot of engineers, I started by working on my own music. I have an electronic folk project called Jupiter Mountain that's my primary artistic endeavor. I also work in the mental health field as a CTRS(commonly called "Recreation Therapy). Being a mixing engineer started as a way to make extra money on the side, but it's slowly become more of my income. I don't know that I'll ever stop my Recreation Therapy work, because I love it, but I can see it eventually being something I only do 1 or 2 days a week. My only priority there is to make sure that I don't continue working in the mental health field if I'm starting to feel burnt out, because my clients deserve the best version of me.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I'm a "Pop" mixing engineer, with a slight bend toward experimental when it comes to FX(when appropriate). I say Pop, because it's such a vocals-forward genre. Vocals are never buried in the mix in pop songs, they're always loud and proud. I process my vocals so that they can take center stage, and be worthy of all the attention. My first pass always leans toward pop because I'm used to it, and then I tweak things from there to get the specific sound the client is looking for. By the end of the mix, it's not gonna sound like a pop song unless that's specifically requested, but it does tend to be my starting point.

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

A: I once played a show with a band from Brooklyn called Cookie Tongue. They have an incredible live show that involves costumes, puppets, trippy lighting, and a ton of theatrics. I think it'd be a lot of fun to work on one of their albums, and be tasked with creating a sonic landscape that matches the visual aspects of their work.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Can I share 2? They're kind of opposites but there's both important. 1) Take care of the fundamentals(EQ, compression, panning, etc...). 2) Automation. Whether it's automating FX to jump out at the right times, or automating the EQ to shift so that it continues to compliment a singer's voice through different parts of the song, automation can be the difference between a good mix and an incredible mix.

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

A: Folk, Indie Rock, Hip Hop, and Pop. Those seem to be the ones that come up the most for me. 3/4 of those categories tend to have a lot of DIY artists, and I think that might be my sweet spot. Working with people to get home recordings up to an industry standard level. Mixing home recordings always feels inspiring to me. I like an underdog, and it's really satisfying helping someone "level up" their recordings.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I think vocal processing is my strongest skill. It also happens to be my favorite part of the process. From super layered, heavily processed vocals, to natural and intimate, I love it all. Others would probably point out patience, and being easy to work with, but my brain immediately goes to vocal processing, haha.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: As someone who started out recording and mixing their own music and voice, I bring that burning desire we all have as artists-on-a-budget to make a song sound as good as the recordings of our contemporaries and heroes. I know how hard artists work to write and record these songs, and I know how much I hope I had when I sent something to a mixing engineer. Sometimes I was thrilled with the results, and sometimes I was disappointed. I'm here to give people the feeling I got when I got a mix back that knocked my socks off. If I don't get it on the first pass, that's ok. After the first pass is where we become collaborators. I'm determined to get these songs sounding exactly how you want.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: The first step is always getting the stems imported, getting the tracks labeled, and everything routed through one of my mixing templates. After that, I'll turn everything up, and get decent levels for every track. I tend to start actually processing on the kick and bass instrument, to get them sitting somewhere that's genre appropriate, and then I move over to getting the vocals eq'd and compressed. Then I start making adjustments to every instrument/voice in the mix, and circling around making passes on every track until I have a nice "clean" mix. Once that's been accomplished comes my favorite part, adding personality and FX. If it's appropriate for the song, I'll start working on FX automation for things like reverbs, delays, etc... This is also there part of the process where I start to really focus on matching the production on the reference track.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I'm definitely an "In the Box" kind of engineer. I do everything on my PC, and monitor on Yamaha HS7's. I have a large collection of plug-ins, from companies like Fab Filter, Izotope, etc... All the usual suspects.

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

A: I'm a huge fan of Mike Mogis's production. I love the way he can fit all the tiny pieces together on a more cinematic sounding arrangement for something like a Bright Eyes album. On the other end of the spectrum, I love hearing simple arrangements fill a room, like in Lorde's song "Royals." It's mostly a kick and a synth pad, and it sounds massive. "Royals" has really great vocal production with a lot more layers than there are on the rest of the arrangement, and it all just comes together so nicely.

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

A: I take artists' stems and work to create a mix that brings out the best in their song, to get it ready for radio and streaming. When appropriate, I love to use FX automation to really make things shine.