Mixing and Mastering Engineer

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

A: I love these questions, though the answer is difficult! At the moment, it would be my guitar, a Chandler Limited Germanium mic pre, Vintage Neumann u87, Fairchild 670 compressor, and my DAW (this being Studio One)

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

A: I started out by studying music, but realized I didn't enjoy it as much as the technical side of music production. I moved to a Sound Technology course, and then completed my diploma at Abbey Road Institute. Through all of my studying I was working as a freelancer, where I did live events, location recording, studio recordings and mixing.

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

A: A few come to mind, though I would have to re-use a previous answer and say I would love to do some recordings with Avi Kaplan, i just love what he's doing at the moment, and the kind of sound he's creating is insane to me!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Filtering! If something doesn't need sub 80Hz frequencies, take it out!

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

A: I love working on rock and punk, but I do have a soft-spot for acoustic and singer-songwriter productions.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Mixing for sure, though I would like to add editing, as I believe a good mix comes from a good edit. There's no use mixing a track when things aren't pocketing right, and there are obvious problems.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: With a new track I start with session maintenance, cleaning up tracks and then doing an edit to make sure everything sounds in time and tuned. With pre-edited tracks I might skip this, but I still like to make sure everything is perfect (as much as it can be). After that, I start with the mix, and try to make sure I capture the sound the client wants.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My own setup is quite basic and consists simply of my monitors, and some basic outboard gear, a dbx 1086 microphone pre-amp which I use for recording, , and a Toft ATC-2 Pre and Eq/Compressor, which I use for recording and mastering.

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

A: At the moment, I would have to say Avi Kaplan inspires me musically, though my inspirations change often as I listen to new things.

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

A: I mostly do recording with local clients, and mixing and editing for all other clients that I can find.