Editing, Mixing & Production

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

A: The "Ataraxia" double-album by Michael Deej, which I mixed. It was a set of 22 songs, and apart from drums being done in a studio with a session drummer (Mike Dawson of Modern Drummer Magazine), the entire record was cut on the artists' iPad via GarageBand. Some of the source material wasn't stellar, but I managed to pull it together into what many have said is a phenomenal sounding record. It's diverse and the material is beautifully written and arranged which can greatly aide in the ability to effectively mix the project. It was a welcome challenge and I'll never forget it.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I recently wrapped production on an LP entitled "Simpatico" by an artist called Tearle Ashby. It was mastered by Andy VanDette (ex-Masterdisk) and awaiting a release date. I am currently in the early stages of consulting with a band called Tribal Soul for whom I will be mixing as they conclude the engineering portion of their current EP. I have already mixed one song which the band absolutely loved, as it was previously mixed by another engineer in my locale which they felt was sub-par, given the engineer's longevity and reputation in the area. It's always nice to win, especially when it greatly benefits the artist in the long run!

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

A: Yes! The one and only David Tyo. He's a local colleague of mine and a pleasure to speak to, hang with and talk shop. He's a phenomenally talented musician, producer and mixer.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital, simply out of modern flexibility and practicality, especially in the mixing arena. My best example being, a mastering engineer friend once said "analogue is great, but if you have to perform a recall for a client, there's no guarantee any given piece of gear will sound the same next time, regardless the settings."

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I absolutely love the creative side and realising a vision an artist sets forth with their material. It's particularly moving to follow the progress and transformation a song might take from raw tracks to a final, polished mix where it's become an entity unto itself, complete with a message, personality and attitude.

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

A: The most common question is if I can also master the project. My honest answer is, no I can't. I don't know the first thing about the art/science, nor do I have any equipment that can touch what the professionals can do. If you need a mastering engineer, I have relationships with at least three with whom I work regularly and know what they're getting from me, and I them. Let's talk!

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

A: I feel, without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest misconception about my role as a mixer is that the craft can be learned "overnight" simply by watching tutorials and reading books. The truth is it's the polar opposite. It's an art form and science that takes years of honing, developing an ear along with the appropriate instincts and knowledge of how to receive a song, discern the qualities of the material and how best to serve that material to showcase its strengths and maybe even mask its weaknesses.

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

A: As best you can, please make sure the material is actually ready for mixing: any editing or tuning has been done, takes have been comped to masters and tracks appropriately labeled. This takes the guess work out of the equation for me and I know that what I'm listening to and looking at is the final arrangement of the song. All I want to do is focus on building your song and making it larger than life, so I can give you the product you deserve to have.

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

A: To follow the contemporary cliche, I wanted to be a rockstar recording artist as a teenager, but during my tenure at music school in college, I fell in love with the tech side of things which put me on the road to a dedicated audio production school. I've been generally working in the business for about 12 years, though I've been a serious engineer mixer for the past 8 years.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: In a nutshell, I'd say I'm hard-hitting. And by that, I mean I'm pretty aggressive with my drum and vocal processing. I like the music to have attitude and power, accentuated by intricate use of ambience and FX.

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

A: It would be my life's achievement to have the honour of working with Metallica. Since the late 80s, have I never heard a band with such size and power and in their productions and writing and I'd absolutely love to have a hand in that process with them. I feel James Hetfield is an unsung hero in the vocal/lyrical aspect of the metal world and I've always admired their drum and guitar sounds.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Labeling Tracks: when submitting songs to be mixed professionally, please label the tacks in a practical manner, ie - if there's only one vocalist who happens to be male, please don't write stuff like "creamy male vocal 1/2." That adds confusion for the mixer because, depending on how many of these exist in succession in your song, we have to be distracted and waste time discerning who the lead is and who are backing vocals. If it's the lead vocal, just write "LV" with a numeric designation, "BV" for backing vocal tracks, etc. That helps us identify its role in the song so we can maintain our focus on the task at hand.

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

A: Currently, my two mainstays happen to be hard rock/metal and live-concert gospel remixes.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Most might agree that my strongest skill tends to be handling of the rhythm section and creating excitement via ambience and special FX treatment.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I feel I tend to bring power and size to a song, via well-crafted enhancements with my attentional to detail and tasty choices of FX.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Upon receiving a session or set of tracks, is to organise, label and create a nominal gain structure across the board. I will then play through the song getting an idea of its vibe, sense of direction, clean up any noise or unnecessary space between audio clips, all while taking notes as to what my instinct tells me regarding treatment of the song (eg. certain highlights, "main character" elements, etc).

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My setup consists of a Mac running Avid ProTools and a plethora of audio processing by Universal Audio, Metric Halo, SSL, Neve, Slate, Waves, etc. I have a Universal Audio interface, Avid Artist Mix (controller) and several sets of monitoring, including my prize Dynaudio speakers.

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

A: My "holy trinity" (if you will) of music production professionals is comprised of Bob Rock (producer), Randy Staub (engineer/mixer) and Chris Lord-Alge (mixer).

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

A: The most common type of work I do for my clients is mixing, but with a fair amount of editing thrown in where need be. More often than not, I'll receive files, most of which might be 95% "there" but might require an additional timing nudge to better fit the pocket of the song, or a guitar or vocal might be just a hair off pitch-wise.