Mixing Team, Session Work

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

A: It’s probably an album of Kirill’s former band, he played all instruments on the recording, and he was also the one to produce it. Also, Sergey had a project of writing 30 quality songs for ghost production, and the deadlines were very tight. All songs were sold!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Right now we’re writing, recording and producing commercial music for advertising, movies, games.

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

A: No, we don’t know anyone yet, but we hope to change that soon!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both; analog equipment has characteristics that digital tools just don’t, but it’s much easier to work with the latter.

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

A: That the job will be done well, quickly, and with great respect for the client’s vision.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: What we like most is that no two songs are the same, each project is a creative experience of making something new and unique.

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

A: That there aren’t any quality sound engineers and sound designers in Kazakhstan.

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

A: There is no advice, you can send us tracks in any shape and form, we can make any source material sound great.

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

A: Headphones, an acoustic guitar, a laptop, a microphone, and a sound card.

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

A: We’ve been doing this for over 6 years now.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: More life, less editing.

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

A: We’d like to work with Bruno Mars, because his tracks always sound amazing, they are unique and trendy.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: The better the studio recording, the cleaner and more vibrant the mix. It’s less editing and more quality.

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

A: Usually it’s pop, rock, electronic and cinematic music.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: The ability to add something special to the music, so that it doesn’t distract the listeners but makes the experience more full and colorful.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: We try to create a functional stereo balance in a song and to make the music breathe without extra compression.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Usually it’s to see on the spot what’s going on with the vocals and instrumentals in the song and how to make the vocals fit in perfectly.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Right now we use a variety of equipment: - Audient and Focusrite sound cards; - Tannoy Gold 5 and Yamaha HS5 monitors; - Sony MDR-7506 and Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro headphones; - Fender Telecaster Deluxe electric guitar; - Nord Electro 5D 73 keyboard; - a full set of Waves, Fabfilter and Ozone; - a few secret magical plugins to make the clients’ mixes sound even better.

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

A: We draw inspiration from lots of musicians, most of all Rob Late, Dean Mickoski, and Steven Wilson. What they do is just superb, and we take great pleasure in analyzing their music and learning from it. We strive to achieve the same kind of spirit and quality in our own work.

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

A: Most of the time we do mixing, write beats, or add acoustic or electric guitar tracks to songs. Also, about once every couple of months we get tasked with writing soundtracks for short films.