Remote Mixing and Mastering

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

A: That I will do my best and not compromise on their music. A lot of my clients have had bad experiences with other producers who just didn't care about the music. No matter the genre (or skill level) I will always do my best to make the song sound as good as possible.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Meeting talented creative people. I am inspired by a lot of the people who choose to work with me and that's a big part of what makes being a recording engineer so great!

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

A: "Can you give us a discount?" My answer is usually "yes...but" since I am more than happy to work within people's budgets but the client needs to understand that I already charge under the competition and I will only lower my rate for them if they are truly in need.

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

A: That all I do every day is listen to music haha Running a studio by myself means a lot of the time I'm in the workshop building acoustic materials, soldering a repair or mod on an amp, cutting cables, updating my website etc But it's all part of the process and worth it considering that it's all for the greater goal of producing music full time!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I always like to ask what albums the artists are listening to, even if it is in a different genre than their original music. This is often the best way to figure out the mix balance, stereo image or general vibe the client wants for their own recordings.

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

A: An 1176 compressor, Pultec EQ, 1073 preamp, Rickenbacker 4003s bass, and my Martin steel string acoustic.

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

A: My band Dark Satellite's album Death of a Classic! I wrote, sang, and played bass, guitar and keys all over this album. I also mixed and mastered the album and even edited our music video for the title track. It was a labor of love that has been getting great feedback and is now available to purchase from Alternative Tentacles (one of my favorite labels)!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both but specifically in mix-down I use as much of my outboard gear as possible, I find that my hardware Pultecs for example do actually sound better than the digital emulations, and as a bonus using outboard gear takes strain off the computer's CPU!

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

A: Listen through the portfolios of the providers and honestly go with your gut, music is about invoking a feeling so if a certain mix grabs you then go with your instincts!

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

A: I've been a guitar teacher and touring session guitarist for almost 20 years but started recording professionally five years ago.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Analog warmth with precision digital editing and subtle vocal tuning.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don't overly process, edit or effect live tracks. In a world of quantized drums, tuned vocals and DI-to-plugin guitars people want to hear authenticity.

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

A: Usually rock, pop rock, singer-songwriter and occasionally R&B.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Either tracking guitar / drums / bass or mixing a live band. This comes from two decades of being a touring guitarist and teacher, but also running live sound for bands.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Wether it's a song I wrote, played on or recorded, I bring my all. I find there is no one-size-fits-all in music production, so I always take the extra time to listen and experiment with how to best bring out the unique character of each song.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Most of the time bands will book time and pay through my website, then after recording I mix in three phases - draft, revision, and final. Before sending out the final mixes I will send an invoice for the mixing costs. I also offer the option to distribute to streaming for my clients at no extra charge.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio is a renovated miner's cabin from the 1890s. I built sound panels, bass traps, acrylic panels for the windows and installed two heavy steel doors for acoustic design. My studio also consists of two large racks of outboard gear, as well as high quality amps, instruments, and a 1970s Ludwig Vistalite kit that is always set up and miked!

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

A: Steven Wilson, Steve Albini, Esperanza Spalding and Frank Zappa just to name a few.

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

A: I mostly provide live tracking, analog mixing and mastering for my clients. I also routinely play as a session guitarist or bassist on other people's projects.