Music For Visuals & Mastering

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

A: From a Mastering point of view. I would say we produce (a Mastered track), but there isn’t anything like a single, universal master. If you give a track to different engineers, different valid masters would probably result. If you revisit a Master after some time, most likely, you would change something based on the tools you use or new technology. If that was not true, no Remastering would be done, whatsoever. To be honest, anything is defined at the end as work influenced by a point of view; a certain toolset; in a given time window. If you change any of those variables, you change the result, in some way.

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

A: As a composer, I enjoy the freedom and the chance to create something authentic or in a new way to me. That, after all, leads you to offer your best and keep things fun. As an engineer, I would encourage anyone to allow time for a generous conversation about the project, song, album, artist style, and such. Mastering is not as straightforward as transferring from one media to another any longer.

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

A: I have been a keyboardist, film composer, and sound engineer for over 25+ years. I went to Audio Engineer school in 1998. Have produced solo albums, soundtracks, and documentary music, engineered classical music, and mastered a handful of records, mostly classical or solo artists.

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

A: I enjoy working on social-driven documentaries: This media gives me more freedom as a composer and challenges me in a different way than “Traditional” films do. Instead of hitting the action, following the pace dictated by the scene, or mimicking a temp score; having to play through so often and the need to portray a wide array of emotions and inner feelings made me discover ¡the unwordy! Not falling into arrogance and being truthful, this task requires a lot of insight and a very fine touch. Documentary music often asks for a geographic color, which implies the need to learn how to evoke them without access to Traditional instruments and musicians. I find this task challenging and emotionally rewarding.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I do not see it as a job but rather a need. I love to work with sound. It is such a diverse and complex craft. It involves creative input, emotions, hearing pitfalls, technical aspects, taste, business skills; and perhaps the most important thing, empathy, and human relationships. I love this feeling, this urge and burning flame of pushing my work in a different direction. The sense of discovery. Not knowing who will reach me. The solitude of witnessing sound.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My diverse musical and technical background. But also being stubborn, restless, and unsatisfied. Without an unheard sound image and imagination; tools and concepts only lead us to be formulaic.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Despite being respectful to the work, I like to have a point of view. At the end, that is what everything is about. I might start by perceiving and feeling the way sound reacts against common procedures, like contrasting colors -against a clean canvas-; but once I arrive to a sound I am comfortable with, I immediately deviate and try to approach and seek something else. At the end of the day, what haunts me is what I do not know. Trying things, without a template is the utmost joy on this.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Visceral and experimental. Art is, at its best; not perfectly balanced, but different, authentic. The same sound does not fit everybody, just as the same clothes or hairstyle do not fit everybody either. I am stubborn about sounding better and not just different. I work hard to find and decode a crack in the sound that allows me to enhance or reframe sound in not an obvious way.

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

A: As an Engineer, I am interested in serving emerging artists. I feel more fond of working on Acoustic genres, Jazz, World music, Classical, and Soundtracks. I would love to work for a label like ECM, but an artist like Bjork would be my dream artist to work with: she has created and expanded on unheard sound landscapes very few have dreamed of.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: If you change tools too often, there is no knowing. Too many tools and knobs lead to awkward workflow. Too many options are the opposite of choice.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have a minimalist setup with only what I need. I don't like the idea of determining the value of my work based on equipment. In many ways, other factors can make or break a project. Given you have the skills; inappropriate time limits, unclear communication, and budget constraints can be far more damaging to a project, regardless of the equipment used.

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

A: Dario Marianelli, Johann Johannsson, Marco Beltrami, Vikingur Olaffsohn, Ivo Sedlacek, David Gilmour, Peter Gabriel, Bjork, Alan Parsons, Billy Joel, Residente, Puente Celeste, Daniel Lanois, Daniel Dettwiller, Fred Kevorkian.