Multi Platinum Producer. Credited work with Drake, Jason Derulo, T- Pain, Yung Joc, Tynisha Keli and more. Creating urban masterpieces for industry professionals for 20+ years. Classically trained in violin and piano. Additional instruments guitar, bass, drums, viola etc. Mentored by top industry producers & engineers.
My musical pallet is vast and extensive. I come from a classically trained violinist background from age four. I fluently play everything from Mozart to Mendelssohn. I have been composing and producing from a young age starting in R&B ballads and mid tempos, as well as urban style pop music and moving into more hip hop that is orchestrated based. I rarely use samples in my music I have acquired the skill of creating my own samples and using it within my music. Having violin as my foundation my music always comes from a real emotional place. I like the music to tell a story and have it's own character and identity. My focus on a recording is always performance based. Making the canvas come to life. I always had the ability to play by ear even though I'm trained to read and score music from my youth. My ear is impeccable when it comes to emulating sonics. I enjoy the process off creating from nothing and finishing with a masterpiece. And I hope to be able to share this experience with my clients.
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Languages
- English
Interview with Don Destin
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: Working with Tynisha Keli was a great experience she was a signed artist to my label and I was able to really produce her to a level that I could control the outcome of every aspect of the record. She was an amazing songwriter and vocalist and that paired with my talents and production skills made for some great music.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: That is top secret lol. But we are always doing fly cool industry work!
Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?
A: I would have to spend more time on the website to find peers I've worked with.
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: I like a hybrid of analog and digital because I've come from both worlds and I know the sound of both. I like to find the balance between analog and digital depending on the style and genre. But for workflow and efficiency digital is the way to go.
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: My promise to my clients is to always exceed your expectations and to create masterpieces that will stay with you for a lifetime.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: I am a pure creative I love every part of the process intimately. I am a stickler for details and perfection. I fall in love with the process because the final product is always a piece of art.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: Many clients today have rough songs they have worked on and usually what my input and advice on their existing works or want me to reproduce it fully to the level they know the rest of my catalog is at. I have no problem helping them achieve this goal.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: The biggest misconception about what I do is people not realizing that I create records from start to finish mostly by myself all instrumentations all production decisions mixing arranging and mastering.
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: I would ask my clients are they happy with the records that they have created thus far and is there anything sonically that they would like to compare their music to or would like their music to sound like on a professional industry level. Once we figure out the sound that we're going for we can achieve it together.
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Hire a producer like me as if you are signed to a major label looking for a producer that could get you on the Billboard charts.
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: I would bring pro Tools on my laptop. My MPC 37 a USB keyboard and a sound interface. My violin bass guitar and lead guitar is a must and I'm good with a pair of good headphones.
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I've been producing since middle school. I've been in the r&b group since high school. We were side to universal Motown then Sony. I branched out as a producer after the group to work with other industry professionals. I've been producing since 1997.
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: I have a classically urban style much like a hybrid of sounds in the urban field. I could make everything from beautiful ballads to hard-hitting hip Hop tracks. I've always had a big anthemic sound. I create singles not filler tracks.
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: I would love to work with an artist like Usher, Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber or Ariana Grande. My production with accent their voices perfectly.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Music production tip of the day don't over process your audio in the creating pre-production phase choose really good sounds in the beginning and the end product will be that much better.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: I usually work on r&b hip hop and pop.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: My strongest skill is my life performance ability to arrange and produce on different DAW's. But my production workstation is always pro Tools.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: I paid close attention to every nuance in a record. I program and produce all instruments within the record. I am very detailed on how I record my vocals from the artist. I will make sure the song is competing with anything else on the market in the same genre.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: Typical work process is to provide tracks for the artist. Either by creating something brand new or having them go through the catalog and finding something for them to work with. What's they have written the song we will get it to the studio and I will help vocally produce the vocals to perfection. Then we will take the vocals put it with the stems of the music and start arrangements additional instrumentation and production and slightly start mixing. Once we have the production and vocals where we want that we take it to the mixing post-production process. We will Master our music ourselves so the end product is exactly how we're hearing it. I usually provide numbered mixes and have the client choose between a multitude of mixes and balances that suit our taste for release.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: Have had many studios setups over the years but currently love to have a more portable setup so I can move from studio to studio but mostly we like to work on the pro Tools system so we could transfer files seamlessly between bigger recording studios and our personal setups.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: I sonically pull my inspiration from producers like Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Babyface, R Kelly and many more.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: I deal with producing a record from top to bottom all instrumentation all arrangements all mixing and mastering.
I was the Producer/Composer in this production
We will revise as many times as needed for a finished product. Once all pre production files are sourced average turnaround time for completed work is usually 7 days.
