Music Production & engineering

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

A: My project Olam Hafukh עולם הפוך (reverse world in English) it came out on July 7th 2023, it has 7 songs on it, Me and my friend produced, wrote, recorded and performed all of it. I did all the editing, mixing and mastering, plus producing most of the songs (5 of 7, other 2 I coproduced) So, it's basically been done 100% by only me and my friend from scratch. It was not easy, but I'm very proud of the result, especially considering it was recorded before I had my acoustically treated studio.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: On an ethnic Mediterranean music album, which will have touches of hip hop influence, I'm going to produce mix and master all of it, also I'll be the technician in charge of all the recordings. It's gonna have some live drums and instrumentation on some of the songs.

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

A: No, I'm new to the site, and for my own music I never outsourced any of those services (not because I don't want to) but I'm sure there are many great mixers on the site that I look up to, I just never checked if they're listed here.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. Flexibility and workflow make it a no brainer for me, even though I think it depends on the context. I do prefer some things in Analog, like moving 2 knobs at the same time is a big one for me, and making automation is more fun to me on analog.

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

A: If the result didn't meet your expectations or for some reason it's not what you wanted stylistically, I will give you the money back or do revisions if the communication is good with the client and I understand they're creative direction.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Being in the studio all day, and the feeling you get when the client has he's mind blown by how he sounds, it's very fulfilling to me having a client whose expectations been exceeded by my work.

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

A: Many times, I do both mixing and mastering, so people ask me what's the difference. I tell them mixing is the part of making your song feel good, adding emotion and depth, at times it could be more technical but for me mixing is about feeling the song and being aware that perfection is not the end goal. on the other hand, Modern mastering to me is about making sure your song is balanced and optimal to sound as similar on different listening environments (big speakers, phone, headphones etc.) also for me it's about loudness, being in the same ball room as other songs of that style.

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

A: That I can make a bad recording, or a badly made song into hot stuff, I can make it a lot better than it was in those cases, but it'll never match industry standards.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Most important for me is to set up expectations, I need to know what product the client already has and what he's expecting to get from my service, it's important to me that we're being on the same page. I would also ask my client what emotions he wants the song to convey, what's the vibe he's going for, basically, what's the concept? what do we want to achieve?

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

A: Do your research, and reach out to the person first to see if they communicate well, sometimes you want someone that has a reputation for working with big artist, but if that person is too busy and his going to half ass the job it might be a waste of money, I think it's important to give your song to someone who knows what he does, but also someone who's going to treat your creation with love and care.

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

A: I haven't been around very high-end gear, so I don't know my preference, but: (strong laptop of course, I don't count it) Probably Neumann U87, Shure sm57, some ATC monitors, RME interface, very expensive open back headphones.

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

A: That has been my career path since I was 19 (7 years ago) that's when I decided I want to be able to live of Producing and mixing songs, I did have to work dead end jobs throughout the years to provide for myself, so music has been my side hustle, and last 3 years I started working at PA for theatre, and went to study at sound school (Yoav Gera) in Tel Aviv, Israel. producer and mix master engineer is my long-term career path.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My production is usually dark, melodic, bouncy and clean, sometimes I would go for a rawer aesthetic on mixes that stylistically fit that, but the main thing is that I love contrast in my production from a sonics standpoint.

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

A: Kendrick Lamar, Headie one, Youngboy NBA, Asap Rocky They are probably the artists who influenced me the most, some in my production style, and some really got me into the sonics aspect of music.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Layer 2 or more sounds together and shift the timing of each one by a bit to get a fuller and bigger sound, just beware of phase issues when doing that, make sure to check how it sounds in mono.

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

A: Hip hop (and all of its subgenres)

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Producing & Mixing

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Out of the box thinking and a unique approach, depending on the client wants and needs I will add my personal touch and my unique style.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I usually work in the box, sometimes I might run some channels through a console if I see a reason to. When I produce there's not really one process but I do like to get a good sound on my stuff while I'm still composing. as far as mixing goes, I first listen to the full song, Write down my initial thoughts and notes on things I would like to do. then I will make sure to name and color everything in the project so I can work easily. then I will start listening to the channels in solo and clean up the project, After that I will start to do some additions to Enhance the sound. after the mix is done on my end, and approved by the client, I will test it vs a reference song on different speakers (Phone, car, bluetooth speaker, etc....)

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have Focal a50 monitors, Focusrite I6, DT 880 pro headphones(by Better dynamics) Keylab49 Essential keyboard, Sennheiser MK4 Microphone, that's my home studio, which is also acoustically treated. I use Plugins from many different companies such as Fabfilter, Soundtoys, UAD, Waves and many more. I also have studios in my college that I might use for specific needs, It has a TLA 32 channel console, Big Tannoy speakers paired with Focal a50, many analog hardware effects...

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

A: Leandro Hidalgo, Manny Marroquin, 808 melo, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Andre 3000, Headie one, Asap Rocky

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

A: Mixing and mastering songs