Abhishek Ghatak on SoundBetter

Co-Founder of Headroom Studio in Mumbai, India. I specialize in Mixing and Mastering songs of any genre. Studied in Australia and even taught sound engineering and worked with some of the top music composers/producers in Bollywood and outside. I am known for my phat, punchy mixes maintaining the warmth and dynamics of the song.

I am offering professional level mix and mastering services that would not burn a hole in your pocket. I use state of the art analog hardware amalgamated with some of my favorite plugins. I sum all of my mixes on the SSL Matrix 2 which provides a lot of width, punch and glues my mixes together. I have primarily worked on over 15 bollywood films like Ra-one, Chennai Express, Kahaani, Student of the Year, Humpty Sharma ki Dulhaniya and many more. i even mixed one song in the Martin Sheen and Kal Penn starer movie, Bhopal. apart from that, i also have mixed and mastred for various independent artists like Jaz Dhami, Jonita Gandhi, Natalie di Luccio, Clinton Cerejo, Raagatrippin, Thomson Andrews etc.
my gear list comprises the following :
SSL Matrix 2 Summing mixer , Antelope Orion 32 interface clocked with a 10M antelope word clock, TK audio mastering eq, Manley Variable MU, Dangerous mastering compressor, avalon 747 eq compressor, API 2500 bus compressor, API lunchbox with SSL G compressor, thermionic culture vulture, genelec 8030, monkey banana turbo 8.

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Interview with Abhishek Ghatak

Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: a mixture of both. today some plugins are almost as good as analog. there is no right answer. the goal is to achieve good sound. doesnt matter how you do it.
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: mixing is a matter of perspective. the only promise i can make is that none of my clients will dislike my approach to a mix. it may differ from what they had in mind but it wont be something that's unlikable for sure.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: i think it would be the fact that, anyone with a laptop and a few plugins can mix a song. or that mixing is just achieving a good balance. its way more than that. achieving sonic brilliance takes years of practice and experience. there is so much more than faders, eq and compression.
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: i am here to give my best. i take each project like its my first and last project and i only work on one song at a time. i strive to strike a balance between what my client is looking for and whats the best possible sonic peak i can achieve with a given song
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: my laptop, my speakers, soundcard, a microphone and a good mic pre
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I started off teaching sound engineering for 2 years before working with one of bollywood's biggest music composers, Vishal and Shekhar as their senior sound engineer. in total, i've been in this field for about 8 years now.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: my biggest tip to any music producer would be to keep it as minimal and simplistic as possible. less is more. do not try and over produce a song. that just ends up as noise!
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: I mainly work on a lot of Bollywood songs, independant artists in the genres of singer-songwriter, hip hop, deep bass, EDM, pop, rock, blues and orchestral
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: my strongest skill in the mix process as told to me by most of my clients is how tight and fat i make the drums and bass sound and how smooth i can make a vocal track sound in the mix.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: mixing and mastering is a very creative process as well as highly technical. from my years of experience i have learned that you can achieve the cleanest, most accurate mix by carefully cleaning up dirty frequencies, applying the right amount of compression etc which is great. but, most importantly, i try to keep the soul and the spirit of the song alive, even if that at times means to overlook certain key aspects of mixing and not getting too technical.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: usually when a client sends me a session for mixing, i listen to his/her rough balance a couple times before touching any faders or plugins. i try to imbibe the soul and the feel of what the musician is trying to communicate. then i like to arrange and clean my session, colour code them, make appropriate groups etc so my mix process is very easy. i then try and build a solid rhythm structure and go step by step before i hear my mix in various environments like my car, my phone, my personal speakers etc before making any further tweaks and automation if required. my main goal is to simplify my mix process and make sure all the elements in the song have their own space to blend in with the song.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: its called Headroom Studio. my gear comprises an SSL Matrix 2 which i use for summing. i am an analog nut and i use a variety of hardware like the Manley VariMu, Dangerous master compressor, Avalon 747 eq comp, API 2500, TK audio master eq, the API lunchbos with the SSL G compressor.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: as engineers, my biggest inspirations have been Bruce Swedien, Bob Clearmountain, Tony Masseratti etc. as musicians they would be Bruno Mars, Earth wind and Fire, Maroon 5, Jain, Stromae, Hans Zimmer, DIplo, Imogen Heap, Adele, Frank Zappa, Aquillo, A R Rahman and many more
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: i primarily work as a mix and mastering engineer for songs and background scores