Remote mixing and production

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

A: N/A

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Building out my catalog of original Pop and R&B productions while taking on mixing clients whose music genuinely excites me. After over a decade working across studios, live sound, and artist development in New York City, I'm focused on channeling all of that experience into working with independent artists who are serious about their craft and ready to take their sound to a professional level. If that's you, let's talk.

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

A: N/A

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital with analog intention. The tools I use are primarily digital because the flexibility, recall, and precision are unmatched for the way I work. But the decisions I make, how much compression, how much saturation, how much space, are guided by analog principles that I learned firsthand working in analog rooms early in my career. Interning at Magic Shop gave me a deep understanding of how analog signal flow actually works, how transformers add character, how tape creates density, how a room sounds when it's truly dialed in. I carry that understanding into every digital session I run. I want warmth, depth, and the feeling that sounds exist in a physical space. Digital gets me there faster and more consistently, and for Pop and R&B especially, the clarity of a high quality digital workflow is a genuine advantage.

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

A: The moment a mix clicks. There's a specific point in every session where everything stops being a collection of sounds and starts being a record, where it has weight and space and feels finished. Chasing that moment is why I do this. I also genuinely love working with independent artists who are building something real without a major label behind them. After over a decade in this industry working across studios, live environments, and artist development, I've seen what independent artists are capable of when they have the right people around them. There's more creative honesty in that space than almost anywhere else in music right now, and being part of someone's creative process at that level never gets old.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The moment a mix clicks. There's a specific point in every session where everything stops being a collection of sounds and starts being a record, where it has weight and space and feels finished. Chasing that moment is why I do this. I also genuinely love working with independent artists who are building something real without a major label behind them. After over a decade in this industry working across studios, live environments, and artist development, I've seen what independent artists are capable of when they have the right people around them. There's more creative honesty in that space than almost anywhere else in music right now, and being part of someone's creative process at that level never gets old.

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

A: "Can you make my vocals sound like this artist?" I can absolutely reference that artist's vocal treatment and apply similar techniques, but your voice is yours and that's a good thing. The goal is to make your vocals sound like the best version of themselves, not a copy of someone else. As someone who has spent years coaching vocalists as a Music Director, I understand performance from the inside out, and that shapes how I treat vocals at the mix stage. "Do I need to send stems or just a rough mix?" Stems always. A rough mix limits what I can do significantly. The more separation and control I have over individual elements, the better your final mix will be. Ideally, the stems will be correctly labeled so I know what I'm working with. Instead of "Audio_01_1" It's better if they are labeled as "Kick", "Snare Top", Ld Vox" Etc. "How many revisions do I get?" Three [3] revisions are included. In my experience, if we've communicated clearly upfront about references and direction, you won't need all of them.

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

A: That a mix can fix a bad recording or a bad arrangement. It can't. A great mix makes a good record sound great. It does not make a fundamentally broken record sound good. I learned this in professional rooms early in my career and I've seen it confirmed on every project since. This isn't me being discouraging. It's me being honest because I'd rather tell you upfront than take your money and deliver something neither of us is proud of. If I listen to your session and there are issues that live above the mix stage, I'll tell you exactly what they are and what your options are before we go any further. After years of working with artists across recording, arrangement, and vocal production, I can usually help you solve those upstream problems too if you need it.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: 1. What's the emotional core of this song and what do you want people to feel? 2. Can you send me 2 to 3 reference tracks that represent how you want this to sound? 3. What do you feel isn't working in your current rough mix or stems? 4. What's your release timeline? 5. Have you worked with a mixing engineer before, and if so, what did or didn't work about that experience? These questions aren't just admin. They tell me everything about how to approach the session and whether we're a good fit. After over a decade of running sessions and working with artists at every stage of their development, I've learned that the most important part of any project happens before I create a session.

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

A: Listen to their work first, not their credentials. A long list of famous names means nothing if you don't connect with how their mixes actually sound. Send any provider you're considering a reference track, something that sounds the way you want your record to sound, and see how they respond. If they engage with it thoughtfully and ask smart questions, that's a good sign. If they just say yes to everything immediately, be cautious. Also look for someone who has actually been in the room. There's a difference between someone who learned audio entirely on their own and someone who has worked in professional environments alongside experienced engineers and artists. That experience creates standards that don't come from tutorials. And be as specific as possible about what you want. The more clearly you can articulate the feeling you're after, the closer your first mix will be to the final.

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

A: 1. My laptop with Pro Tools, everything lives here 2. The Steven Slate VSX headphone system, my mixing environment no matter where I am 3. FabFilter Pro-Q 3, if I can only have one plugin, this is it 4. A UA Apollo interface, clean preamps and real analog color in a small box 5. A Neumann U87 mic, because if I'm stranded, I'm still recording

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

A: I've been working in audio professionally since 2011, starting as an intern at Magic Shop Recording Studio, one of New York City's most respected analog recording facilities. From there I moved into post-production at Gigantic Studios, where I worked on film and media projects covering dialogue editing, ADR, sound design, and foley. That combination of music and post-production gave me a technical foundation that most engineers who come up purely in music don't have. In parallel I built a freelance practice working with independent artists across recording, mixing, and artist development. From 2017 to 2022 I served as Music Director at a New York City church, leading musicians and vocalists through weekly rehearsals, live sound execution, and performance development. That role deepened my understanding of music as a craft and as a live experience in ways that purely studio-based work never could. I hold a Bachelor of Business Administration from Five Towns College, which gave me the business foundation to run my practice professionally, manage client relationships, and treat my work like the business it is. Over 10 years in, I've worked across studio recording, live sound, post-production, and independent artist development. Every part of that path shows up in the work I deliver today.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Clear, warm, and intentional. I don't mix to impress other engineers. I mix to serve the song. That means I'm not chasing hyped high frequencies or unnecessarily aggressive low end. I want the record to feel full and professional on a $30,000 studio system and still hit correctly on a phone speaker. That philosophy came from real experience. Working in professional analog rooms early in my career taught me what a finished record is actually supposed to feel like. Spending years as a Music Director taught me that the emotion of a performance is the whole point, and everything else exists to protect it. In R&B and Pop especially, the mix should feel invisible. You shouldn't be thinking about the mix. You should just be feeling the song.

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

A: Kehlani. What draws me to her is the way she approaches the creative process itself, not just the finished product. Watching how she collaborates with her producers on a song like Folded, the level of intentionality, the trust between her and the people in the room, and the way every sonic decision serves the emotional truth of the song, that's the kind of creative environment I want to be part of. Her records feel deeply personal without ever sacrificing polish, and that balance is genuinely hard to achieve. It requires a team that listens as much as it contributes. After years of working alongside musicians, vocalists, and artists at every stage of development, I know how rare that kind of collaborative chemistry is. A session with Kehlani would demand everything I have as both an engineer and a musician, and that's exactly the kind of work I'm here for.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Sidechain your reverb returns to the lead vocal. Most dense mixes feel cluttered not because there's too much going on, but because the reverb tails from instruments are competing with the vocal in real time. A gentle sidechain duck on your reverb buses keyed to the lead vocal creates space automatically every time the vocal hits. The mix opens up, the vocal cuts through, and you didn't have to sacrifice any of the atmosphere you built. It's one of those moves that feels subtle until you bypass it and suddenly everything sounds crowded again. I picked up habits like this from being in professional rooms early in my career and watching how experienced engineers created space without removing energy.

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

A: Primarily Pop and R&B/Soul. These are the genres I know most deeply as both a producer and a listener, and they're where I deliver the strongest results. I'm also experienced in post-production audio for film and media, having worked at Gigantic Studios in NYC on dialogue editing, ADR, sound design, and foley, so if your project lives at the intersection of music and picture I'm comfortable in that world too. If you're not sure whether your genre is a fit, just send me a reference track and I'll tell you honestly.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Vocal mixing in Pop and R&B. Getting a vocal to sit in front of a record, present, clear, and emotionally connected, without it sounding overprocessed or detached from the instrumental is genuinely difficult. It requires knowing when to use compression as a creative tool versus a corrective one, understanding how reverb and delay create depth without washing things out, and having the patience to automate every phrase so the energy of the performance comes through. This skill was sharpened over years of working directly with artists on their vocal performances, not just their recordings. As a Music Director I was responsible for coaching singers through delivery, timing, and emotional execution in live environments every single week. That experience gave me an instinct for what a vocal performance is trying to say, and how to make sure the mix lets it say it.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: A producer's perspective, a musician's ear, and real studio experience. Most mixing engineers approach a session purely as a technical problem, levels, EQ, compression. I approach it as a creative problem too. Because I build records myself, I can hear when an arrangement is cluttering the mix, when a vocal performance has a better take buried in the comps, or when a small production tweak would make the mix land harder. I'll always flag these things. You don't have to take the advice, but I'll never stay quiet about something that could make your record better. I'm also a lifelong musician. I spent five years as a Music Director at a New York City church leading musicians and vocalists through weekly rehearsals, live performances, and arrangements, which means I don't just hear your record as a collection of tracks. I hear it as a performance, and I know what it takes to make one feel alive. My engineering roots go back to interning at Magic Shop Recording Studio in NYC, a world class analog facility where I learned session craft, signal flow, and the standards that define a professional record. That foundation shapes everything I do at the mix stage. I've been doing this since 2011 across recording, mixing, live sound, and artist development. What that means for you is simple. You're not hiring someone who learned to mix on YouTube. You're hiring someone who has been in real rooms, with real artists, building real records for over a decade.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: First I listen to your rough mix or stems all the way through without touching anything. I want to understand the emotional intention of the record before I make a single move. Then I'll send you a quick note on what I'm hearing and what I plan to address so that we're aligned before I dive in. I build the mix in passes: low end foundation first, then mids and presence, then top end air and space, with vocals last since everything else exists to support them. I'll deliver a first mix with notes, take your feedback, and refine from there. I include three [3] revisions and communicate throughout so there are no surprises. This process was shaped by over a decade of running sessions end to end, from mic placement and gain staging at the tracking stage all the way through final delivery. I learned early on at Magic Shop that the best sessions have structure and intention from the first moment to the last. I bring that same discipline to every project I take on, whether it's a single or a full EP.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I mix from a cozy home setup in NYC built around Pro Tools. Working in New York means space is a luxury, so rather than fighting a compromised room, I mix on the Steven Slate VSX headphone system, a calibrated, acoustically modeled monitoring solution that replicates world class mixing environments with a level of accuracy no small NYC room can reliably deliver on its own. What that means for you as a client is that your record isn't being checked against one imperfect space. It's being referenced across multiple modeled environments so it translates correctly on speakers, earbuds, phones, and in the car. My foundation in analog signal flow goes back to my time at Magic Shop Recording Studio, one of NYC's most respected analog facilities, and that understanding of how sound actually behaves shapes every decision I make even when working entirely in the box.

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

A: From a production standpoint, Metro Boomin and Boi-1da for their ability to build atmosphere and tension. On the mixing and sonic side, Tom Maserati is the standard for Pop and R&B. The way he handles vocal presence, groove, and low end without ever losing warmth or intimacy is something I study constantly. My appreciation for that level of craft goes back to my time interning at Magic Shop Recording Studio in NYC, where I was surrounded by world class engineers working at the highest level every day. That environment set the bar for me early and it's never moved. As artists, Frank Ocean and SZA inspire me because their records demand that every element serves the emotion. Nothing is in the way. That's the standard I hold my own mixes to.

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

A: Most of my clients come to me with a finished or near-finished record that isn't translating the way they hear it in their heads. Typically that's a Pop or R&B song where the vocals need to sit right, the low end needs cleaning up, and the overall mix needs depth and dimension. I also work with artists who've recorded their own vocals at home and need someone to make them sound professional and polished — that's probably the most common scenario I see.Beyond mixing, I've spent over 10 years working with independent artists across recording, arrangement, and vocal production. So if you come to me mid-process and still developing your song or figuring out your sound, I can help with that too. I've guided artists from a rough idea all the way to a release-ready record, and that full-picture experience informs every mix I deliver.