Remote mixing and mastering

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Constant development. Everyday I learn something new from the industry and my customers. I like to challenge myself reaching the highest possible quality for every track and in every situation.

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

A: There are one "magic bullet" plugin that can make anything sound good. Plugins and gear is not the case, experience is what really matters.

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

A: I started with a home tape recorder. I recorded my acoustic guitar and instruments from the music school I attended exploring new sounds was a big joy for me. After I got my first PC things started to develop much faster, I tried different DAWs, starting Sonuy ACID, then Fruity Loops, then Samplitude. I spent a lot of time using Samplitude until in we learned Cubase in the collage, and that was it, the DAW of my choice. I played in different bands, genres varying from blues and jazz to metal, released several albums. So I know how the artist feels about their songs and how they want engineer to work with them.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work in Cubase for many years, it's a constantly developing DAW. I like new features implemented with every new release. For re-amping I mostly use Axe FXII and recently got the Neural DSP Quad Cortex. Sometimes use my custom-shop guitar tube heads + two CRATE 4x12 cabs and Warwick Extreme900 bass head with dedicated 4x10 AMPEG cab. Over time I turned to mostly ITB mixing, because it gives more flexibility, and the sound quality of today's hi end plugins is stellar. It's already been proved that people can't tell the difference between hardware compressor or mixing desk and their software emulation, Slate Digital VBC and VCC2 is a great example. After extensive tests I sold most of my hardware gear and invested in a better acoustic treatment for my mixing room. I could easily sell my guitar amps and work only with Axe FX and Quad COrtex, but they are two unique custom-shop pieces and besides that simply looks nice in the recording room :)

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

A: Andy Sneap

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

A: Listen to the portfolio

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My style is to always sound modern and not to stick to one thing. Always to listen to what the artist wants.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Thanx to my long time experience of working with different quality material I can make the good sound out of almost everything. I spend many years exploring guitar sound, finding new ways for micing the cab, reamping, tone matching, which gave me the ability to achieve any guitar sound you like. Tightening drums, vocal alignment, or drum replacement. Even if the drummer is totally off the click I can make it sound tight as heaven :) Want some special FX to be added, that's not a problem, since I'm an electronic musician (as a hobby) I can do whatever transition or FX you want or advise something you wouldn't imagine.

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

A: There are several tracks in my examples list where you would never tell that the drummer wasn't playing with click track at all and the singer couldn't reach any note, the guitar player was a mess. I fixed everything. It took me several days just to finish all edits before I even started mixing. Because of obvious reasons I can't name this band, because what happens in the mixing room stays in the mixing room :).

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. As I said I sold many of my analog gear cause today I feel like digital got extremely close to analog, there is no boundaries anymore. Digital allows me to make things faster and with more precision.

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

A: How long does it takes to mix one song? -It depends on a song's complexity. Maximum is 2 days for the first song in the album or EP and subsequent songs are much faster.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What are your sound preferences, your favorite artist and track where you like the sound of everything. Drums guitars vocals and so on. I need to know your tastes.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: The most accurate drum replacement is the one you do yourself. In Cubase it's to manually edit hit points and then extract them to a Midi file. This way you have full control over replaced velocity and timing.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: First thing is to organize the project. Create specific folders, make all necessary grouping and connections. Then perform all needed edits and cuts, after everything is sorted out and in good order I start mixing.

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

A: Genelec 8330, Quad Cortex, Maschine+, Guitar.

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

A: metal, rock, electronica.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I try to keep its original vibe. Try to keep all the ideas the artist wants to bring, make everything audible and clear. Sometimes I add some special FX when I feel there is a space for them, but the last word is always after the artist or producer.

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

A: Beside mixing, a very common thing is to tighten up drum performance and do some vocals correcting.

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

A: I love female vocals, so it would be a pleasure to work with Meg Myers for example.