Mixing & Mastering

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I will try to make it sound professionaI and punchy. I will shape it in a way it will sound competitive, and I will try to bring out details and maybe add nice little effects. The emotion of a song is very important to me. I can completely exchange drumounds (bassdrum, snare, toms), if they are not well recordet, or played poorly.

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

A: For mixing: Turn a bad song (or a badly produced one) into a good one. It will still be bad with better sound. I can´t repair all kinds of flaws which happened in the recording. Some things are fixable, some not. For mastering: I can´t fix stuff that obviously went wrong during the mixing or recording process.I for example can´t really turn down a hihat track seperately in the mastering stage... I always have to treat the track as a whole.

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

A: There are alot. Too many to list them all. :)

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

A: In most cases, my work sounds more expensive than it is. That´s what other clients told me.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don´t be afraid to do things which might not be so common. Be creative. Some very pragmatic tips: Always record DI tracks for guitars and bass, alongside any miced amp setups. Do any drumediting duties before recording the rest of the tracks. Always record a pair of stereo drum room mics, no matter how bad the room sounds.

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

A: Mostly heavier style rock, metal & punk music. In general every kind of music with distorted electric guitars & real drums.

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

A: Mixing and mastering, but also editing and recording.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I´m working at home. I have a small but efficient setup with Cubase, Wavelab and a ton of plug ins, RME Fireface UFX & Genelec 1030A + Sub. There´s some outboard gear also, but I hardly use it. :)

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

A: "Can you handle our kind of music?" - Probably yes, if you can tell me what it´s about. "Is it well enough recorded?" - I have to hear the single tracks, if there´s anything bad, I will tell you. "We recorded ourselves in the rehersal room, is that okay?" - Depends on the room and your skills and equipment. I mixed a lot of records, which have been recordet this way, and they sound great, I think :)

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

A: I recorded, mixed and mastered an album for some good friends of mine, called SPIN MY FATE. The whole process took about a year of time. We tried a lot of things out, and just had a good time. The album sounds killer, at least that´s what people say :)

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Mixing some stuff for a post-black metal band.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I´m working 95% digital these days. For me it is faster and more flexible. I did a lot of mixing with analog eqiupment some years ago, and I always felt a bit limited. Soundwise, digital stuff is getting better all the time, so the argument of "analog sounds better" is kind of out of the way for me.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Being creative and in the best case, give a better result than the client expects.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What kind of sound are you looking for? What is your background as a band or artist? What do you want to achive with this song/album? I mainly try to check out, in which direction the whole project should go soundwise.

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

A: Make sure your tracks are prepared well. The better the material is produced, recorded and edited (if needed), the easier and faster your mix can be done. Don´t contact any serious mix engineer with a bunch of crappy, unsorted & bad sounding recordings. Provide a roughmix.

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

A: Laptop with Cubase, electric guitar, Fireface UCX, Slate VMS, Headphones.

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

A: I started working at Woodhouse Studios in 2001 as an assistent engineer, and I´m self employed since 2009.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Loud, modern & detailed. But not too much plastic. I personally don´t like if stuff is overedited.

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

A: Any band which makes great music.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I´m a musician myself, so I hear stuff in a musical way. I´m not afraid of doing things, that are not written in the "engineers handbook". So I break rules sometimes, to achieve certain things in sound.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Make a coffee, listen to the tracks, sort & gainstage them while listening. I do a quick leveling of all the tracks, then route them to subgroups. Then I usually start mixing the drums, then bass, guitars, vocals & keys.