Audio Engineering

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

A: I was happy enough to spend some time with Alex Tomann, who is one of the best Recording and Mixing Engineers in Austria nowadays. He showed me some neat tricks and explained a lot about the daily business of an Engineer to me. I also adore Sylvia Massy (she does the weirdest and probably most inspiring work out there!) and Steve Albini (mainly because Nirvana`s In Utero was the one Album who guided me through a quite exzessive Youth...)

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I got a major in psychology and am trained in therapeutical communication (an artefact from an earlier life that I find quite useful still nowadays), so the one skill that really makes me stand out is probably that I got great intuition and am really good at setting the mood for a certain piece. In the end, music is all about communicating your emotions and that`s often the hardest part about recording: the best equipment/micplacing/mixing won`t fix a lack of expression in the performance.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I`d consider myself oldschool and are therefore very much into Onetakes, like: "you want to record a song then the very first step is to practice it until you can play it all the way without major issues." On the rest, I`d say once again that this just depends on the demands of the project...

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Right now, the most sophisticated gear I own are probably my Haigner Monitors which are custom made and cannot be purchased on the open market. They are built by some crack in Vienna who basically spent the past 20 Years developing those fuckers. Let`s just say, you wouldn`t believe what difference a decend pair of Monitors can do to the quality of your work until you experienced it on your own :p...Apart from that, I am currently building up a mobile studio which can be easily transported to wherever I need it so the core is a 16ch. inline Console with Firewire integration (Allen&Heath ZED-R16). This one is a hybrid between analog and digital and allows me to do a complete analog Mixdown while still being able to get the advantages of a digital workflow (e.g. the pult can also be used as a MIDI-controller, etc.). The PreAmps are nothing special but I´m really happy with this one b/c. the workflow is just bummer! Apart from that I got a couple of Microphones (AT, Sennheiser, Shure, AKG, the standards are there ;)...) and some outboard gear (Compressors and a YAMAHA ProR3 Reverb which really brought my mixes to a different level as well). The setup is a work in progress of course but I´m pretty confident by now that I can deliver some serious quality as is. I´m currently saving up for my first Distressor and am thinking about purchasing some decent PreAmps for e.g. nicer vocals with that vintage sound already included on the record and also there are still some Mics on my wishlist but that`s a long term investment I´d say... On the software side, I´m stocked with the Softube Classic channel emulation of the Pultec EQs and Compressors (I hope to get one of those as hardware as well one day but that`s more the "yeah, keep on dreaming" kinda thing right now :p) and am proud owner of the complete Soundtoys Plugin Suite (they really rock!). The masters I usually do with Ozone 6 which is a really neat all-in-one Bundle for making things Loud and shiny at the end of the signalchain. Oh and on the question of DAW: I work with Cubase 8.5 and Ableton Live 9, so if you got Logic or ProTools I´m perfectly happy if you send me some stems (but now we`re allready talking workflow so I leave things here ;)...)

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

A: That really depends on the project I´m currently working on but in a standard recording setup I would take the part of figuring out all the technical and logistical questions, do the concepts and preproduction, give a hint or two (if needed) and see that during the recordings the workflow is steady and everything works as supposed. And then there`s the mixing of course (which I usually do on my own). Often I also do the masters (although I wouldn`t consider myself a Mastering Engineer but that is a question of budget) and prepare the images for pressing (if we`re talking a release on CD). Usually, you can expect a .mp3/.wav/.whateveryouneed or image ready for distribution at the end of the project...

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Definetely analog. Not only because it sounds better but I just like the tactile experience of working with analog gear. Turning potis and moving faders is so much more fun than sitting in front of a computer...

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

A: I`m not happy until you are happy and therefore very dedicated to the projects I´m involved in. I also usually wouldn`t accept a job if I´m not into it so you can always count on me giving it all I got.

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

A: A technitian is not a wizard who can fix every shit just like that. We try of course, but if your tech says something like "this will not work as you expect it to", you should probably listen to him or her. There`s usually a reason for such remarks...

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: That very much depends on the client. But I usually like to know who they are and what are their reasons for starting a particular project (like, what`s the story behind a song?, where did the inspiration come from?, where do you want to go with this?, etc.)

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Try to keep things as simple and straightforward as possible (like: "what you can`t do with 16 tracks you won`t be able to do with 32..."). And don`t try to "fix it in the mix". It will not work as you imagined it, leaving you unsatisfied in the end...

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: That depends on what the song (or better: Artist) needs. Sometimes I´m just a recorder and therefore stay in the background as much as possible, sometimes I will give strong advice on certain parts or even the arrangement alltogether. My main contribution anyhow is to look after all the technical stuff and set the right mood so the Artist can concentrate on their performance. And afterwards we will probably talk about it and see if we are, where we wanted to be or if there`s still something missing and how we could fix that then...

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

A: I was really honored to record a band called "The Gitarren der Liebe". They do Post-Punk and are composed of a female vocalist who used to do Jazz, a guitarist, a drummer and - the most outstanding about them - a violinist doing the bass. Recording them was a real challenge and I still like to listen to the pieces. I did the recordings and the mixes on that project...

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Lately I did a lot of Film/Dokumentary/ENG, Livesound, Singer/Songwriter, Punk and Electronica...

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

A: Nope, I´m afraid not :p...

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: That it doesn`t feel like a job (even though it can be quite exhausting at times...).

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

A: I consider this a trick-question :p...

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

A: Working on a creative project together is often enough a bit like entering a relationship. If your guts tell you that something`s wrong, it probably is. No matter how fancy things look on the outside, if the chemistry isn`t right, you will probably end up in a mess, losing your goal in some ego-shit you weren`t asking for in the first place...

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Quick and dirty usually works best for me. I don`t like to get cought up in endless "what if..."-games and am very quick to make a decission...

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

A: Whatever comes along, except plain Pop. If the music is only a mere facade or feels empty, I probably am going to refuse recording it b/c. "what should I record there?"... Apart from that, I had some Punkrock/Post-Punk, Progressive Rock, Singer/Songwriter and, of course, Electronica. I can also imagine doing Jazz and HipHop since all of the stated here are genres I got intensively in touch over the years (see vita for details)...