Modern Music Producer

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

A: Proud to have mastered several albums for talented artist Donnie Castle. You can listen to one of his works which is our demo track here on SoundBetter, a truly superb artist and his sound is out of this world!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Working on building a strong presence right here on SounBetter. With a catalog of over 100 official mastered releases for independent artists our next goal is to offer our services for everyone here that's in use of great mastering.

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

A: We're new here on SoundBetter so don't really know anyone as of yet, but I'll be sure to update this with some great tips for mixing engineers soon.

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

A: I always give every project 100% of my focus and never settle for less than perfect. Neither should you!

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: There is no greater feeling than taking a track and making it sound as good as it possibly can, it is incredibly soul-pleasing (and pleasing for the ears) to listen to a track and figuring out exactly what tweaks it needs to bring out the magic it holds. Also to be able to offer that great feeling to independent artists to hear when their music sounds just like the professionals for the first time, that really warms the heart.

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

A: Q. What’s the difference between mastering and mixing? A. Mastering is not to be confused with mixing. In the mixing process, you work with every track of the song individually and you would not begin the mastering process until the mix is done and exported. Then you would take that exported track of the final mix and put it through a chain of effects to get it "mastered".

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: - What is your timeframe, when do you need the project finished? - How many tracks? - What sound are you looking for? - Got any reference tracks you want us to take inspiration from?

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

A: The most important thing is that you like the sound a mastering engineer offers, every engineer has their own character they bring to the work they master. Listen to the work they make and look at what their clients are saying to ensure that they offer a high-quality service. Don't get fooled by what gear people use, it's all about how it's used, so invest some time into finding an engineer that really knows their craft.

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

A: 1. iMac or MacBook pro 2. Korg Minilogue Analogue Synthesizer 3. Beyerdynamic DT-1770 Pro Headphones 4. Softube Console 1 5. Softube Console 1 Fader

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

A: Worked on everything from Hip-Hop, Rap, Trap, Synthwave, Electro, House, Techno, EDM, Singer-songwriter, Indie Pop, Pop, and more. Pretty much most modern genres, even if you've got a genre we've never tried before just send us some reference tracks and we'll figure out how to get you the sound you're looking for!

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: All our gear is measured by great precision to be symmetrical and fill a purpose to enhance the acoustics to suit a professional mastering listening environment. We use the Adam A77X's as our main speakers and reference listen on the Beyerdynamic DT 1770 Pro Headphones. We only use high-quality premium cables connecting the speakers to our Apollo Twin soundcard. For mixing porpuses we use the Softube Console 1 and the Console 1 Fader. Our mastering is made in the box with the best plugins on the market. All work is made in our main studio with Logic Studio X, iMac.

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

A: Dave Kutch, Stuart Hawkes, and Miles Showell, and the mastering engineers behind some of our favorite works which we have great respect for and get inspired from.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: This will always be a huge debate. But guys seriously, a decade ago analog would win over digital every time. But a lot has happened with technology since then and the digital replications of analog gear that's available as plugins today sound really, really good, and are in some cases impossible to hear any difference from the real deal. Hardware feels a lot nicer when working with it, but when it comes to how it sounds the difference is minimal to none. I only use the best high-quality emulated plugins around, and most importantly, I know how to use them to get a lush sound.

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

A: The biggest misconception I use to hear from clients is that a master should only be in -14 lufs. This is not correct and mastering a track for that loudness will not necessarily make it sound better. In fact, it's often the other way around, to get that mastered feeling and color all big artist's music have, you need to push the track through a certain process of limiting and compression (amongst other effects) and it needs to be pushed at least somewhere between -9 lufs to -7 depending on the sound and genre. While this can be overdone if done incorrectly, I would still say that a song should be louder than -14 lufs. Even if some streaming services turn down the volume of a track, it will still sound good if the master is good.

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

A: Been mastering over 12 years! Mastering is a great passion of mine and something that I do literally every day.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Wide, phat, colorful, in-your-face sound.

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

A: My favorite thing is to work with upcoming artists that do not have the same resources as big established ones who've got label backing, and yet still make their music sound just as professional. It's always a joy to be able to take someone's music and just enhance everything that makes it shine. I'm not in this for one-time gigs, I like to build relationships with artists and work alongside them on their journey.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Achieving perceived loudness while keeping the dynamics intact so that a track sounds competitive no matter where it's played.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: A good engineer should always bear in mind the original idea and feeling of a song, and not deviate too much from the artist's wishes. But with that said, mastering is still about coloring a track in a flattering way for its genre. Mastering without color would be boring and honestly, pretty unnecessary. So every great engineer has their own opinion and taste in what color that really makes a track perfect. What I bring to songs I master is my experienced taste in what I believe good music should sound like. A mastered track should feel alive, almost like you can feel the shape of the sound coming out of the speakers, not just a flat sound with bad limiting clipping the sound in all the wrong ways.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: The first thing is always to listen through the song and check for potential problems within the mix that can come in the way of making the master sound as good as possible. If I find anything problematic I have a dialogue with the artist and see if there's anything that can be done on their end before the mastering begins. The next step is to feel the song out, with its genre in mind (or reference tracks if submitted by the client), and decide what direction the mastering should go, and from there the mastering processing begins. It usually takes 1 day to master, and a 2nd day to listen for any errors or mistakes that slipped through from day one. After that, it'll be sent back to the client for feedback. If the client has any thoughts on what could be done differently we do a revision, this usually takes 1 day.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Train your ears, and always go with your gut! Do not do anything in a mix or production just because someone said so or because it's something you do out of habit. Instead, use your ears to listen if it feels right and if it makes a positive difference.

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

A: We've mastered mostly Electronic music ranging from Chillout to Synth-pop and Psytrance. We're also mastering a lot of Trap and Hip-Hop currently.