Mixing Engineer

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

A: My favorite project I have worked on is probably specifically my song called 'Voices'. I experimented a ton and almost every sound in it besides the drums was made from my voice. I recorded my self hundreds of times and pitched it to make a choir and did a lot of weird things to make my voice into all these different sounds that gave the song a really unique texture and tone.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I currently am working on freelance mixing projects for people as well as my own personal project Pluma where I make poppy edm music. I also do music production tutoring for some people as well which has been super fun!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. Analog is cool and I love using it ocassionally but at the end of the day you can be way more precise with digital plugins. I have all the analog remakes from waves and UAD which are great to use in combination with stuff like Fab Filter's Pro Q3. One of my favorite mixing engineers of all time Andrew Scheps uses only digital and he has won multiple grammy's. So if he is fine using only digital I don't think analog is as important as people think it is.

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

A: I promise to spend the time and to give your song the love it needs. I also am a good communicator. I hate working with people that take forever to respond so if you choose to work with my I will be easy to reach and try to be available quickly for any question you have!

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I LOVE mixing, I just find it super satisfying and to be able to listen to the before and after and hear the difference is awesome. I also love getting to make people excited about their music and take a song that sounded amateur before and turn it into a professional sounding song ready for the radio/

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

A: How much does it cost? : I charge based off of the number of stems. Sometimes I get people that send 70-100 stems and that takes a lot longer then if I get 20 stems. I charge 10 dollars per stem because that seems to balance out how long I will need to spend on it!

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

A: I think sometimes people think I can make a bad song into a great song. At the end of the day the actual song is probably 75% and the mixing is only 25% or less. I think mixing can make an ok song good and a good song great but a bad song will still be a bad song.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Start off with the BPM and Key. Then more broad stuff like what is the emotion you want the song to have. Where is the perfect place you would want someone to listen to your song? (If its at a festival you would mix it different then if they wanted someone to listen to it on the beach). Also I always ask for reference tracks so I can see similar songs that they like and it gives me a better idea of what they want the end product to sound like sonically.

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

A: Be very specific with what you want. I will try my best to do what is right for the song but I cannot read minds unfortunately. So if you want me to do something specific just tell me :). Also I always ask for a reference song or two that is of a similar style so I can base the mix off that and try to get the exact sound you want.

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

A: Easy question! Fab Filter Pro Q3, Fab Filter Pro L2, Fab Filter Pro R, Ableton and my widescreen monitor. I genuinely have no idea how people work on laptop screens. I love having a big screen so I can look at multiple things at once.

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

A: My career path to becoming a mixing engineer started at the Icon Music Production School in Burbank where I learned all about mixing and mastering as well as music production. I right way fell in love with the mixing side and got addicted to finding new ways to make each element sound crispy and clean. What got me into making music in the first place was hearing songs that sounded amazing on my headphones and being curious why they did. I wanted to be able to give that effect to the people that listen to the songs that I work on. I have been mixing professionally for 3 years now, and I feel like im constantly getting better. By not working on only one style I have learned a ton. What I learned from mixing guitar driven pop songs helped make my edm mixes better and vice versa. Mixing and making music in general has no ceiling to how good you can get which is what gets my excited about it and what keeps me going.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: When I am mixing I do a lot of different styles and try to be surgical and do whats best for the song and bring out the producers style and not add to much of my own style. When im producing and mixing my own music I make simple electronic music. Simple not in a boring way but I love when there is less elements and each one is perfect instead of a lot of elements that dont work together as well. Grovy trap drums with soft synths and aggressive bass is probably the simplest way to explain my style.

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

A: There is a ton of artists I would like to work with but one recently that I have loved is Dayglow. I love his lyrics and energy and I think it would be super fun to work on a song of his!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Compress your vocals. And compress them hard. I find that compressed vocals end up sounding a lot more professional and can allow them to punch through a mix. Using multiple different kinds of compressors each not doing to much can add up to make a clean and powerful vocal that doesn't sound over compressed.

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

A: I personally produce electronic music and have experience with all kinds of styles in that genre but I also mix pop, indie, hip hop, and rock. I really love working on all kinds of music and doing that keeps me learning and keeps mixing interesting!

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My biggest skill set is working with drums. I think drums are often over looked but they bring someone to the feeling of a song. I spend a lot of time on drums and have learned how to really make them pop and make the rest of the elements of a song grove with them which ends up making the mix of a song turn out a lot better. By mixing drums right you can make a song feel a lot cleaner. By making the drums not take up as much space in a mix but still sound loud and powerful you leave yourself a lot of headroom for the rest of the stems.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring 3 years of mixing experience and the ability to make your tracks sound professional. Making every element hit and bringing out the emotion of a song and a feeling is what makes a mix good and at the end a song.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: My work process normally starts with breaking down the stems of a track and organizing them into groups. When im mixing I find the two most important elements. Most times its the Drums & Vocal or Drums and Bass. By spending my time to make the drums and vocals sit together perfectly it makes the rest of the mix easy!

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio is in my house, I live in a two bedroom and one was made into a complete studio with proper acoustic treatment and an output mixing desk. I use Yamaha HS7 speakers because I love the way the mids sound and im super familiar with their sound. I also use Avantone Mix Cubes as reference speakers to check mixes as well.

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

A: I am inspired by a lot of different styles and artists. Really depends on my mood but genre blending music is what gets me excited, especially the mix of indie / pop and electronic music.

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

A: I specialize as a mixing engineer as well as music producer. Most of my work is doing the final mix down to get my clients songs to sound professional and clean!