Music Producer | Engineer

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

A: "Life Motivation" EP by Ghetto Riches now known as justsomeraps-notagangsta. The album did well with Spotify Editorial placement and tens of thousands of organic streams.

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

A: N/A

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. Analog limits my creativity. There are seemingly infinite options and faster options with digital.

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

A: It'll sound good.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The fans and making people happy.

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

A: What kind of music do you make? The good kind. JK. But seriously, what's good is good, I use samples from specific genres or instruments that are common in specific genres, but a lot of my overall songs are cross-overs of genre techniques.

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

A: I'm a musical genius. No, it's figuring out ways to overcome challenges in a software to achieve results that cater to a certain demographic/fanbase. It's not about producing music that is good so much as it's about producing music that caters to the brand in such a way CTR (click-through-rates) can be achieved. Anyone can produce a record these days, it's just about how the chosen style makes sense with the brand or occasion.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What's your brand? What fanbase are you trying to tap into?

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

A: Find a producer who can work fast and hard and provide options and results quickly. If a producer needs to spend a week to change a percussion loop that's a problem.

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

A: Laptop, solar charging block, global wifi block, headphones, laptop charger

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

A: I started as a hobby in 2010-11. In 2019 I landed a job as an instructor with Digital Media Academy in Vancouver for Ableton Live Production. I landed a 10/10 review across the board and ended up on the Trusted Faculty Members List. In 2021, I attended Berklee College of Music Online for Music Composition and instead switched to Artist Development Academy called Cosmic Academy, home to many famous EDM acts. In Cosmic Academy I attended feedback sessions aggressively and through learning from my colleagues I began producing at a professional-grade level, landing on Spotify Editorial, acquiring many signings with independent record labels, and getting on dozens of playlists, even offered sync deals for my self-released and produced hip-hop album. Currently, I am working under the alias DJ Medication with a strong branding strategy and selective release catalogue.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I would describe my style as very well composed in all aspects and with no particular signature mixdown style but a diverse sound selection with loud mastering.

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

A: Skrillex, because he isn't afraid to fail or do something that everyone doesn't like.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: One music production tip I'd give to start off selecting sounds based on how easy they will be to mix. I often select certain sounds because they already sound mixed when testing. Then, you don't really have to mix them later on, which is how you can achieve clear and loud masters.

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

A: I work on all sub-genres of EDM and all sub-genres of Hip-hop, including hybrids of both Hip-hop and EDM subgenres.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skills is my extremely acute hearing. I have 0 hearing loss across all 12 frequencies ranges in both ears except for -1 in one frequency range in the right ear, down to -6 being quite audible hearing for any given frequency range. I can hear things that even many highly success producers fail to pay attention to or at least are non-considerable to how certain sounds may affect listeners in negative ways.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring absolute expertise in all various options of how to push the creativity of a track using Ableton Live. As a certified Ableton Live instructor with Digital Media Academy (from Stanford University/UBC, Vancouver; not with the company Ableton) I have easily over 10,000 hours on Ableton having put out releases in almost every popular genre, including inventing own such as Celtic Bass and other experimental ideas. The best part of me as a producer/engineer is that I think from an artist/branding perspective with a strong insight into what fans are actually hearing rather than what us experienced professionals are.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I start off by throwing in some inspiring samples or producing something simple with 1-3 midi/audio tracks then build from there a stack or loop of what would be an essential section of the arrangement (curating a vibe). Then I extend out a basic arrangement or otherwise fitting for an adaptive arrangement then start working on some minor but effective mixdown with the basics down. Then I proceed with details and transitional fx to glue the arrangement together and do another session of vocal mixing with tools like brightening and cleaning to help settle in the instrumental. I focus a ton of mixing and compositional energy into developing a competitive low end then proceed with mastering and providing samples for song titles and branding ideas based on the production process.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I use the current version of Ableton Live Suite. I primarily use samples to produce my music in any key or rate, BPM, etc. I engineer with Ableton stock plugins, iZotope Ozone, and a ton of free but highly functional free Ableton audio effect plugins from third-party Ableton tools developers for de-essing etc. I use a fair bit of compression, sidechaining, etc. but like to keep things simple and bare which contributes to my highly competitive loudness in mixes/masters.

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

A: Skrillex, Dr. Dre, Zomboy, $uicideBoy$, Travis Scott, Hans Zimmer, Joyryde, and many many more.

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

A: Producing instrumental with clients vocal stems, providing remixes for original artists who want remix editions of their singles or an addition to their remix EPs/Albums.