Self-taught audio editor

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I haven't created a lot of original material, and all the tracks I have are unreleased, as I didn't know a lot about what I was doing, but still had an impression I could eventually start "nailing" what I want to hear in a song. My most recent experience with a YouTube-special rip-off of "Real American" by Rick Derringer proved to me that the original assignment was complete - a friend of mine wanted to use that song but was worried his video might get nuked via copyright, so he asked me to create this cheap, low-effort cover of it with him singing on top of it. The topic of his video was a gameplay review of Wrestling Revolution 2D, which in its nature is quite silly, goofy, but also quite interesting & challenging as a game. Upon request I could provide more details on it & you might as well hear an unreleased and unused short cue I made for aforementioned friend's gaming podcast idea (the idea didn't last long but I was told that track I made was going to be used). To summarize, if you need certain accents you know your music has, I will help bring them out more. If you have expectations towards cheap/low-effort covers or original tracks, they will be met.

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

A: At this point, I'd consider the MTV Unplugged mock-up of Sappy by Nirvana to be my current opus magnum. I used different tricks in the book: source separation AI, leaked multitracks of this song & some other ones off of the band's legendary acoustic performance, the voice-cloning software with the sole purpose of replicating Kurt Cobain's voice off of that show to later try & match the reverb in the venue (on the recording anyway). Heavy & complexed sampling, as well as transposing of the "new" samples, was done on all tracks. Krist's acoustic bass to match the original, Kurt & Pat Smear's guitar, Dave Grohl's drumbeat - all to sound like the band actually played it there, but it just didn't make the final cut or was a specific live TV exclusive. The imagination has no limits.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: An Alice in Chains MTV Unplugged mock-up of a song that was rumoured to be on the setlist, but was cut for different reasons.

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

A: No, but I'm looking to connect with people. There's a very high chance of meeting some living legends of the industry, from what I saw.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital, as of now. Never had an experience with analog yet.

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

A: Doing it to the best of my knowledge & abilities.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love how nowadays there are so many production nuances to finally have a workaround for & so many different ideas to help come true. And no, an average AI cover is not included there.

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

A: I can only imagine

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

A: I've been told I'm trying to make a buck off of what I don't own. No, it only resulted in clicks & views on YouTube, where I never even thought about monetizing any video on any channel I run. And that was only when I was anxious & passive and certainly didn't want to hit the platform like this. I'm looking to understand if I'm going to convince anyone with such a specific portfolio of edited work that originally, a long time before I made a fan edit, I never participated in creating.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What if our result matches your expectations?

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

A: You have to really think about it well. I'm yet to earn any real experience in working relations aspect of the interest we might share.

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

A: Laptop, Internet, Keyboard, Mouse, Headphones

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

A: My career path is completely unrelated to this at this stage of my life. I'm currently making a living elsewhere in logistics.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Overwhelming with sampling, less compression-dependent, very demanding about the final result and feeling the need to create additional tracks/sessions to add what I think the song may be lacking. Wanting simplicity of the sound achieved by complexity of work.

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

A: Any artist that happens to come across my profile, check out my Linktree & actually test me.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: You might have to let your ears rest after an intense session. Trust me, the next time you come back to your song - you'll realize your work is far from over.

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

A: I usually work on a variety of soundtracks (anime OST, wrestling entrance music both released & unreleased), but post-punk and grunge music also have my heart.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Getting it right more times than not. It applies to different skills I have, quite frankly. You want a mix, a restoration, a remake, a reimagination in a different setting - I'll do it to the best of my capabilities. No Suno AI or anything from that category (with the voice-cloning being the only exception to match the potentially new image/setting of the song and train the specific voice models)

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: So I mainly do editing on my laptop in Audio Audition & iZotope RX Audio Editor. I might resort to using source separation AI as well if the complexity of the situation requires some isolated/separated bits that'd take a really extensive period of time to produce, let alone make perfect if done manually (in a program called ISSE, for example). When I have to produce a cheap rip-off, I use Caustic on my Samsung tablet, which would be laughable compared to Cubase or FL Studio. I'd make drums, bass & some synths there first, transfer the multitracks to my laptop & take it from there in a multitrack session. Also, while on my laptop, I'd record, edit, master & mix the guitar & all the tracks I recorded & deemed pretty successful. I'd use my amp & audio interface for my guitar.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: It's too primitive to a point where it's embarassing, but sometimes I use more than my MSI laptop. I have a Peavey Rage 258 guitar amp, a Behringer U-Phoria UMC 22 audio interface, a Cort electric guitar and a pair of Phillips SHB3075 headphones.

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

A: Steve Albini, Butch Vig, Toby Wright, Aleksei Vishnya, James Alan Johnston

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

A: So far, I haven't made a cent from what I've been doing, because it'd be illegal to monetize fan edits of material I never owned or truly had a license to make myself a cut from.