I help you when you are looking to mix and master your tracks or record high quality guitars for your songs. My main specialization is acoustic music and indy folk and rock projects.
I help you when you are looking to mix and master your tracks. I do a lot of acoustic and indy folk project mixing, take a listen to the examples. In my work, I use Logic pro as a main DAW, with high-quality UAD and Waves plugins and precise control via Yamaha HS speakers.
Portfolio: https://deekourtsman.com/reel/studio
I help you when you are looking for solos, fingerstyle leads or accompaniment, strumming, intricate guitar sound design. I've been playing guitar for decades, it's my main instrument. I do acoustic and electric guitars a lot in my studio, in various genres and styles. My studio equipment: Martin GPCPA3 acoustic guitar, Fender Tele and Epiphone SG electric guitars, Oktava 319 and AKG 451c mikes, ISA One preamp, high definition audio.
Portfolio: https://deekourtsman.com/reel/guitar
Contact me through the green button above and let's get to work.
Credits
Discogs verified credits for Дмитрий КурцманInterview with Dee Kourtsman
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: Flamenco live recordings - I did mixing and mastering, and some producing; I managed to make dry and flat sounding digital piano sounding as real one using special saturation and specialized reverbs.
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Both
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: If in the end you don't like the final mix, you'll get your money back.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: It's making music and close admiring to some of the greatest performers in the world.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: Can you do it by tomorrow? Yes, by tomorrow evening, if you send the files today. Can you make it sound as real? In most cases, yes; if not, we'll discuss how to mitigate it. Can you record missing parts? Absolutely yes.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: Great post-production cannot fix bad performance
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: What's your schedule? What's your sonic vision and references? Where are you going to send the final mix?
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: A Macbook, an Oktava 319 mike, a decent 2i2 sound card, a midi keyboard, an acoustic guitar.
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: As a professional, since 2023, and to that day I'd been doing it for a while already
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: Clear, transparent sound with intricate textures in the backgound
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Take a break, go for a walk and listen to your mix in your small earphones in the woods :) Add something imperfect as a texture - it brings lot of life and breath to the recording.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: My specialization is acoustic, folk, ethno music, and also rock music and live recordings.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: I am organized and very attentive to the client's schedule. Also, I always try to find the way to meet client's vision, even in the situations when it's not easy. My favourite example is making digital piano sounding as real, using special saturation process and specialized reverbs.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: Clarity
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: I start with grouping tracks and setting raw levels and pans. When the project is organized, I start mixing - sometimes from drums+bass, sometimes from vocals or even from guitars, it depends on the song. When it comes to mixing and mastering, I always keep the rule "the less is better" with plugins and in post-production. When mix is ready, I usually take a break and go walking outside, listening to the mix in my earphones with fresh ears. In mastering, I always listen on different monitors and sometimes compare with reference recordings of similar style. Usually I send the mix+master on the second day, when I sleep with it and better see the big picture in the morning. Then we discuss mix with the client and do changes as needed. Sometimes we argue on the changes, making sure we aim to the solution which is best for the song we are working on.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: It's Mac-based studio with analog+digital recording chain (Focusrite ISA One and Tascam) and monitors from Yamaha HS series (bigger HS7, smaller HS3). Mikes are Oktava 319 which I use for vocals and guitar overhead, and AKG 415 which I use for close miking.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: - The Beatles and early David Bowie - for clear and transparent sound picture - Olafur Arnalds - for textures and breath - Brian Eno - for ambient soundscapes - Mumford and Sons - for raw acoustic guitar energy
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: - mixing and mastering music projects (any number of tracks) - comping vocals - sound design (ambience, textures, fx, creative timbres) - recording acoustic and electric guitars
- Acoustic GuitarAverage price - $70 per song
- Electric GuitarAverage price - $70 per song
- Full instrumental productionAverage price - $400 per song
- Ghost ProducerAverage price - $500 per song
- Mixing EngineerAverage price - $400 per song
- Songwriter - MusicAverage price - $70 per song
- Mastering EngineerAverage price - $70 per song
- Logic Pro
- Waves
- UAD
- Spitfire
- EastWest
- Focusrite ISA One
- Yamaha HSx
- Oktava MK319
- AKG c415
- Martin GPACPA3
