Experienced Producer

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Lots of different singer, songwriter production. As well as my own solo career, Naftali Blumenthal

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

A: YES Mark Prentice is incredible at Bass. FLAWLESS playing. Yoed Nir, and Noam H.W., INCREDIBLE string player. Salit Lahav, AMAZING flute player. Yoad Nevo, INCREDIBLE mixer. Jordan Perlson, AMAZING drummer.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Definitely digital because everything is really close these days and why have so much equipment if you can get away without it. I'm sure I love the analog stuff, but I definitely find it cooler to focus on getting good at the digital stuff because the potential is endless :-) and if you need something analog, it's really easy to outsource these days, which is what I'll do sometimes if I'm looking for a certain feel.

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

A: I will put all my effort in to making you love the final product

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love taking ideas and making it tangible in a way that it can reach people all over the world. I love taking deep Meaningful messages and heartfelt melodies and packaging it in a way that it can inspire somebody. You never know who needs to hear something at a specific time, and your song might just be the one that comforted someone or gave them joy at a time they needed it most. I also enjoy getting exactly what a customer wants. Even if it's something that I don't necessarily agree with, but if I got what they had in mind, to me that's a success.l

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

A: How much do you charge to tune and process vocals. My answer is, it depends how long the song is and how many vocal tracks there are :-) I don't wanna charge too much for work that takes me quick. And I also don't wanna charge too little for work that takes a very long time. Therefore, It really depends on the project and the intricacies of it.

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

A: That I know exactly how everything is gonna take me. Wrong. Somethings sometimes might take me 10 minutes and sometimes it might take me a few days. I don't stop trying until I feel that I nailed it. And there's no way to know that. But when I feel it, I know. Of course, if I need to force something for a deadline, I definitely can, but that's all another story lol

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: If they have any specific requests of instrumentation, Sound, feel, and tempo. I usually try to tackle this in the beginning so we can get started right away on the same page.

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

A: Listen to the showcase examples of stuff I've produced and research my own music. If you like the feel, then that's what you'll get. Every song is unique and different, and therefore there is no one style. My only style is heart and soul. If you like that, then I'm the right one for you :-) I will take vocalist who are not that great at pitch and make them sound great because to me the perfect take is not the perfect pitched ones, but rather the perfect emotion ones. and when you get that, I can tune vocals and make them sound super natural and tight.

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

A: MacBook three, Apollo twin, SM 7B, Midi Keyboard with pedal, DT 77 PRO headphones...

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

A: I've been doing this probably for about 15 years. I've been playing guitar and piano and flute since I'm probably like five years old got into the recording when I was trying to make demos of my own compositions and was never happy working with people that I paid money for because of all the back-and-forth and never getting what I really wanted. Spent a lot of time in entering by some great engineers, and took many courses as well from the top in the industry. I've been performing by concerts of all sizes for many years and having composing and producing my own music for a very long time before I started doing it for other artists. I never really planned on doing it for others, but once people started hearing my stuff, they started asking me to do it for them, and the rest his history.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Pretty, ambient, warm, soulful, deep....

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

A: Any that has soulful music that brings happiness and healing to listeners.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Having the vocal fit right in the pocket can really make or break a song. I've heard terrible mixes. But then, they were easily fixed when the vocal had more processing and better compression and balance of the volume. Sometimes people don't want to over compress things, but the truth is, it's an art. And if you know how to do it well, that is the secret source. The tip for this, is listening to the mix very low. When you do that, you can really find that sweet spot pocket, and then once you find it, you can saturate and cook up that vocal to make it crispy in your face warm and yummy. One more tip, as a producer and arranger and mixer, it's easy to think that I know better than the clients. After many years of experience, I definitely realize that it's not about what I want or think is right, it's about getting what the client wants. Rule, the client is always right, and if you get that, you nailed it.

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

A: I really work on all different styles. Generally I'm working with singer songwriters who have original songs and don't necessarily categories any specific genre. I'm really open to any style that speaks to the heart.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is finding the sweet spot where it impacts the listener and makes the artist shine in every way possible. I always aim to have the vocal fitting right in the pocket, strong and upfront, and bringing out every frequency that sounds great. I like to find the warmth and pleasant saturation, pierce the soul. From the arrangement down to the mix, through every instrument, this is my agenda. My other strongest skill, is probably processing vocals. Fine-tuning it to be supernatural, but super tight as well as bringing out the best of a vocal through EQ and compression and saturation.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I think I can take any song and make it heartfelt and enjoyable to all those who hear it. Sometimes I hear songs that I don't necessarily think my vibe to, and then once I do my thing, I can turn it into something that speaks to me. And I try to do that with everything I work on. Even if I'm mixing it only.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Every song is different. But most of the time I'll sit on a song for a really long time before I even start doing anything. Then I'll spend a lot of energy finding the right chords that suit this song. And then I'll try to see which sound design and which instruments fit the best. My favorite is original sound designing well still sounding familiar. I love acoustic and I love electric and I love ambient pads, so together I always try to create something very interesting and peaceful. I'll usually make a basic guide and bounce the idea of the artist to see if we're on the same page in terms of the feel and tempo and all that type of stuff. Sometimes I get it on the first try and sometimes it takes a couple tries. Once we're on the same page, we do an awesome vocal session with intricate background vocal production. I will then mix this song super and hopefully it's surpasses all expectations and everyone is thrilled :-)

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I'm usually using Cubase, going in from the Apollo twin, have a bunch of incredible mics that I'll decide to use based on the vocalist and song. Monitoring through Focal monitors and the Kali's. Both AMAZING sound. For precise low end, I'll reference on a great pair of headphones.

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

A: Too many to choose one. I have been influenced by many different styles and sounds and by now I'm a definitely a fusion of every style that has feeling and soul and heart. Anywhere from soft ballads, fun pop, reggae, to heavy dance tracks.

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

A: Usually, a singer songwriter will send me an idea of a composition they want to be fully produced. Sometimes it's a voice note and sometimes it's an amateur demo, and sometimes it's a decent production that they want to make awesome. Together with his/her assistance, I will take their song idea and transform it into a superbly mixed Radio ready release. If I'm not doing that, then I'm taking other people's stems and mixing it. Whatever the case is, I tried to infuse 100% of my soul and effort in every project.