Mix engineer with twenty years as a musician behind the console. Music is more than technicalities. A song has to find its best shape to reach the listener and take hold of them, verse by verse. Building that is what I love. I bring out what's strong, smooth what gets in the way, and hold the listener close.
Twenty years playing and writing music came before the engineering, and it shapes every decision I make. I hear a song as music with intent, not a stack of tracks to balance.
My first question is never technical. It's what the song should make someone feel. Everything follows from there: where the vocal sits, how much air the arrangement gets, what stays loud and what earns the right to be quiet.
In every song there's a story asking to be told. My work is to bring out what's already strong in it and smooth the edges that get in the way, without sanding off the character that makes it yours.
I mix any genre. Some styles ask for specific choices, and finding those is part of the job.
Trained at Berklee Online in Art of Mixing, Pro Tools 110 and Audio Post Production for Film and TV, all with top grades. Avid Certified Pro Tools Specialist.
I work in Portuguese, Spanish and English, so we can talk about your song in whichever language you think in.
How it works: send me your stems, a couple of references, a line with your thoughts about the song, and your expectations for the final result.
Contact me through the green button above and let's get to work.
Interview with Matt Pereira
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: The short film Dandara, which won Best Sound and Best Original Score at the 14th UEG Film and Audiovisual Festival. I mixed it and co-wrote the score. That award means a lot to me and to the team I work with.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: I'm a mixer, working on several projects: music, games, feature films and short films.
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: Attention to every part, careful work, real ambition for the song, and commitment to deadlines and responsibilities.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: The commitment. Industry pressure pushes a lot of mixers toward volume, working fast and staying outside the project. I can work that way when a client needs it, but what I like most is when there's room to be part of the team and part of what the song is trying to become.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: "Can you give me honest feedback on the arrangement and the overall composition?" The answer is always yes. My work starts from the truth of the song, and that means saying what I hear.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: That mixing is a purely technical service you hand off and collect. It isn't. Most of the decisions are musical, and they change completely depending on what the song is for.
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: What is this song meant to make people feel? And how do you feel when you listen to it?
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Look for someone who treats your song as part of their own work rather than as a job in a queue. Trust their attention and their drive, and let them be part of the project, because that's how they're working anyway.
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I've been a musician for over twenty years, and mixing and mastering were always the part that pulled me in. Six years ago I started studying it seriously, and more recently I took courses at Berklee to see the craft and the industry from another angle. Above everything, I'm a music lover.
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: I work hard and I commit. I bring both heart and technical judgment to every song, and I stay clear and focused on what that particular song needs.
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Emicida. He's a rap and hip hop artist whose lyrics and subject matter I've admired for years.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Listen first. I've known plenty of mixers who jump straight into the standard moves before doing the simplest and most important thing: listening until you find the motivation of the song, the story it's trying to tell.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: I'm versatile. My passion is rock and pop rock, but I'm Brazilian, so I grew up with the rhythmic vocabulary to move between styles without trouble.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: I get genuinely involved in each project. I know this is an industry, but I work for artists, and their reason for making the song matters to me.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: Drive, and a real interest in the song itself. I'm a music lover before I'm a mixer. My daily work is helping artists get their ideas out, with what I know about audio and production.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: I'm organized, so I start with a conversation to understand what the client needs from the song. Then I go through every file and build the session properly. I usually deliver a version zero of the mix early on, a first pass the client can listen to and tell me whether we're on the same page before I go deep.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: My studio is set up for mixing, mastering, arranging and recording. I monitor on ADAM Audio [modelo] seven-inch monitors with the matching ADAM subwoofer, through an RME Babyface Pro FS, and I reference on Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X headphones. The room also has microphones, several guitars, bass, piano and MIDI controllers, so when a project asks for something extra on the track, I can record it here myself.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Ron Bartlett, Chris Lord-Alge, Coimbra, and many others
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: I organize the material and work out what the song actually needs. If the client wants it, I'll give my honest opinion on the arrangement and what could be adjusted, though the call is always theirs. Above all, my job is to bring more life to the music they bring me.
I was the Mixer Engineer and Producer in this production
- Mixing EngineerAverage price - $75 per song
- Mastering EngineerAverage price - $50 per song
First mix within 7 days. 2 revisions included. Extra revisions or additional edits quoted separately. Stems must be labeled and free of processing on the master bus.
- Barão Vermelho
- BTS
- Ed Sheeran
- RME Babyface Pro FS; Adam Audio 7' and Sub; Fabfilter; Waves Ultimate; Plugin Alliance; Pro Tools
- Reaper and Logic;
Opportunity! - $70 Mix and Master for the first song together
