A recording session can be an extraordinary good time, wouldn’t you agree? Fostering a good vibe in a recording session is an essential tool in producing great recordings. Everyone gathers at a studio for the same purpose: to usher new music into the world to the best of their abilities. With any luck, the magic shows up in front of the microphones. And then the fun of listening to playback, heck yeah!

Where to record? I like to work in a variety of environments—there are great sounds lurking everywhere. There are many fine recording studios In the area, depending on the needs and budget of the project. Sometimes it makes sense to book a larger space to record the ensemble ‘live’ and then take the overdubs to a smaller studio. Other projects might require more of an overdub oriented approach, in which a larger studio might not be necessary. Or you might have a cool rehearsal recording space setup, whatever works. I have some microphones I can bring to sessions, pretty standard stuff but also a few interesting pieces, for unique sounds.

Need some guidance or an outside perspective? Production of a project can be as minimal or involved as you need. Need an outside set of ears to help determine what finishing touches a project needs or maybe someone involved at an earlier point in the project as a creative consultant or production manager with regular check-ins? We can chat to see what will help keep the project moving forward.  

Creating cohesion across the whole project, balancing timbre and volume across songs, setting the appropriate overall loudness, sequencing, gap times, fades, and physical media considerations such as cassette tape, vinyl, CD formats - these are aspects of the mastering process. It’s the final stop before music goes out the door to digital distribution, CD manufacturing, vinyl mastering and pressing, cassette tape dubbing.

I use a hybrid approach in mastering, a combination of analog equipment and digital processing. The stereo Manley Massive Passive EQ and Crane Song STC-8 compressor are the primary analog tools, used in conjunction with Apogee converters and digital tools from Avid, Fabfilter, Tokyo Dawn Labs, McDSP, Boz Digital, Izotope, PSP, Universal Audio, Waves and more.

From gentle shaping to reimagining the overall aesthetic, de-noising and forensic cleanup, many things are possible in the world of mastering and two track editing

Wherein we take multi-track recordings and funnel them into a stereo mix so the rest of the world can hear what we’re up to. Sometimes that means a pretty straight-forward representation of the recordings, sometimes that means getting a little freaky with effects, re-amping, tape echo, etc.

I have a comfortable little mix room at home where I tend to work in a hybrid manner with both analog and digital equipment:  Pro Tools HDX, Apogee, Dangerous Music, Yamaha NS-10m, Tannoy 800a feat. subwoofer, Manley, Crane Song, dbx, Focusrite, UA, Roland Space Echo, AKG BX20E, pedals, guitar amps, and acoustic treatment, like you’d expect. I can mix live over the web using the Audiomovers ListenTo plug-in, so you can listen in real-time, at the same fidelity as the studio.

Remote mixing and mastering is pretty straightforward - send your multi-track sessions or stereo mixes via wetransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive, et al. We’ll need to discuss the project, of course - telephone, email, text, video, whatever works. The path forward will become evident through this process. I’ll book time in my home studio and when I feel like it’s sounding ready for feedback, I’ll send you a copy for your reference. Once you’ve had time to listen and make notes, I look forward to discussing notes and any constructive criticism you may have. Some mixes come together magically on the first go round, but sometimes a revision process is needed to help refine the vision, so we make revisions as necessary and keep it moving.