Professional, creative and awesome sounding audio. My biggest passion. Whether you are a solitary singer/songwriter with some scratch ideas for songs looking to take it to the next level, or someone with a bunch of songs recorded that need a professional but unique and punchy mix, or perhaps you’ve got a band and want someone to help guide you through the process of recording your tunes without the hassle, pressure and significant expense of heading to the “studio” – I will help.
I’ve been specializing in the mysterious world of home-based recording since it was possible and affordable. Educated at Fanshawe College’s Music Industry Arts just before the home-based recording phenomenon took off, I took the same principals that make great studio recordings,well – great, and figured out how that works in the garage, at your band practice, in your bedrooms and basements.
The challenge? Cheap tools to make music means there is WAY more mediocre sounding garbage to listen to. YOU don’t need to add to that.
Let me teach you how to make your music sound as amazing as it should. No matter what your setup, or even if you haven’t got one and aren’t sure what to buy… I can guide you through the hard part of getting your music sounding awesome. I teach you how. We can work in my basement studio, your place, your jam space – wherever. Only have one microphone? No problem – its more important to know where to put it and how to mix it than it is to have a bunch of them. Especially when you’re starting out. That said – being at the beginning of this awesome music recording experience doesn’t need to mean it sounds like it. I can show you how.
My teaching sessions (one on one or groups), include:
- Recording Session Basics – how to manage a session to maximize your time and spend more time focusing on the creative side
- DAW 101 – although you probably know how your DAW works, are you set-up for success? File system mgmt, use of templates, keyboard shortcuts, PC optimization for recording, setting up your audio interface, signal path
- Time To Record! – understanding your room’s acoustics, mic selection and placement, getting levels and sounds, monitoring
- Mix Down 101 -setting up your mix project, where to start?, managing levels and gain staging through plugins, use of panning, inserts/sends
- Mix Down Intermediate – understanding your tools Pt 1 (EQ, compression) – learn to hear the difference, A/B other material
- Mix Down Advanced – understanding your tools Pt 2 (EQ, compression) – advanced techniques – sidechain use, different flavours of processing
- Editing – editing basics through advanced techniques that will save your session!!
- Mastering – Good and Bad examples – how to be loud and not suck.
Don’t want to bother learning this stuff? NO problem – let me help you by taking care of the technical stuff – recording you, helping you get the very best sounding performances “to tape”, mixing all of it into something you can be sure sounds as good as it possibly can. Along the way you’ll pick up the tips and tricks and use them yourself anyways. There is no secret to this stuff – it’s just doing it over and over, listening to things critically, and knowing how and where to make the changes that will result in what you’re hearing in your head.
My setup includes:
- Steinberg Cubase
- Ableton Live
- Propellerhead Reason
- Native-Instruments Komplete 7, Kore 2 + loads of soundpacks and sample libraries for Kontakt
- Dynaudio BM 6A monitors
- Intel i7 DAW, 16GB RAM
- UAD-1, UAD-2 DSP with almost all of their plugins
- Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 audio interface
- Focusrite VoiceMaster Pro preamp
- ART ProChannel Tube pre/eq/comp
- RME 1773 Stereo Bus Compressor
- lots of microphones, including Neumann TLM49 LDC.
- lots of instruments (guitars, bass, percussion)
I have mixed or mastered albums and songs for many projects/bands, including Brad Sucks (Out Of It), The Peptides (I’m A Spy, Stereo Stereo), DocWeissBand (Different Point of View), thehipcola (SOUNDTRACK, Quilt), Jam Toast (Rock ‘n Roll Playground), and many individual tracks and small projects for local artists and projects.