Music Mixing and Production Services

Q. Describe the most common types of jobs you do for your clients.

A. My most common types of jobs are for mixing, typically lots and lots of metal and acoustic work.

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

A. Be prepared to spend a moderate amount of money. The music industry is not a cheap one and as an artist or musician, cutting corners with your recordings is going to be detrimental to your career in more ways than one, especially with record labels.

Be willing to invest in yourself.

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. I would wish that my engineer would inform me of what he is doing to my tracks and why he is doing what he's doing so that I could be even more confident in his skills.

Inside secrets? Sure, I'll share one. If your waveform happens to be a brick it will sound less punchy and more dull if played on the radio which is why you don't squash tracks! Musicians typically think that a mix must be at -2dB and that is FALSE. Radio stations have a plethora of gear to fine tune their broadcast and that includes even more compressors and limiters.

If your track happens to look like a 2x4 after mastering that means you have no dynamics left so when it hits the airwaves it will sound bad once it hits those comps and lims. Say NO to the loudness wars!

Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?

A. Buyers should be thinking about budget as well as engineers. We don't come cheap and there is a reason for that. $500.00 album budgets sound like $500.00.

If you are this person, multiply it by 8 and you have an average for an 8 track album production from recording to editing, mixing and mastering.

Mixing alone can be between $1,500-$3,500+, mastering can be between $600-$2,000+ and tracking an album costs between $1,000-$3,000+.

Some of us are willing to scale prices to help those with small budgets out, but have a logical budget to begin with.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. I love meeting and working with new people. I've met a lot of very talented musicians who happen to be cool people as well! Knowing that I can put a smile on a client's face from their mix is a plus as well.

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

A. Q: Do you have a physical recording studio?

A: Currently, I work out of other studios for recording aka Freelancing. Basically if you would like to hire me as your producer/recording engineer, I will help us find a proper studio within your budget and we will record there. I will say there are some things in the works regarding a physical building though.

Q: Are there any specific requirements you ask for?

A: As a matter of fact there are. All tracks MUST have 2 bars of silence before the beginning of each track (or you must be absolutely sure they'll line up). This makes setting up a mixing session much quicker because I will not have to fiddle with trying to piece together a song I have never heard before.

*Putting silence before each individual track enables me to line up everything flawlessly and quickly which means you get your mix quicker. If you are a ProTools user, this requirement does not concern you.

Q: Do you accept MP3 files?

A: Yes, however I PREFER all files I receive to be /44.1kHz-96kHz and 24bit WAV files. I will simply convert them to WAV otherwise.

Q: What DAW do you work with?

A: Presonus Studio One V2/ProTools 9.0.5.

Q: How can I send you my tracks?

A: I have configured an FTP scheme for all clients in which you will all have a unique username and share the same password. This allows access to only YOUR folder and nobody else. Secure and safe! You will receive an e-mail containing all information you need to connect to the FTP server and how to upload your files! It's super simple, I promise!

If you are a ProTools user or do not have a fast enough connection for FTP you can mail me a DVD with the following files:

SessionName.ptf
Audio Files folder
Fade Files folder
Session Backups folder
WavCache

The reason for a DVD is that ProTools sessions are generally quite large and a DVD or DL-DVD are the perfect mediums for PT sessions.

Q: Do you edit tracks?

A: I do small scale editing. What I do is make your tracks sound AWESOME! EQ,compression,etc. It makes me a happy engineer to receive tracks that are ready for me to jump right in and mix.

Q: Why does my mix sound quiet?

A: Great question! Every engineer mixes differently, however I focus on sonic AND musical quality with my mixes. a finished mix by me tends to fall in the range of -13 to -7dB, I will go no louder than that unless you have a specific reasoning as to why it has to be louder. Dynamics are what make music enjoyable to listen to, if you squash a mix your master will sound sub-par.

Loudness comes during the mastering phase of a completed stereo mixdown. NOT during the mix! A great mix = a great master. I guarantee I won't steer you wrong with that.

Q: Do you offer mastering services?

A: I certainly plan to in the very near future. If your budget does not allow you to go to a mastering facility, let me know and I will be more than happy to put a limiter on the track for you for competitive loudness.

Q: Will you send me an MP3 file after my mix is completed?

A: Of course! Every client will receive an MP3 and WAV version of all mixes.

Q: How long does it take you to mix a track?

A: That depends on a number of factors. Mainly track count. I would say that I can fully mix a typical 24 track session including effects and automation in under 8 hours. I do my best to get as many tracks done per day as possible. I would say 1 1/2-2 tracks. I take my work seriously and give my 100% undivided attention to your tracks.

That being said, if it takes longer, it takes longer. Rome wasn't built in a day. I will keep you informed every step of the way via e-mail,phone or Skype after a day's work.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to e-mail at info@astralplanestudios.com

Q. Do you have a favorite story from your work?

A. One time I was recording a friend's band for a project in school and the API console had a massively weird grounding issue causing ALL tracks to clip no matter what happened input-wise or rebooting PTHD.

Needless to say, the track didn't come out so great but it was a hilarious night with lots of laughter. When mixing the track I had a difficult task to face with all the clipping/low volume issues. It was a wacky mix but I prevailed and made it sound as good as it could for what it was.

A semester or two later the API nearly got toasted via an exploding amp!

Q. What do you wish customers knew about you or your profession?

A. I wish they knew that I was taught by and worked with those who have worked closely with Willie Nelson, Prince, The Black Crowes, Amy Winehouse and many more. Perhaps they would if I weren't so modest about my connections! :)

Q. How did you decide to get in your line of work?

A. One of my friends told me I would make a good producer, so I took his advice and ran with it! I wouldn't dare think of looking back! Thanks Jordan.

Q. Tell us about a recent job you did that you are particularly proud of.

A. I am particularly proud of my work on the track "Transparent Hallucinations" by Isaac Domagalski as it was an extremely well composed piece and a talented, young guitarist behind it all. The song had a constant energy to it that made me love every second I mixed it!

Q. If you have a complicated pricing system for your service, please give all the details here.

A. Music Mixing starts at $400/song. Depending on your budget/track count this can be lowered some.

Producer/Recording engineer depends on the particular production and your budget. I suggest going through a consultation before committing.

Production Consultations- $100.00 for a 45 minute consultation with you about the following aspects:

* Production Quality
* Budget Setting
* Song Critique
* Industry related questions
* Etc

Q. If you were advising someone who wanted to get into your profession, what would you suggest?

A. Don't screw people over and work WITH them, not against them. It's their music, your goal is to DIRECT them in the proper direction for their goals. Also, always be honest in what you say and believe in the artists you work with.

Q. What is your greatest strength?

A. My greatest strength would have to be my ears. Without them I couldn't mix and do what I enjoy. The ability to bring another's vision to fruition is something not everyone has and I excel at it.

Q. What are you currently working on improving?

A. I am currently working on improving price structure to be fair to myself as well as clients. I am also working on improving my marketing and competition efforts.