What is a producer? What is the difference between producing and engineering?

When I am engineering your project, I am responsible for the audio quality of the material you have brought into the studio. Besides all of the technical work this entails, I can also offer you an opinion on what performance I like better (or help create an uber performance through punching and editing), or recommend switching in a different amp or instrument for a certain part, or help tune your drums or dial in your bass amp (with your permission, of course). I believe in doing everything possible in getting the best sound starting from the source. For many bands or artists with a clear vision, this is the extent of what they want and need from an audio professional.

When I am producing, my responsibility expands to encompass the quality of the project as a whole, musically and sonically, and I make use of additional tools to help make your record everything it can be. My role as a producer can include helping determine the artistic goals for the project, allocating the budget, selecting the songs to record, working with song structure and arrangements, guiding pre-production rehearsals, selecting additional musicians, coaching performances in the studio, and directing other audio professionals involved in the making of the record. I see production as a relationship & a dialogue, so I do not perform every one of these functions on every record I produce - my job is always to help realize the creative vision of the artist, not my own. As a producer, my role is to keep track of the big picture through the sometimes daunting process of making a record, and involve myself in the creative process in those areas where I can best support the making of your record.

As record-making has changed over the years, mixing has become an increasingly important part of the creative process. Many artists and producers have taken to endless overdubbing and putting off many decisions until the mix. In the home studio environment, limitations in monitoring accuracy and/or lack of experience lead prudent self-recordists to focus on the flexibility of their recorded tracks, rather than going for a final sound at the moment of capture. Inexperienced engineers also often make errors in the recording process that will require a significant amount of "repair work" during the mix process. The cumulative effect is that the mix now becomes a defining moment in shaping the sound of the final product.

The mix engineer is your guide through this process, putting his technical and creative skills to work in a collaborative effort with you and your producer to reach the sonic goal for the project. In this spirit I offer two types of mixing services designed to scale to your budget.

Attended Mix Sessions

If you would like to guide the direction of your mix in person, and you have an adequate mix budget, I would highly recommend an attended mix session in a commercial recording studio. This can be an exciting way to mix a record, as the best-equipped mix rooms will have a highly accurate (and spacious) control room and monitoring system, a large-format analog console, and racks of fun tools for shaping and exploring your sound. With the client in attendance to direct and approve mixes, I will usually choose to mix analog (i.e. relying more on the console and outboard equipment than the computer and plug-in effects), an approach that I feel is more interactive & inspirational for the client and engineer, and for my taste still offers the best quality. My preferred mix room is Studio A at Prairie Sun, though I am happy to work in the commercial studio of your choosing provided the control room offers an accurate monitoring environment. If your budget limits your ability to book enough time in a suitable mix studio, I will usually recommend an unattended mix session in my personal studio.

Unattended Mix Sessions & "Online" Mixing

For those clients with a more restrictive mix budget, I maintain a private studio from which I offer unattended mix sessions (I do not offer attended sessions at my private studio at this time). In my private studio I work entirely in the digital domain, which allows me to offer a low rate while keeping the quality high. In addition, instant recall and the ability to jump from song to song afforded by mixing in the computer gives you the opportunity to listen to the mixes at your leisure, and at any point we can return to a mix and refine it to match your sonic goals. I hold the work I do in my private studio to the same high standard as any work I do in an expensive commercial room - I will not send out a mix that does not meet my expectations.

There are other reasons, besides budget, why you may choose an unattended mix session:

• Many artists discover that they do not need to be present for much of the mixing process, or find that listening through all the technical minutiae clouds their judgment of the big picture.
• The monitors in recording studios may be very accurate, but they don't sound like most playback systems do in the real world. An experienced engineer knows how to use these accurate speakers to produce a mix that sounds great anywhere, but those unfamiliar with the studio may have a hard time translating what they hear in the studio to what they hear elsewhere. You may prefer to first hear the mixes in your home, your car, and other environments you are more familiar with to make artistic decisions about the mix.
• With the ability to quickly transmit large data files all over the internet, you are not limited by location as to which mix engineer you hire. You may want to hire me as a mixer based on the work I've done for other artists, even though you are located too far away to attend the mix.

For those clients whose budget is less limited, I can also make arrangements to perform an unattended analog mix in a suitable commercial studio.

Recording your music project in a professional studio environment offers a number of distinct advantages. One of the greatest, and perhaps most overlooked benefits offered by a studio is the ability to work in a space dedicated to music: when you're in the studio you are focused only on your music, which creatively can be very exciting. When you take into account that this room was designed to make your music sound its best, with the infrastructure to record multiple musicians live, and with all the first-class equipment you need already setup and ready to go, a studio starts to look really attractive. In the best studios, you'll also find carefully designed control rooms and monitoring, large analog consoles, and piles of vintage equipment and instruments. Best of all, with the recent changes in the music industry, studio time in a lavishly-equipped professional room is more affordable than ever.

Of course the studio environment should enable your creative expression, not distract from it. As your recording engineer, my job is to wrangle the tools and technology to serve your aesthetic vision so that you are free to concentrate on your role as a musican/songwriter/producer. I've worked in recording studios of all sizes, from large commercial rooms to small project studios, and I know how to work efficiently, keep a session on-schedule and on-budget, and fully utilize the tools and conveniences offered by a professional studio space.

One of the more exciting possibilities opened up by portable digital recording technology is the opportunity to turn non-studio spaces into temporary recording environments. My approach to location recording is not much different from my approach to studio recording: it's all about arranging a space that is conducive to music making and fosters creativity, and makes the technology less of a distraction. I've recorded in living rooms, front porches, and barns, from city apartments to rural farms. From these experiences, I've learned the keys to a successful location recording that doesn't compromise the sound or the experience of making the record. I can help you make the best use of the space and gear you have available, and guide you in making the most of your budget when it comes to renting high end equipment. Most importantly, in environments that don't allow for accurate monitoring, or any monitoring at all beyond headphones, I can draw on my experience in mic placement and one-room recording to ensure there aren't any nasty surprises come mix time.

Making a professional recording of a live performance is simpler and more affordable than ever before. What once required a remote truck can now be done with a single rack of equipment, and if the recording is done properly, the resulting multitrack files can be mixed into a record that truly communicates the power and energy of live music. I've recorded and mixed live recordings in a number of genres, from rock bands to symphony orchestras, and I can help shepherd your live record from start to finish. I can put together a reliable live recording rig, work with your PA engineer on mic selection and placement, and manage the recording of the show so that it doesn't interfere with your performance.

Whether you've had a home studio for a long time or you are a novice home recordist, you are bound to have questions about how you can improve the sound of your recordings, about how to spend less time fighting your equipment, or just about how to get started in the first place. To help answer these questions I am happy to offer my services as a home studio consultant. I can help you choose the right gear, make the most of your recording space for the best sound, setup your studio so you can quickly and easily get to work, and improve your recording and mixing technique. I can guide you through troubleshooting recording hardware and software issues, and I can help beginners get up and running quickly with the necessary recording concepts under their belt.

I also offer private instruction on Pro Tools software, the industry's leading DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Through my years of experience working with Pro Tools in a professional environment with many time constraints, I've learned how to solve a variety of creative problems in ways that are musically transparent, and transparent to the flow of the session (in other words, they get solved fast!). Through one-on-one instruction I can share this knowledge with you to help you record, mix, and edit music in Pro Tools in a way that makes the software invisible to your music-making process.

Record Production: I charge a flat producer's fee that is determined on a per-project basis. Please contact me for more information.

Studio Engineering/Attended Mixing: $20 per hour

Location Engineering/Live Recording: $25 per hour

Home Studio Consultation/Training: $25 per hour

Unattended/Online Mixing: I charge a flat per-song rate that is determined after examining your tracks and performing a test mix. Please contact me for more information.