I have a Bachelor's degree in Studio Production
And a Master's Degree in Studio Composition

When I first got into Production and Engineering in 1992, I did a lot of small projects and local band demos. By 1996 I had a fully operational 16 track studio and I was ready to do more complex projects. In 1998 I switched to digital with a G3 mac and a Cubase setup.

My Current Setup is:

click here for discography

I have been involved with the production on the following albums:

(BEWARE - this gets a bit technical)

BUY CD

This was the first CD I ever produced and enginnered. I began recording this album in May of 1997. I used a fostex E-16 16 track 1/2 inch tape recorder with a Tascam M224 mixer, and Alesis, Digitech, and Behringer outboard gear. This was a solo effort. I played all the instruments and sang all the vocals. I sequenced all the parts I couldn't play on an old PC from 1982 with octave plateau software.

My standard recording procedure for this album started with sequencing the drum parts. My sounds came from a Roland R8. Once I had the arrangement mapped out, I'd record a SMPTE time code stripe onto a track of tape. Next I would record four tracks of drums from the R8 multi-outputs onto my tape deck. The tracks were: kick, snare, toms + cymbals left, and toms + cymbals right. After the drums were on tape, I would lay down the bass track. Depending on the song, I would either mic the amp or record a direct signal. Guitar amps were miked with an Audio-Technica dynamic mic at a 45 degree angle pointed down from the top of the amp. I kept most of the synth parts virtual (meaning I ran them off the sequencer which was syncronized to the tape deck via SMPTE time code.) My background vocals were triple-tracked then bounced down with chorus and compression added.

The song snake was different from the rest of the album in that I had other musicians perform on it. I wanted the rhythm section to be recorded live. When I listened back to the recording I heard imperfections in the drum tracks. I mixed the drums down and loaded them into a Sony minidisc recorder. I then crudely edited the drums to make them sound more in time. This worked for the most part but I wouldn't want to have to do it again. We then re-recorded the bass, keyboard, and guitar tracks. The percussion and horn sections were tracked individually.

BUY CD

This was the first all digital album I recorded. I used my limited knowledge of Cubase to produce this album. I completed this album rather quickly and now I feel that I was rushed through it by the members and supporters of the band. I did get to showcase some of my new production skills but I think that a better knowledge of Cubase would have made the task a lot easier.

The recording procedures used on this album were strange. We recorded in the studios, classrooms, and my dorm room at Purchase College. We also recorded at Wave Studio in Staten Island, my basement, and a friend's basement

After programming MIDI demos + click tracks for most of the songs we began recording the drums. The drums for bring me home were recorded in a classroom at Purchase into a tascam mixer into my mac. Since my audio card only had 4 inputs we could only record 4 tracks at a time. We recorded the song in small sections that I later painstakingly edited together.

The drums for the songs, Whipped, Hold On, and Two Way Street were recorded at Wave Studio by engineer Ron Thal. We recorded onto DA-88s. We later tranferred them 2 at a time into Cubase and I had to sync the drums up by manually nudging them into phase with eachother. (I don't recomend this to anyone.)

The drums for the songs, The Queen and Ramble were recorded in my basement.

Bass tracks were recorded either direct or by miking the amp cabinet.

Keyboard tracks were recorded and heavily edited using Cubase's awesome MIDI capabilities.

Guitar tracks were recorded by miking the amp cabinet with an SM-57.

On this album I quadrouple-tracked the background vocals. Because I had unlimited audio tracks on Cubase I didn't have bounce any vocals down.

I mixed this album in my dorm room using Cubase's automation.

Regina Spekor - eleven : eleven

This album was recorded on ADAT digital tape recorders with mackie consoles. The album was cut live for the most part. Regina and bassist, Chris Kuffner would be in the same room while recording. Regina sang and played piano at the same time. I used an audio techninca AT-4033 for her vocals. The piano was miked with a pair of Neumann KM-84's in an XY configuration by the hammers, and a pair of AT-4033's by the bridges. I would occasionally swap these mics with AKG C-3000's. The upright bass was recorded with an EV RE-20 by the f-hole and an EV-468 by the bottom of the fingerboard.

I was an assistant engineer on this album. I learned a great deal about recording by assisting Ron Thal.