How do we proceed to work with you?

The first step if you want to work with me is to contact me by email at [email protected]. Then we can discuss about what you're truly looking for. I usually ask questions about what are your objectives related to your music. It can be as simple as "is it one song or an album?" or as complex as "what is your main goal in life?". It really depends about how much you are interested in having me on board. After few discussion and after listening to at least one of your songs, I'll be in position to propose you what I think would be the best thing to do for your project. If we agree and feel that we are a good match, we decide to move forward. At that point we create a dropbox folder that we are going to share and I send you the invoice by email for the first 50% down payment. The payment is processed by Paypal, so you can pay with any major credit cards or with your Paypal account.

The idea behind sharing a dropbox folder is that I can send you what I've done right away and you can listen to it within five minutes. Many clients like to be on the chat at the same time that I'm working, so they can give me their feedback very quickly. Usually, I would send you a first version of what I think is good and you would give some comments for minor revisions. Then I send you back the fine tuned version. 9 times out of ten, the second version is the final one. What I send you at this point is what I call a mix and not the final master.

If it's a stem mastering, I'll first start by optimizing every tracks and then make sure they coexist well. At that step, I don't add effects to the mixbus yet. This version is what I call the "mix".

Once I get the mix right, and I get your approval, I'll send you another invoice for the remaining 50% payment. During this time I process the mix to generate the master. Since the stem mixing part allowed me to correct any major mistakes prior to mastering, the mastering is usually the easy step. The "mix" version that I call and the master are very similar. Until now, 10 times out of 10, the master I send is the final one.

Upon reception of the final payment, I deliver the tracks to you, still through the dropbox folder.

You're talking about coaching and the Quantum-Leap program. What is that exactly?

This wasn't expected at the beginning, but I've found myself intimately involved in the careers of my clients and it felt right. The clients like it because they are indenpendent and often don't know what to do to make things work.

Personally, I have followed coaching programs myself, but not applied to music though. This is how I've been able to pull this off with this business in the first place. I think we all need the advice and opinion of someone that is more objective about our projects.

Until now, I've been doing it for free because there was no structure about it, it was simply unofficial chatting with my clients. However, there is obviously a market for it, so I'm working on setuping up a real coaching program for musician that will be inspired from my own coaching sessions I have attended. There will be readings and exercises that will help you define your objectives, goals and strategies about it. Plus I plan on having skype conference calls regularly with you guys in order to discuss the ideas that came out during your homework.

However that coaching program will not be free. It's going to be subscription based and will include audio engineering services as well all wrapped up in one package.

The program is currently in beta testing phase. More details to come in the future. I promise it's going to be unique and exciting. :)

How do I organize the Stems so you can make a good job with it?

What I like about stems is that I can keep a pretty good idea of what you have done in the rough mix, but just make it better. At that point, I don't need necessarily to redo everything. So, if you are relatively happy with your mix, keep your effects on, especially those that are there for artistic reasons (Delay, chorus, flanger, etc.). However, I might ask you to remove a compressor from a drum track for example because I feel that it is overcompressor or the time constants are far off of what they should have been.

Also, for stem mastering, I prefer when there is no "Maximizer" on the stereo bus. It can really messed up stuff to the point where I cannot restore the transients. Same thing with clipping. I encourage you to be aware of clipping when you record. A lot of people record simply too loud and everything distorts. There is nothing I can do to restore that.

Finally, to answer to the core of your question, I like to have main components splitted, but I don't like to get 90 tracks... Especially if we want to process all of them in analog domain, that can be time consumming at your expense. It will cost you more for no reason, and it's boring for me... so. ;)

To be clear, what helps me is this : All the vocal tracks that sound similar (same volume, same frequency response, put them all together) for example: create one stem for the backvocals (with the panning included), one for all the verses, and one for all the choruses. So I only treat three vocal tracks, not 15.

Then all the different instruments separately. If you have a rythm guitar and a smoother guitar, to me this is two different instruments. For the drum, I prefer to get the kick, the snare, the clap, the hats and the toms separately. Even though drum can be consider as one instrument, a kick has a very different tone and dynamic compared to the hihats, so I need to be able to treat them separately. Although, if you have 3 cymbals, put them together and everything is going to be just fine.

If there is anything that is not clear, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. It is going to be my pleasure to assist you.

I would like to improve my mixing skills, do you think you could tell me what I should do differently ?

Of course ! That is going to be pleasure.

As a matter of fact, more and more people are asking for it, and I'm encouraging it. I think ideally, you would do a rough mix that is as close as possible to what you had in mind and then you send it to me for improvement in stem mastering. To be honest, this is a way better solution than me doing everything from scratch, and I'll tell you why:

First the process can become frustrating and we can fall into a lot of back and forth. Of course, I listen to your request as attentively as possible, but at the end of the day, I'm not in your mind. So, more and more, I encourage people to do a rough mix and then when they feel comfortable with it, to send me the stems.

You're going to tell me: "Yeah, but the time we save, you're not going to be paid for it". You're absolutely right. But I prefer to have a smooth and slick execution with my clients so there is no tension between us. I want to keep us inspired, and limit the number of back and forth. I would rather help more people and do more tracks for you for the same price, rather than wasting all your money on one song. It's a win-win.

Then you would tell me: "So you're going to give me all your tricks, for free?". Well, pretty much, yes. I usually my see clients as teammates, not competitors. I have plenty of work, so I don't feel in danger regarding that.

So, do you offer mix training as well ?

Sure I do. From the testimonials, you can see that I've done that with a guy called Tom. He's a very nice guy by the way.

To make sure that the person learns something that fits its musical genre and its current level, I proposed to him to work on one of his mix. Basically, he paid me to stem-master his songs. He's been able to hear what I've done to every specific tracks since he was there.

The only problem I currently see with that, is when you don't leave near by... 90% of Quantum-Music's client are from abroad (France, Africa, USA), so in that case, it's kind of hard to meet and train you. Although, I'm pretty sure I could setup something for you via Skype, so we can discuss in real time. In every case, the same hourly rates applies. As long as I get paid, you're the boss :).

I've seen your Mastered for Youtube logo. Is that even a real thing ?

The short answer is yes and no.

There is actually no program promoted by Youtube to improve the sound quality on YouTube, as opposed to the Mastered for iTunes program (MFiT). BUT, there are definitely ways we can improve how the master will translate once compressed and "youtubized".

The basics of the technique are highly influenced by the Mastered for iTunes program, since both end up compressing the hell out of your music into a lossy format. But, yeah, I'm the one who made it up.

How many revisions can we have per song ?

Well, there is no specific number for that. At the end of the day I want you to be happy of course. Although, I can't imagine myself mixing the same song over and over. Lucky to me, it has not been a problem before. Except maybe with pure mixing from scratch, for the reasons I mentioned earlier. I also minimize it by taking the time to know you and understand deeply what you're looking for.

Also, on a more technical side, I work by steps to avoid any conflict. Which means that prior to finalize the master, I'll send you the mix first. Once I get your approval, it's fixed and we move onto the next step. So the rework isn't as painful as it could be.