Well, I've had an interest in music as long as I can remember. I was five years old when I started taking piano lessons. Throughout high school and college, I was always in a band, or involved with music in one way or another.

What was your first job in the engineering field?

When I graduated from the University of Miami in 1991, I moved to Atlanta to take a staff position at Doppler Studios.

Doppler is an interesting facility because they specialize in music as well as post-production. My experience at Doppler was extremely valuable because I was able to learn the art of post-production and sound design, which is totally different from music production.

Post-production clients are usually working against a tight deadline, so I learned how to be lightning-fast, go with my instincts and determine quickly what sounds good.

And how did that lead to music production?

Throughout my years at Doppler, I would switch back and forth, making radio and TV commercials in the day, and working with record labels and artists making records at night. Eventually, the record company clients started asking if I could continue with their projects. I finally decided to go out on my own. I've been freelance ever since.

What advantages did you find in studying music at a university for four years, instead of going to a trade school or going directly out into the field?

For me personally, a four-year university was the only way to go. My education included a Bachelor of Music, with a minor in Electrical Engineering.

The curriculum included most of the music courses taught to the performance majors, and we worked side by side with them. Classes included music history, music theory, and ear training, as well as private lessons and ensemble participation on your chosen primary instrument.

I feel that this is a huge advantage over the "trade school" type of education that is becoming more and more common.

In addition, having an Electrical Engineering minor has helped me with the ability to troubleshoot equipment in the studio. I might not be able to tear apart a recording console and rebuild it from scratch, but I can at least determine what might be wrong and give the maintenance engineer a heads up.

You were part of the production team for Usher's Confessions, which was nominated for Album of the year in 2004. How was that experience?

I have actually known Usher for years. I worked as an assistant engineer on his first album, and I remember that those sessions had to end at midnight because he was still in school and he had to get up early the next morning.

He has always been very professional and down to business, but at the same time very fun to work with. He has a studio, Hitland, which is located at his house, so being at home he is always very relaxed and comfortable when he's working in the studio.

This is no typical "home" studio, though. It houses an 80-input SSL, George Auxperger main monitors, a Pro Tools HD3 system, and enough outboard gear to rival any world class studio.

And the GRAMMY nomination?

That was an experience I'll never forget. And in fact, I hope to repeat the experience many times over. It was my first time attending the GRAMMY Awards, and it was fun being given the star treatment.

You recently finished up a two-week session with Janet Jackson. What was your role in the making of her new album?

The sessions with Janet were basically just writing and vocal record ing sessions. They were produced by super-producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who I had met while working on the Fighting Temptations soundtrack a few years back. Since then, I have been their "go-to" guy whenever they come to Atlanta.

They are still working on it in California, and hopefully before the project is finished, I will get a chance to work on more tracks and possibly do some mixing for them.

What do you like about having your studio based in Atlanta?

Atlanta is a very diverse and interesting community. I originally moved here in 1991 to take a staff position, and I just never left. The music and recording community is small enough that you can know pretty much everyone around town, but at the same time there is so much going on. We are lucky to have a lot of hits coming out of this town in all genres of music.

When I first moved to Atlanta I figured it would be a transitional move for me, just staying a few years and then moving to New York, LA, or Nashville. But the more I got involved with the local music scene, the more I liked it. I'm situated pretty well here now, and in this business it's all about networking, so I think I'll stick around.

How did you decide on the name Binksound?

I've had the nickname "Bink" for quite a long time. I'm not sure exactly where or when it started, but I think it has something to do with a plastic Nerf hammer my 2 year old cousin had. We were playing around and he started hitting me on the head with it. It made this funny sound, and he started laughing and mimicking the sound it made, "bink bink bink bink"... so my family started calling me Bink.

The strange part is, this nickname kept following me around. So when I started my company, Binksound was a natural choice.

How do you think the internet has affected the way you work?

As far as my workflow, the internet has definitely changed the way I do things. I have already worked on a couple projects that were done entirely over the internet.

Immediately after the events of 9/11, myself and the members of an online email group got together to decide what we could do, in any small way, to help. We ended up putting together an album called September Rising (www.septemberrising.org) and selling it online, donating all proceeds to the New York Firefighter's 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund.

My participation in the project was to mix several of the songs on the album. All the file transfers and other collaboration for the project were done over the internet.

Composers would send session files and scratch tracks to other players, those players would lay down their parts and send new tracks back to the composer or an editor, changes would be made, and then the final sessions would be sent to me for the final mix.

We ended up with a collaboration of songs written, recorded, mixed and mastered by members of the group, most of whom had never even met during the process.

And you’re currently involved in a new project that brings this idea to another level?

Yes. It’s called eSession (www.esession.com) and it’s a collaborative effort where potential clients can hire people to help them through the entire production process, from composition to arranging, to all the players, all the way to the mix and mastering stage.

eSession is set to launch in the Fall, and promises to be a very exciting way to use the internet to expand the way we all work.

We've heard you're a fan of the analog gear in your studio. Any favorite items?

I actually only have a few analog items, but I do love them. I have an AMEK 9098 dual compressor which I sometimes use inserted across the stereo bus.

I also have a pair of Distressors, which are so versatile I can't even tell you how I use them. These are basically the "every" compressor, a true tool chest of compression. I can put them across drum overheads, set them to "Nuke" and get that fat, heavy over-compressed rock drum sound, or I can put one across a delicate vocal track, set it to 10:1 "Opto" and get a really nice, smooth transparent sound.

The other piece I use a lot is my Avalon 737-SM. The "SM" is a special Mercenary Audio edition. Commissioned by Fletcher from Mercenary Audio, it has the same insides as the classic 737, but it has a black face and black cross-shaped knobs, instead of the newer purple round knobs. That piece gets a lot of comments, because everyone knows the 737 but they haven't seen a black one.

How do you use iZotope’s Trash, Ozone, and Spectron plug-ins in your work?

One of the best things about these plug-ins is that they are so deep, but they are still simple to use. You can pull up Ozone, for example, flip through the presets and find a sound that does what you need.

For some situations, that will be enough, and the presets sound very good so that for a quick down and dirty situation, they will work well. But for those of us that like to really dig deep and tweak settings, these plugs offer a wealth of available options to really tweak every aspect of your sound.

At first glance, the layout of these plug-ins might actually be a little intimidating, because there really is a lot going on. But don't be discouraged, because the layout is also very logical, and it's very easy to figure out what all the displays are telling you, and what all the settings do.

iZotope calls Ozone a "mastering processor," but it's really much more than that. I don't do any mastering myself, but I have still found many uses for this plug-in. I've used it on a voiceover in TV commercials, I've used it as the last device in a vocal chain for a rock and roll mix, I've even used it to create a telephone filter for a feature film I'm working on.

These plug-ins are very versatile and I find new ways to use them every day.

So you find that iZotope’s plug-ins give you what you need?

The sound quality is absolutely stunning on all of these plug-ins. That's always on the top of my list of requirements for me. It doesn't matter how fancy or cool a plug-in looks, if it doesn't sound good it doesn't go in my collection.

The other thing that keeps amazing me about iZotope's plug-ins is their versatility. Each plug-in is actually a collection of many different types of effects, set up as links in a chain. You can view the chain and set up the order in which each effect happens, and bypass any links you don't need.

Another very cool feature in all iZotope plug-ins is that your waveform is displayed as a spectral graph right inside the plug-in. If you're working on an EQ, you can see the EQ curve displayed directly over the spectrum of your sound, so you can see exactly what you are affecting.

If you're setting up multi-band dynamics, you can see exactly how the volume of your sound is being compressed in real time. I am usually a proponent of using your ears, not your eyes, while you mix. While I still feel this is true, it's very cool to have these tools at your disposal, to give you a better idea of how you are changing your sound.

For more information on Blake Eiseman and his adventures at Binksound, please visit www.binksound.com.