Meet Ricky Wascher of Cimamusic Mix & Mastering

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ricky Wascher.

Hi Ricky, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
My musical career path started with me as a musician (a guitar player) in several rock bands throughout my teens and twenties. In my late twenties, I felt burned out and lost my love of playing with bands. Consequently, I left the music scene and started writing my songs at home and recording demos at local studios. Eventually, I purchased a small recording interface, a couple of microphones, and some studio monitors and began venturing into home recording.

In 2013, I got together with some old bandmates, with whom I had recorded a full-length album at Jim Brady Recording Studios in Tucson in 1993. As it turned out, 2014 would be the 20th anniversary of the album’s release, so we decided to do a complete remix and re-release. I visited Jim Brady (who still owns and operates the studio) and asked him for our sessions’ tapes. Luckily, he had converted them to audio files and provided me with everything we had recorded two decades ago! I returned these files to my studio and began remixing the album, which would change my life. During this process, I had an epiphany. I wanted to make records! It was like the recording bug bit me!

By this time, I had enough experience and skills to be responsible for recording and mixing music that wasn’t my own. Finally, in 2016, I opened my doors to the music community and officially launched Cimamusic Mix & Mastering. Little by little, I have been able to build my client base and invest in a professional setup. Thankfully, the studio is still going strong, and I have the greatest clients anyone could ask for!

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road to where I am has been anything but smooth! I have had to overcome two major obstacles along the way. My studio and production room are inside of my home. That, in and of itself, contributes to my first obstacle. I sometimes struggle with the myth that home recordings do not compete with “brick-and-mortar” recording facilities, which is false. For obvious reasons, recording at home can have its inherent challenges.

Still, years of experience have taught me to overcome these challenges by using every space in my home to my advantage to capture the best recordings possible. However, my mix room is fully treated because I need to mix in an environment that is as “uncolored” as possible. And for those naysayers who doubt the capacity to acquire a great recording at home, all I have to say is: tell that to the Foo Fighters, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes, Beck, Billie Eilish, and many other artists that have produced amazing recordings in “bedroom” studios!

Secondly, I had to find a way to stand out in a community of well-known recording studios and talented engineers. And being a relative newbie at the time (I moved to Tucson in 2012), it took a lot of hard work to make a name for myself! Ongoing marketing and word-of-mouth helped me to get noticed in the community, and I have been blessed to work with many local clients and clients from all over the country and worldwide!

As you know, we’re big fans of Cimamusic Mix & Mastering. What can you tell our readers who might not be familiar with the brand?
I own and operate Cimamusic Mix & Mastering, a local, home-based audio production business. My services include audio recording, mixing, mastering, editing, arrangement, and production for artists of all genres. My business model places a lot of emphasis on helping artists and bands achieve high-quality and affordable recording. Many of us need more resources for quality recording. I want to help musicians by any means possible because I remember being in that position early on when I played in bands but didn’t have the resources to record my music. When I played music in the early nineties, a friend and fan paid for my bandmates and me to record an album. He said, “Go to Tucson and pick the best studio you can find.” After the production was complete, the bill was around $11,000! After approximately 30 years, this experience has not been lost on me. I feel a moral obligation to pay it forward and help in any way I can so that bands and artists can achieve their goal (and dream) of recording their music – even if it means producing their songs or records for free from time to time.

Over the years, I have had the privilege of working with local, national, and international artists who hail from such places as Arizona, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Mexico, England, Italy, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as with a variety of genres and styles such as rock, metal, singer/songwriter, country, contemporary Christian, hip hop and dubstep. I have also had the opportunity to mix projects that included artists such as Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen, Ted Nugent, Ring of Fire), Gregg Fox (Renaissance Rock Orchestra, Heart, Asia, Bad Company, Jefferson Starship, Billy Idol, Slash, Queensryche, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne), Cian Coey (Starship, Meatloaf), Lynn Sorensen (Bad Company, Heaven & Earth), David Janssen (Renaissance Rock Orchestra, Tuff, Danger Zone), Marco Zavala (Renaissance Rock Orchestra, Nadir D’Priest, London, Traveler, Prophecy) and Tony Franklin (The Firm, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Lou Gramm, Kate Bush).

As far as my proudest moment every time my clients release music recorded here that is my proudest moment. Being a part of that excitement motivates me to continue doing what I do. However, one recent experience does stand out more. I mixed a song on the album “The Ice Age Cometh” from Renaissance Rock Orchestra, released worldwide in May 2023. And we just received word that it was ranked amongst the top 40 Metal releases of 2023 by Rock It! Magazine out of Germany. This is an enormous honor because Heavy Metal is a trendy genre in European countries!

I want my clients to know I will not cut corners or provide a subpar product. The goal that I strive for with every project is to make it even better than the last. Whether it is a local band just starting off or an international band on a record label, I will never differentiate in the hard work I put into making the production sound great!

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Don’t be afraid to ask; never feel you are “the best” at what you do because there is always room for growth. I love telling stories, but this particular story is one I love to share. When I was recording my first record with my band at Jim Brady Studios, I recall the moment when we were tracking our first song. After the song, we could see Jim shaking his head in the control room, and he asked if we could join him for a little chat. We thought he would tell us how great we sounded, but he advised us on how to make the arrangements better. At that point, he even offered to produce our album at no extra cost. To better put this into context, we were all in our early twenties! This was a fork in the road, where we had to choose between our egos and a professional-sounding record. With all the pain in our hearts, we reluctantly accepted his offer to produce the album.

Well, throughout the four months we were in the studio, Jim wasn’t only our producer but also a teacher and a mentor. Every recording session was a new lesson in music production, performance, songwriting, and arrangement. He was so patient and would take the time to explain things, taking a very hands-on approach with the band. I feel that without knowing it at the time (and with no ambition to be a “studio guy” 30 years ago), Jim prepared me to be a recording engineer and to support my clients, especially those who request that I produce their song or album. Recording with Jim wasn’t just a recording session; it was Audio Production University!

This has had an everlasting impact on me. And all it took was for us to invite Jim in and to trust in his expertise rather than to listen to those cocky little voices in our heads!

Pricing:

• A flat rate of $300 a song for bands/artists tracking an entire song with me from start to finish. This includes recording, mixing, and three sendbacks.
• A flat rate of $200 a song for only mixing if you recorded somewhere else and would like me to mix the project for you; this price includes three setbacks.
• A flat rate of $40 a song for mastering this includes three sendbacks.
• $40 an hour for other projects (Call for more details)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cimamusicstudio.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/cimamusicstudio
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cimamusicstudio
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@cimamusicstudio