Login
Greg Oerlemans is the owner of The Lion’s Den Mastering and Sound Design out of Kingman Arizona. With over 25 years in music production and 10 years as a mix and mastering engineer and sound designer. He has had multiple top 10 sample packs on Splice and mixed and mastered countless tracks for both large and small artist and labels. He continues to push his sound while spreading knowledge to those who aspire to have a future in the music business and industry.
Back in 2010 I had the number 1 track on Beatport under dubstep called Smash The Floor which came out on Play Me Records. Holding the #1 spot down for over 2 months in the summer of 2010 I was eventually knocked down to number 3 by none other than Skrillex with his Scare Monsters Nice Spirits release.
The days my main focus is mixing and mastering and sample pack work. On the mix and master front my role is to listen critically and be that final ear for my clients whom trust me with their music. When it comes to sample packs It’s pretty much create songs from scratch. When I mean scratch I mean synthesize everything so that the samples I create are unique, different, yet exciting for what ever genre I am creating (typically drum and bass or heavy bass music such as dubstep).
I lived in a small down in the desert in Arizona. I first started in music back in 6th grade when my mom bought a guitar for me and I joined a local punk band. I listened to pretty much everything growing up but mainly punk rock until I was about 14 and introduced to breakbeats by this dude named DJ Lego from Arizona. Once I heard it I was hooked and from there just started listening to tons of breakbeats and Drum and Bass. Up until about 2008 I went from DnB to Dubstep. In 2017 I was getting very bored of Dubstep it all just kinda sounded the same and went back to listening to Drum and Bass but also everything else as I developed a taste for any music that mixed or mastered really good. These days I listen to anything from Dance Music to Folk to Rock and anything in-between. I really enjoy listening to great singers as well. The funny thing is I don’t really know who I listen to when it comes to artist names I just like what to me sounds good.
I had been inspired by DJs like Andy C, Bad Company and my all time favorite Noisia. I was a pretty awkward lone wolf all the way up till I decided to hang up music production and DJing as a career but until then I self taught myself everything even with mixing and mastering. Wasn’t until about 2016 when Slade from Black Octopus Sound reached out to me to start doing sample packs. It had been awhile since I had to actually work for others but man the whole team over there are just great people and really inspiring. I feel like they are the ones who kinda helped ground me and get me in check as I had been a bit of a loose cannon up until then haha. Slade, Steve, Toby and the whole rest of the team over there are class acts and just so professional. I just took notice on how they worked with me and how kind and generous they were (everyone up until then was very cut throat in the music business). I knew from there I had to shift gears and treat people the same way they treated me. During that time I was also a bit of a clueless engineer. I mean I literally taught myself everything and really had no idea what I was doing and that I just wanted music to sound good. That’s when I was introduced to one of the most selfless kindest humans in the world, Klaus Hill who is also definitely my all time favorite mixing and mastering engineer. I felt he knew I had the passion for the business but was absolutely clueless and that man was kind enough to just guide me along the way, but he did that with everyone. I owe a lot of who I have become today because of him and just grateful for him helping me when ever I needed it. The cool thing about him is I am no one special he’s just that kind of guy it seems, and that’s inspiring. That guy gives back so much knowledge and he’s a great role model.
To be honest there was a huge period of time from 2013 to 2015 where I was just super arrogant and had an ego. Why I had an ego I don’t know I didn’t really know what the heck I was doing haha. I was also heavily drinking during that time and really feel that just made me a miserable person. I’d get frustrated with clients, I’d get frustrated with the state of dubstep and I’d post on social media about all my problems when it came to music, I also had a non profit organization called EDAC (Everyone Deserves a Chance) where I set up classes at boys and girls clubs in East LA and Orange County. I basically never took ownership. Around 2016 I moved back to Arizona with my now wife and became a step father, when I started working with Black Octopus Sound. At that time I really started focusing on my health. I quit drinking, started dieting, and went to the gym everyday, lost 60 pounds in two months and felt this huge sense of relief. My mind told me if you want to survive in this industry and become something then you have got to be healthy both physically and mentally, and from there I tripled my mixing and mastering business and started really putting out great sample packs. As for approaching (things differently), I wish I woulda never went to drinking but it’s all lessons in life so I wouldn’t change a thing, but for others I would say focus on your health. Healthy mind = healthy studio time especially when it comes to longevity.
My studio is my gear. My monitoring is my gear. I tried my hand at hardware gear and found that it wasn’t for me. I’m 100% in the box when mixing and mastering and my favorite tools are a few certain plugins mainly for sound design, it consists of Kilohearts Phaseplant and Serum. For mixing and mastering It’s anything from Tone Projects, Acustica audio and Pulsar audio.
Never stop learning. The moment you think you know it all you’re in for a huge reality check. Also focus on your monitoring and acoustics before and more than anything. You can’t hear what you can’t hear.
I’ve been working with headphones daily since 2016. I use them more so for sound design than anything but also to reference client work when mixing and mastering. A lot of times I’m in the studio for 5-8 hours a day mixing and mastering and once I am done there the last thing I want to do is go back and sit in the studio and start working on sounds, so instead I slap on my headphones kick back on the couch and start working on sample packs.
In my humble opinion there isn’t a better headphone under $900 that compares to the quality of the MM-100s. The balance in the headphones is amazing: the low end is nice and detailed, the mids are full, and the top end is magnificent. I am working on a rather big drum and bass sample pack in the evenings. This is where I use my the MM-100s the most. As a sound designer by night I’m constantly in headphones creating sounds for producers around the word of all sorts of levels. My main goal is to make high quality sounds that users can use in their music that sound as clean and quality as possible. One thing I struggled with other headphones was I didn’t get that quality sound, they either lacked low end, lacked mids, or just didn’t feel real. Thanks to the MM-100s I get a headphone that’s incredibly comfortable and extremely balanced and detailed. It’s almost as if I am in my studio where I can hear everything when I am creating or engineering. 10/10 for me. I’ve used them everyday since I’ve received them.
