Mastering
Recording & Mixing
Graphic Design/Customer Service, CD, DVD and In-House CD-R/DVD Production
ANDY KREHM, Mastering Engineer
For over two decades, Andy worked as a first-call studio/theatre musician and music producer/arranger prior to making a permanent career change to a full-time mastering engineer in the early 90’s.
As a musician, he was associated with names such as the Pointer Sisters, Aretha Franklin, Oscar Peterson, Nimmons ‘n’ Nine Plus Six, Vivienne Williams,Concert Productions International, O’Keefe Centre, Royal Alexandra Theatre,Imperial Room Orchestra, Canadian Musician, etc.
Since moving to his current career, he has mastered over 7,000 albums plus 100’s of singles and EPs. Over 50 albums he mastered have been nominated for Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) and eight have won Junos.
Literally scores of albums mastered at Silverbirch appear on the nomination and winner’s lists of other prestigious award granting bodies, such as the Blues Music Awards (formerly the JC Handy Awards), Canadian Folk Awards, Canadian Independent Music Awards, National Jazz Awards, Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards, NAR LifeStyle Music Awards and the Maple Blues Awards.
In 2008, Andy mastered Jeff Healey‘s “Mess Of Blues”, which was completed just before his untimely death. In May/08, it reached #1 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums Chart. Jeff and his band won seven Maple Blues Awards and Jeff was nominated for a Juno Award in the BLUES ALBUM OF THE YEAR category.
While most of Andy’s mastering work comes from Canada and the US, he has also mastered for many artists in other parts of the world such as Iceland, UK, Russia, Azores Islands, Bermuda, Iran, Israel, Thailand, Jamaica, Mexico and many countries in Europe and Africa.
Andy’s extensive experience in the music industry has given him a background that is much broader than many mastering engineers. The knowledge he learned in his former career as a musician/arranger/producer is often helpful during mastering and editing sessions.
Our mastering studio is located at Silverbirch Productions in Toronto, Canada. The studio is professionally designed and purpose-built for mastering and is equipped with the finest mastering-specific outboard gear and monitoring system.
Here’s some credits and testimonials
SELECTED MASTERING CLIENTS
ARTISTS:
A Tribe Called Red (Tribal Spirit/Sony)
Anvil (Hypnotic)
Ariana Grande-EP
Blackie And The Rodeo Kings (True North)
Blessed (Explorer Music Group)
Boys Night Out (Ferret Records)
Bruce Cockburn (True North)
BrandNew Sunset (Sony BMG)
Cadence (Indie)
Colin Linden (Sony)
Chaka Demus & Pliers (Explorer Music Group/Universal)
Chris Whiteley (Electro-Fi)
David Braid (Indie)
Elliot Brood (Warner)
Fathead (Electro-Fi)
Fred Eaglesmith (Sawdust Entertainment Inc.)
Grimskunk (Hypnotic)
Jack DeKeyser (Blue*Star)
Jamie Bonk (Indie)
Jeff Healey (Stoney Plains/Ruff Records)
Joe Budden Feat. The Game (Amalgam Digital)
Jimmy Bowskill (Indie)
Joydrop (Tommy Boy/BMG)
Kevin Breit/Sisters Euclid/Folk Alarm (Poverty Playlist)
Lindi Ortega (Interscope)
Mae Moore/Lester Quitzau (Festival)
Matt Dusk (Decca/Universal)
Mel Brown & Snooky Pryor (Electro-Fi/Festival)
Out Of Your Mouth (ViK/BMG)
P.J. Perry (Justin Time Records)
Roger O’Donnell (keyboardist with The Cure)
Ron Sexsmith (Warner)
Simon Wilcox (SHErecords/BMG)
Saukrates (Serious Entertainment)
Shakura S’aida (Festival)
The Drifters, featuring Rick Sheppard (EMI)
The Nylons (Attic)
Tommi Swick (Warner)
Wendy O. Williams And The Plasmatics (Plasmatic Media)
Willie “Big Eyes” Smith (Electro-Fi)
SELECTED MIXER/PRODUCER CLIENTS:
Alec Fraser-Liquid Sound
Andrew Galloway-Electro-Fi Records
Barry Haggarty-Haggarty Sound Studios
Barry Allen-Homestead Recorders
Brent Kolatalo-Pro Tools Mixing
James Bryan
Ken Lewis-Pro Tools Mixing
Michael Lent
Russell Broom-Broom Closet
Rod Swenson
Ron Lopata
Terry Sawchuk
TED ONYSZCZAK:
Ted Onyszczak was our staff recording/mixing engineer for many years. He had worked for Silverbirch on a part time basis, averaging about twenty hours a week for the four years prior to being hired full-time in 2005. When Terry Sawchuk left us for Nashville, it was a natural evolution for both Ted and Silverbirch.
Unfortunately, as of April 2020, Ted has retired from the recording and mixing world and we have decided not to replace his services here. He did an excellent job for our clients and we will miss him!
We will soon be posting a list of studios/engineers to assist our clients in finding a good quality studios and engineers suitable for their style of music and budget. In the meantime, please contact andy@silverbirchprod.com for more info.
BIO:
In his plus 20+ year career Ted Onyszczak has engineered and provided studio support for such Canadian music icons as Rush, Tom Cochrane, and Kim Mitchell, including work on the latest Rush EP “Feedback”. He has also engineered, mixed, and produced Cynthia Hallett‘s two CD’s “Sweet Like Poison” and “Miracle”, which are featured in the CBC Water Street Pictures TV series “Edgemont”. He’s also the producer an engineer for Toronto hip Hop sensation The Mighty Rhino. He’s produced 2 albums for Toronto blues legend Chris Antonik. 2013’s Better For You, and 2017’s Monarch. He’s also producing Toronto band Truth Panel.
At Silverbirch, Ted has worked with numerous acts such as Mit City, Pablo Terry, Eileen Quinn, Toronto hip hop artists, More Or Les, over several albums and EP’s, MC Abdominal, including his hit 2017 album with DJ Format “Still Hungry”, IllVibe, Skitzo Frenic, Ivy League/Nighthood and Reggae artists Selassi I Power, Frendlocks Asher, Confrontation and DJ Chris of Newbrandmusic. He recorded Michael Pickett for Doc McLean‘s album, Narrow House, produced by Colin Linden. One of the highlights of 2006 was mixing the DiggingRoots album, “Seeds”, which was released on the Jericho Beach label and nominated in 2007 year for a “Maple Blues New Artist/Group of the Year” award and nominated for a Juno Award for Aborignial Recording Of The Year. And in a heavier vein, Ted put the finishing touches on Kill Cheerleader’s album entitled “All Hail” for indie label Spinerazor / Corporate Punishment. Equally at home with the Blues, Ted mixed Blues Element’s new album, “Baby’s Got The Blues” in 2008.
He also has extensive credits in post audio, including sound fx editing for the Gemini award wining documentary series “Counterforce”. Associated Producers series, “Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour” and Canadian Geographic. He’s also worked on such feature documentaries as Paul Jay‘s “Lost In Las Vegas”, which has aired on A&E and Simcha Jacobovici‘s, “The Struma”, which has aired on HBO. recently he’s mixed 4 seasons of the #1 rated YTV program “The Next Star” in Canada. “Game Changers” for The Discovery Network US. Along with the series: “Marraige Under Construction”, “Family Under Construction”, Bryk House/Bryk At A Time”, “Love Trap”, “Ex Wives Of Rock”, and “Secrets Of A Stylist” for laHacienda Creative and Tricon Productions. His post experience has included everything from dialog and sound FX editing, to ADR/voice over recording, and music supervising and composing in addition to re-recording mixin g. In 2006, he mixed and authoring a Talking Blues DVD for Electro-Fi artist, Mel Brown.
As a solo artist he’s released an eponymous album and movie soundtrack work under the moniker Measuring Man.
A veritable renaissance man, Ted was also our manufacturing coordinator and helped out by doing some of the graphic design/file checking and website design work as well as transfers and edits re the video/DVD/Enhanced CD work at Silverbirch.
Graphic Arts, CD, DVD, CD-ROM, In-House CD-R Production and Customer Service:
Shandy Kern joined the staff at Silverbirch in 2006.
As the head of Graphics, his job is to create original packaging and disc face designs if needed by Silverbirch clients. He also checks, advises and/or corrects, if necessary, client provided designs submitted for manufacturing.
Shandy past work experience includes THE UPS STORE, Graphic Design and the STILL LOUNGE, PROMOTION AND GRAPHIC DESIGN.
Shandy is also an accomplished musician playing in a band called Escalate!.