We were lucky to catch up with Alex Koch recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alex, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
The decision to embark on a business centered around music production and recording felt like a natural progression for me. I had been honing my recording skills since the age of 15, starting with a basic 4-track tape recorder and gradually advancing my equipment over time. It reached a point where it seemed only fitting to formalize what I had already been deeply immersed in. The name “Digital Dust” stemmed from an expression used by one of my writing partners, Craig. We often found ourselves with numerous recording sessions—ideas, or incomplete songs—accumulated over time, which we jokingly referred to as “songs collecting digital dust.” One day, as I brainstormed business names, Craig suggested revisiting one of these forgotten tracks, and in that moment, it struck me as the perfect moniker for the venture. The name encapsulated the essence of what I envisioned for the business—a fusion of the modern (digital) era with the vintage (dust), reflecting my studio’s ethos of melding old analog equipment with contemporary sounds. It not only provided a thematic foundation but also ignited a passion within me to delve deeper into vintage gear and recording techniques. This inspiration fueled my commitment to curate a studio space that harmonized the old and the new, ultimately shaping my identity as a music producer, musician, and sound engineer.
While my primary focus was on following my passion and staying true to myself rather than explicitly addressing a market need, I couldn’t ignore the undeniable allure of vintage equipment in the music industry. With my extensive background in music and active involvement in the vibrant Los Angeles music scene, I felt a deep confidence in both my ability to deliver exceptional services and my capacity to leverage my network for business growth. Establishing Digital Dust was driven by a blend of passion, confidence, and a deep-seated belief in the value of authenticity within the music production landscape.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
At Digital Dust, we specialize in music production services, centered around our state of the art studio. The range of offerings includes recording, mixing, producing, scoring/composing, mastering, studio rental, session work, licensing for film/TV, and sample packs. While we cater to various needs, our core service involves serving as a one-stop-shop for indie artists seeking professional-grade recordings and productions. . As a music producer, I often collaborate closely with artists to bring their musical visions to life. Typically, this involves meeting with the artist to discuss their song ideas and crafting a blueprint for the track, outlining its structure and arrangement. From there, we embark on the production process, laying down the foundational elements and recording all necessary parts.
Following recording, I handle editing and post-production to refine the track further. Once the song reaches a satisfactory stage, I undertake the mixing process, ensuring a balanced and cohesive sound by using a combination of analog hardware and digital plugins. Finally, we proceed to mastering, where I either oversee the final touches myself or enlist a mastering engineer, depending on the client’s preferences and needs.”
At Digital Dust, I thrive on the diversity of scenarios presented by each artist. Sometimes, an artist brings a nearly completed song that just needs that extra push to reach its full potential. In these cases, I step in to add the finishing touches, akin to adding frosting to a cake.
This process often involves integrating organic elements like live guitar, bass, synths, keys, or percussion to enhance the song’s texture and depth. If the artist’s creation was entirely digital and they seek a touch of analog warmth, I provide custom solutions using carefully selected analog gear tailored to their unique needs.
I take on the responsibility of mixing the track to ensure it achieves its full sonic potential. Often, the artist prefers a professional studio environment for recording vocals, and I offer that service too.
While every project presents its own challenges, my ultimate objective remains constant: to deliver the best sounding song possible, fully realizing the artist’s vision.”
The problems I solve for my clients varies from person to person. I find the studio gives them a great environment to work in and lots of instruments and sounds to choice from. It also gives them top notch sound in the recordings which is something most of them don’t have access too. I give my feedback and in most cases I just help guide them along the way while also providing my skills as a musician. I also utilize my network of musicians and call upon them if needed for a project. For example, next week I’ll be hiring a vocalist to provide a hook for one of my clients songs. I will also be hiring a vocal coach to help guide a different client in his deliver for a song. These things change on a day to day basis. I recently finished scoring a film. The director called me specifically because he knew that I had a vintage sound and style that could capture the spaghetti western soundtrack that he was goin for on his film. We worked together throughout the fall of last year and it was a blast scoring all the scenes.
I wouldn’t say I’m particularly proud of anything at the moment, but I’m content with a lot of things these days. I get to work on various styles of music every week and interact with artists/musicians/companies/and all different types of scenarios. Last night, I randomly got a call to do work on a theme song for a man running to be the district attorney of LA. I have never done an election campaign theme song and we had 8 hours to knock out the song and it came out really good.
I think what separates Digital Dust from other spaces is what I bring to the table there. On the recording side, its a unique space with a great selection of equipment but the key is knowing how to accomplish all different types of sounds from the equipment. Every studio is gonna have a vibe and hopefully someone there that knows how to run everything and get a good end result. I think Digital Dust definitely has a vibe and my clients seem to feel good about the end result.. As long as that is happening I can keep doing what I’m doing.
As far as things to look out for. I’m definitely investing some time in learning new production skills, particularly hardware samplers, and drum machines right now. I’m planning to write a lot more using some of these tools. Digital Dust is also in the process of setting up a B studio and that is going to be geared more toward just writing and capturing ideas. I’m also slowly building up education content that I will be putting out on different social platforms. There are a handful of different artists putting out new material and projects that were produced at Digital Dust. Please follow the socials for more updates on that music.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Honestly, just putting in as much effort as possible to make my clients happy and get the product finished in a way where they just feel great about it. I want it to be something they can listen to for the rest of their lives and be proud of. A part of their own personal art collection. It has a different value when it comes from yourself. It’s really a timestamp for the artist of a moment in their life. I want them to treasure it. When this happens, its a very rewarding feeling for me and it also gives me hope that they are gonna spread a positive word about me in whatever role I played in helping them complete their project.
When it came to building clients that started from just being a musician out and about and building a network and actively talking to people. I was doing a lot of the leg work before I ever started a business. I recall when I was going to school at Musicians Institute. I was studying music production and I had a little home studio. I would go onto hollywood blvd and pull a lot of the street performers off the street and use them in recordings. I recall miking a saxophonist for the first time this way and tracking congo/bongo players, rappers, and singers. By doing things like this it made me stand out and have more confidence and knowledge. I also wouldn’t be afraid to approach people I saw that were talented and get them in the studio. All the legwork I was putting in my early days paid off by not only building my reputation but also giving me a lot of the experience and also a lot of confidence.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I remember one time I had these this couple come in to do a song at my studio back when I had a space located over in Eagle Rock. They had this grand vision for this song and they were so hyped on it. They gave me a reference track that they wanted to use to have the song sound like and their expectations were high. They told me they wanted to win a grammy. Very ambitious to say the least. The reference song was called “Needed Me” by Rihanni. The production value and mix were top tier. The beat they brought in was a beat they bought off the internet for 50 dollars. They rented a Song C800 mic to bring into the studio which is a 10 thousand dollar mic that is popular because of its use with certain artists (Drake would be a good example). We tracked the vocals and added a little instrumentation to the song and mixed. After the final session we were all celebrating and they were very happy about how the song was sounding. The plan was from there they were gonna send it to their mastering engineer and then release the song. Two days later I get a phone call from them. I expected them to be excited but the artist was far from that. She was upset and very angry and for whatever reason I was to blame for this. She said that the mastering engineer didn’t like the mix and couldn’t do much with it. She sent me the master and it was super bass heavy and different than what I had previously given her. Regardless, she had some unpleasant words for me and my mix and she challenged my skills as a mixing engineer. The phone call left me feeling a bit empty and depressed. I knew from the get go the expectation and the bar were set a little high but I felt I did my best on delivering a good mix. It put me in a space of self doubt and I started questioning my abilities.
This dark space had a silver lining though because it got me to go back to ground zero. I basically broke down my whole approach to mixing and started from scratch. I started studying techniques in mixing that I had not incorporated into my mixes because I simply lacked the knowledge and confidence in them. I spend hours studying some of my favorite mix engineers techniques and building systems that I could apply to different mixes. I spent more time studying reference tracks. I began tackling problems that I didn’t pay attention to as much before. By the end of this journey I had a whole new system in play and it felt like I was a brand new mix engineer. I was excited because I had completely reinvented myself in one area of my business. All this occurred because in reality I had a client who had unrealistic expectations for the outcome of something. At the time it happened it felt awful but I needed that check to bring me back to the drawing board. It ended up being an important moment for me and my business because it took me out of my comfort zone and forced me to change in one area of my profession.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.digitalduststudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digitalduststudios/ https://www.instagram.com/sound_detective47/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digitalduststudio/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-koch-/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@detective4719/videos
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/digital-dust-studios-los-angeles-2
Image Credits
Richard Garingaloa