Rick Ross’ Engineer eMIX Chops It Up In The Latest Issue Of XXL

Engineer Eduardo Hernandez, a.k.a. Eddie "eMIX" Hernandez, has been a mainstay in Miami recording studios since the late 1990s working with artists like Uncle Luke, Trick Daddy, Trina, Pitbull, Plies, DJ Khaled, Rick Ross and his Maybach Music Group. XXL spoke with the 33-year-old North Miami native about building up his resume, studio time with Rozay and molding the impeccable sound of Ross’ latest effort, Mastermind.

How did you get your start?
I started out just being a staff engineer. Just being the guy that a couple guys do sessions with, and then they called the owner, and they started saying, “Hey man, I want to book a session, but I want to make sure Eddie is helming the boards.” I started becoming more of a requested guy at the studio I worked at, called Audio Vision Studios [in North Miami]. I became the go-to guy, especially for the hip-hop vibe.

When did you first link up with Ross?
I actually started assisting the mixes for [Trilla]. I assisted on three songs—one of them being “The Boss” with him and T-Pain. I think that was probably my first real work on a Rick Ross project where I did the clean versions. The clean version that you hear on the radio for “The Boss,” I chopped that up in the videos and all that. That was Trilla, and him and me just got a good rapport.

How did you perfect the sounds for Mastermind?
This time, it wasn’t even about him telling me what I needed to do. I just do it and knock it out. He’d come back and say, “Perfect.” So that’s crazy. At the end of the day, I basically do the whole molding of what the sound is going to be. I do all the delays, the drops, the sound effects. The infamous stutter, now. We are evolving with it. But it’s a team effort.