Remote Mixing & Mastering

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: I'm currently really enjoying the music and productions of Panda Bear, Bibio, Angelo De Augustine, Francis And The Lights and Bon Iver to name just a few. My engineering and production heroes include Bill Leader, Steve Albini, Jerry Boys and Joe Boyd.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: I think there is a big push these days to democratise the music making process and a lot of people feel like they could simply grab a copy of Logic and be able to record and mix their or their mates music to a professional standard. That could potentially happen but is rarely the case. The reality is that recording and mixing are skills that cannot be bought and they take many years to develop. I think it's wonderful that music is so accessible and easy to make and the tools we all have at our disposal these days are so intuitive and inspiring. However I still think there is a need for a professional to be making the final call on a mix and master before its put out into the world.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I can be quite old fashioned in my approach to recording. I'm only in my mid 30s but I just caught the end of using analogue tape in studios. I don't like to do too much editing, tuning or otherwise 'perfecting' of sound. I personally don't think the audience usually wants that. There are some pop or electronic styles that demand that type of production but generally I think it's distracting and says far more about the engineers ego than the artists vision. I love the sound of tape and warm distortion; the sound of records from the early 70s like Big Star and Neil Young.

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: Tom Waits. His style of recording is almost subversive in the way he breaks a lot of the rules around how music should sound and be recorded. In particular Mule Variations and Real Gone are exceptional records from both a technical and artistic point of view.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: The majority of music I've worked on has probably been either folk or rock, broadly speaking. However I've worked in virtually every genre though out my career. I particularly enjoy recording/mixing classical music in both traditional and modern forms. I've worked collaboratively with a number of singer songwriters to record, arrange and produce their records from the ground up. I also enjoy working with experimental and ambient musicians, most recently taking a deep dive into the world of modular synthesis.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My background is as an artist and I've always worked as a performer and composer alongside my sound engineering work. I bring a strong creative energy to any project I work on and I understand the thought processes of artists. I'm instinctually creative; concerned with the artistic integrity and meaning of a project both for the artist and the audience. However I'm also very technically minded having worked as the Head Technician in a large studio and having made, broken and fixed countless pieces of electronic equipment over the past 2 decades. I feel my strongest skill is my ability to successfully and nimbly bring these two disparate left-brain/right-brain elements together.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I recently moved from Manchester (UK) to Adelaide and in the process I had to put most of my studio on a boat. I couldn't bring everything with me but I brought lots and lots of excellent pieces of gear including big old JBL speakers, a 16 channel analogue mixing desk and a 24 channel tape machine! I also have a great collection of outboard hardware (preamps, compressors, EQs, reverbs, tape delays), synths (SH09, DX7, OP1), guitar pedals and amps. Like most people in the industry I'm largely working 'in the box' these days and use Pro Tools, Logic and /or Ableton to complete my productions. I've assembled a host of top of the range plugins too; in particular I'm a big fan of Acustica Audio plugins which in my opinion are the cream of the crop in terms of 'analogue tone' in a computer. I also have many other industry standard plugins from the likes of FabFilter, Oeksound, Soundtheory, IK Multimedia, Plugin Alliance and Arturia. I've been busy building my small studio in Adelaide. The studio is designed to be a mixing, mastering and producing space primarily. I've built all my own acoustic treatment and utilised Sonarworks processing to create an extremely balanced monitoring environment. In fact, this new space I've built in Adelaide has the best acoustic accuracy and mix translation of any studio I've worked in over the years.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: In the UK I would most often record and mix projects solo, essentially being the engineer/producer overseeing and managing the whole record making process. I've also frequently been 'just' a recording engineer (recording drums for example) or a mixing/mastering engineer. I have an Honours Degree in Music and lots of experience as a performer, arranger and composer. I bring this knowledge and experience to my productions through creative collaboration and am often called upon to play instruments on the records I record. As I'm new to Australia I'm just starting to find my feet in the industry and make contacts here. So I'm mostly taking on mixing and mastering jobs at the moment