John Riddle on SoundBetter

I started as a DIY self produced musician and through hard word and a lot of luck got in with professionals in the field at a young age. From 16 I was working at RussCain Productions, the same Russ Cain that recorded the song that got multi hit country rap artist Charley Farley signed to the record label he is still with today.

I have had the fortune to work alongside multi award winning sound engineer Frank Prior. Our close partnership allows me access to award winning professional quality equipment and insite. My home studio is equipped to handle any job that gets thrown my way and for more challenging projects I have the backing of one of the best recording engineers in the area.

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Interview with John Riddle

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: Luminosity is my baby, I have touched every single aspect of that album from instruments to vocals to mixing and mastering.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: a Mix and master for a fellow musician, a collaboration between myself and artist fyction, a full album release of Luminosity.
Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?
A: I hope I get to meet them so I can answer yes
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: digital because its what I know and I havent had the budget to support exploration into the analog world quite yet
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: I promise to make you as happy about your song as I possibly can.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: The different points of view and styles that come across its refreshing.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: Can you make me sound better to which a vast majority of my answer is yes lol
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: That you can make ANYTHING sound good. in some rare cases there is just nothing you can do i.e. if the lyrics are poorly wrote or recorded there isn't much wiggle room for correction.
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: What genre are they aiming for, what song they would like to sound close to, what energy or vibe are they going for, where can they see the song being played.
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Be open to advice but don't follow it strictly your music is you and its important to completely digest feedback before dismissing or rolling with it.
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: definitely my acoustic electric, crap tons of strings, some kind of charging apparatus, a handheld recorder, and my laptop, (which would hopefully have an upgraded hard drive able to handle my makeshift music software while maintaining a netflix worthy supply of videos and music.)
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I started this 11 years ago and its taken every bit of it for me to grow into who I am today. I write music record and release it myself and in the process meet and collab with a lot of artists in the same boat. I offer advise and try to help them in the way I wasn't offered when I was at that stage. My goal is to help people, do what I love, and hopefully make an honest living in the process.
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: I personally create alt rock positive music
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Honestly any I just love music and I love how each person is different and offer new creative experiences.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: when using compression its important to put it behind the reverb to keep the resonance sounding natural (unless that's not what your looking for)
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: we work on everything from metal to shoegaze
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: vocal tuning/editing
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: creativity, constructive feedback, personal touch, and more than anything love.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: I typically listen to what a song or artist needs and find solutions to meet those needs whether it be something simple like vocal tuning or a full on production from start to finish and with my network of artists and producers we always rise to the challenge.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: I have access to two studios 1 My home studio which is primarily used for guitar, bass, piano, vocals, and mixing/mastering. the 2nd of which is more roomy and accommodating to full bands.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Frank Prior, Shinedown, Charley Farley
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: vocal editing, mix, and mastering