James at VoxHound is dedicated to providing an excellent service, turning the artist's vision into a reality. With 12 years’ experience working in various areas in music, from Playing live to producing, mixing and mastering.
James “Jay“ Elwood started his interest in music at a young age. Going through a number of various instruments until he finally settled down to learn the Guitar at the age of 12. From then he developed a strong interest in the creation of music and how music was made, this lead him to take music as a GCSE in school. It was here where he got his first taste of recording and using a DAW to create and record music.
From school he went on to play in a number bands performing live and appearing on various recordings, however there was always the urge to get behind the desk and in front of a pair of monitors. Learning as he performed live and in the studios, he started to develop his skills as a mix engineer.
From here he went on to college and university to study music and music production before ending up at present day, ready and waiting to work on your music.
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Credits
Interview with VoxHound Productions
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: What is their end goal? It is important for me to know where they are heading with their music as it helps me understand what sound they want. I will try to understand their influences and what they want to achieve.
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Talk to who you are looking to hire, it's important that they understand your vision and can incorporate that into a mix.
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: My monitors, I just love them. I love my Eleven rack for re amping DI guitars. I use a trackball mouse that i could not be without. My screen setup, stacked monitors. My Guitar because that's where it all started.
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: About 15 years now I think. I started out playing guitar when I was 12 and joind my first band at 16. From there I gain an interested in the production and technical side of things. My passion has grown from there.
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Individual artists or bands. Someone who is interested in the music and knows what their sound is.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Let your ears guide you. Have one listening session with your screen turned off.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: I will normally work on Rock and Metal, however I have been credited on some Prog and alternative work.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: I would like to think that I bring my experience together with the artist’s vision to create something with both me and the artist are happy with.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: I like to start by listening through the track once. I will then start making any corrections to the tracks such as trimming the start and ends or removing any obvious anomalies. After this I will balance the tracks so that I am fairly happy with the levels, and then have a couple of passes just listening with my computer monitors of. This allows my ears to hear what corrections, if any need making. After a couple of listens I will get to work making any necessary adjustments. After this I will have another pass balancing the track to how I think it should sound. Then a final listen before sending the track of for the artist’s comments.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: A nice home studio with a treated room. This creates a comfortable and accurate listening environment for me, that I can trust. I run Cubase Pro 9 and Presonus R65 monitors.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Andy Sneap has been a massive influence on me alongside Adam Dutkiewicz. Their production work for Rock and Metal is a personal favourite of mine.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: Mostly mixing and mastering combined.
- Mixing EngineerAverage price - $50 per song
- Mastering EngineerAverage price - $30 per song
- ProducerContact for pricing
- EditingAverage price - $30 per track
- Programmed drumAverage price - $50 per song
Prices agreed before starting any work.
Up to 3 revisions included (If required).
- Cubase Pro 9
- Presonus R65
- AVID Eleven Rack
