Russell Tanner on SoundBetter

Americana and alternative rock may be my bread and butter, but in my fifteen years as a professional I've worked in genres from bluegrass to thrash metal. At the end of the day I love working with good songs. I want to make your music sound its best: deep, rich, and alive.

A mentor called me "the new old-school" once and I think it suits me. Not in terms of how my mixes sound, but I definitely take a simpler approach to things than a lot of in-the-box mixers. I learned on analog consoles and have done nearly as much live sound as studio recording in my career, so I mix with faders and EQ before resorting to complicated routing and long signal chains. I love mixes that sound rich and natural, rather than saturated and aggressive. I'll go there too, of course, but my very favorite thing to make are mixes that have a deep sense of space and feel like a big, warm hug.

I started my journey as a guitar player, classically trained through high school and college, and still play and write my own music. I got my Sound Recording Technology degree in 2008 from Texas State University and interned with engineer Chet Himes (Christopher Cross, Eric Johnson) whom I continued to work with throughout the years. After that I went off doing my own thing, and I've made a steady living making tons of records for local artists.

I mix primarily in the box these days for the sake of speed, but if you prefer to go all-in on analog, I have access to that as well.

Would love to hear from you. Click the contact button above to get in touch.