Rory Sturgeon on SoundBetter

Mixing and mastering from a team including grammy winning mastering engineer - based in Devon !

Working out of Exeter, Devon, I have transitioned from the artist side into production and audio engineering, which I have been doing for 3 years now. On the music side of things, I have been placed on Spotify editorial playlists, had BBC radio plays, and had links with Warner and Universal music.
Fast forward to now, I work alongside Henry Culpitt, a talented audio engineer out of our studio in Exeter, and we work with a grammy award winning mastering engineer out in Germany. Having opened just this year, we are trying to reach out and work with as many talented people as possible!

Click the 'Contact' above to get in touch. Looking forward to hearing from you.

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Interview with Rory Sturgeon

Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: We are currently mixing an EP for Alex Helsby, a talented singer songwriter, and are in the process of recording an album for an upcoming talent based in Exeter.
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Digital! I mean thats how myself and Henry have learned, and so thats what we know best. It's faster, and gives a more creative workflow.
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: To deliver a sound that you are happy with. We won't sleep until you do (literally).
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Honestly how creative it is. Myself and Henry love music, and being able to work in it full time is just a dream come true.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: That mixing will fix production. A mix can't fix a badly produced song. So make sure your production is good as that means our mix will make it sound even better!
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: What is a reference song that you want your song to sound like?
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I started making music on the artist side of things about 5 years ago, and have transitioned into audio engineering and production in the last 2 years. Same with Henry really!
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: We both love a clean, warm sounding track that moves you in some way. As simple as that really!
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: I'll speak for Henry and myself here and say if we could go back in time, it would be John Coltrane. We both have studied jazz on our instruments, and so to record someone of that caliber, it would be amazing.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: One cool tip we saw from an Eric Valentine video. If you want a natural room sound to blend in but are short on mics/ forgot to set up room mics - Once you've finished recording a part, play it back through monitor speakers and record the playback through ideally a stereo pair of room mics. You've then basically get your room sound and can use it in your production!
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: Although we will work on anything, we do a lot of work with singer/songwriters, indie bands, and more modern soul and jazz based artists. That's not to say that we don't want to work with artists form other genres.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: The ability to listen to the clients needs. I feel like the ability to mix and master is only worth it if you are bringing the artist's vision to life. Obviously our professional judgement will be offered if something actually sounds 'bad' to us, but at the end of the day we want the artist to be as happy as possible!
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: I feel the benefit of having two of us, is that we bounce of ideas on how to get the sound that the client is going for!
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: Typically, for mixes, once your stems are sent through, we will drag them in to our pro tools sessions, I'll clean everything up, and then proceed to a first listen, followed by a listen to the clients reference track/ tracks, Once levels are set, we will get to work. Ultimately, levels and 'nice' sounding frequencies is what we value above anything, and so this is where a lot of our time will go. Ultimately, everything that we add in to a mix is done for a reason, to get the sound that the client is going for!
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: We currently work out of a studio in Devon. Henry mixes on his Audez MM-500 Planar headphones, and then the mixes are checked through our Neumann Kh120’s, and then through our Adam audio T7vs. We have pretty much any digital plugin you could think of, but are big fans of Soundtoys UAD, and fabfilter.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: We are both big fans of Eric Valentine, and have learned so much from his mixes. Musically, we have different tastes, but I feel like we both love singer songwriters, classic jazz records, and more modern soul.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: On here we will be doing mixing, and we are offering a mastering service from a grammy award winning engineer for every mix, should that be something you want! Myself and Henry are both producers too, so will add parts in to your mix if it would enhance it, and equally if that is something that you would want.