Engineering/Mixing

I have never been a nuts and bolts person. Capturing a musical performance can unfortunately become a very technical pursuit.

When I began my musical career playing in bands in Dublin there was a huge emphasis put on achieving high-quality recordings. I spent much of my teenage years in small, independent recording studios. Modern, popular music has evolved alongside recording technology and recording it is seen very much as an indigenous part of the creative process.

Classical, traditional Irish music and Jazz on the other hand are usually seen as real-world art forms that are documented when committed to tape.

Since the proliferation of digital recording, much has been written on the lowering of adherence to best-practice recording methodology. This is not something that I have strong opinions about either way, but regardless, I have found myself gravitating towards musical projects that are created and fleshed out before the red lights go on.

I am fortunate enough to not rely on the income from producing music to make my living. I have no formal training which does not by any means make me a more capable engineer but it I think it means I tend to only take on projects that have a personal meaning to me.

What I think the people I work with appreciate the most is an understanding of what it’s like to develop a lifetime of musical personality and to want that respected. We put massive weight on ourselves when we’re trying to get a good take. We don’t need an engineer telling us we’re doing something wrong or trying to mute our idiosyncrasies for the sake of achieving something we never wanted to begin with.