Instrument recording

As with vocal recording, you may wish to find an inspiring environment in which to record your acoustic guitar or string parts, or of course any other instrument. Whether you are a composer or soloist, or you need to add parts to an existing song or piece of music, get it done somewhere where you know it will be edited and mixed to a high standard, and sympathetically to your genre.

If you don't play an instrument yourself, but would like to add parts to your music, I have good connections with session musicians. I also have years of experience contributing myself on piano, keyboards, bass, acoustic or electric guitar, and percussion, and use Vienna Symphonic Library for orchestral instruments. Depending on the genre, a virtuoso performance isn't always needed, but rather just the right supporting chords, melody or riff to complement the arrangement.

Music composition & production

The internet is flooded with music these days. Music libraries, royalty-free sites and licensing sites all competing for your attention. You can even get an AI to compose you something. So if you need background music for your video production, there is no shortage of choice. However this can sometimes be a mixed blessing. It's easy to spend hours searching for just the right piece of music, and still come away slightly dissatisfied.

Another problem is exclusivity. After licensing what you think is the right piece of music, a few weeks later you hear it in someone else's production. And then a few months later in another. It's expensive to license music that you're guaranteed not to hear elsewhere. Add these problems together and it can often be more cost-effective to get something composed. I have years of experience working to briefs and creating music for adverts, video productions and music libraries.

Sound recording & sound design

It's nice to get out of the studio sometimes, and I have a fully mobile setup for location recording. This could be for a production company who needs a sound recordist and / or boom operator, and I can sync the audio files in post-production if required. I have a lot of experience working on corporate and promo videos so I can more easily picture what is needed in the final mix, and being able to look ahead in this way helps to get the recording right at source. I have also recorded many schools, choirs and live bands, and this is best achieved in your own rehearsal or performance space.

If you're producing a promo video, social media ad or video tutorial, sound design can bring certain aspects of the production to life and make it more engaging for your audience. Sound effects or background ambiences for animations or transitions can often need creating and subtly mixing in.

Audio mix

As a singer, singer-songwriter or artist, you want your tracks to sound punchy, interesting and engaging. If you've already spent a lot of time, energy or money recording, then you need the final mix to be balanced, dynamic and exciting. Although mixing is one of the most crucial parts of the process of delivering your final song, it is often rushed or glossed over. I can take your stems and return a great mix that will be ready for your mastering engineer.

Alternatively you may be a design agency or video producer that needs your audio mix to be finalised, or professionally handled from the ground up. Well processed audio is often underrated in promo videos, corporate videos or social media ads. However if the audio mix sounds good, it gives the whole production an accomplished feel. Don't leave your clients with any nagging doubts whether you can deliver - let's get your audio mix polished!

Songwriting, co-writing & critique

It's often beneficial for songwriting to be a collaborative process. Most songs in many of the mainstream charts are now co-writes. And there are good reasons for this. An artist always wants songs they are performing to be the best they can be, of course - and putting together the creativity of two or more musicians or writers can often produce a more interesting and engaging result. Contributors bring their relative strengths to the table and the best ideas are kept in.

Even if not officially co-writing, over the years the singer-songwriters who have recorded with me have regularly appreciated my suggestions for tweaks in melodies, lyrics or arrangement. Sometimes when you're writing alone you don't get the luxury of a good 'sounding-board', but when you get into the studio, ideas to make a song even better can often jump out.

Tuition, coaching & mentoring

If you or a family member are interested in music production, but feel you need some guidance along the way, I can offer either short-term or longer-term tuition, regularly or on an ad-hoc basis. If you use Apple Logic Pro then this will provide the best synergy in learning.

For those at the start of their recording journey, I cover the basics of vocal and instrument recording, the DAW (digital audio workstation), microphones and signals, software instruments, synths and samplers, acoustics, music arrangement, and music theory if required. This will get you confident to make music yourself. For those becoming more advanced we can go into techniques relevant to the genres you are most interested in. These could include multiband compression, parallel compression, sidechain compression, automation, mixing techniques, editing software instruments, and so on.