Producer, Engineer, Musician
These are recent reflections on the art and science of listening. Drawing on decades spent making records, they explore music, sound, perception and the technologies that shape the way we experience them. They are not product announcements or technical papers, but an invitation to think differently about how we hear. As an audio engineer/producer who [...]
I once played a Dolby Atmos mix that I had just finished to the singer of the band I was producing. It was his first exposure to the format. After a minute or so, I noticed tears in his eyes. When the song had finished, he said, ‘it’s like listening to every monitor mix I [...]
The Audio Revolution That Took 90 Years
Atmos mixing, believe it or not, comes with its own peculiar despair. A modern, high-resolution melancholy. As an Atmos engineer working with what we might call legacy albums, days can be spent resurrecting a track from archaeological fragments. No recalls. No notes. No guiding breadcrumbs from the assistant engineer in 1977 who sensibly labelled the [...]
All The Roadrunning To mark its 20th anniversary, one of my favourite albums to have had the pleasure of working on, the extraordinary collaboration between Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, All The Roadrunning is being reissued in formats that truly reflect the depth and beauty of the original recording. For Record Store Day 2026, the [...]
A Hall Of Fame on one record - Behind the scenes of this Sonic Adventure with Rock's Greatest Supergroup
It was a good four years ago when the idea of a DS Live Box set was first discussed, and the idea of assembling a project of this depth was daunting, to say the least. The history of the band, of course, extends beyond my first involvement in 1984, so I was thrilled to have [...]
Studio Diary - 2024 Looking back at the making of the One Deep River album, the swift passage of time is all too apparent. So much has happened since December 2020, yes, that’s when this project started. For now let’s stick to matters of music, the people, the recording and the adventures in songs that [...]
In 2002, the Notting Hillbilies/DS rehearsed in the deepest East end of London from 8 - 18 July for a series of four charity shows. Three of which were at The Shepherds Bush Empire and one at Beaulieu on the South Coast of the UK. The assembled throng consisted of yours truly, Mark, John Illsley, [...]
2006 Boothbay Opera house benefit concert Day 1 - travel I have to admit I wasn't considering writing any sort of account of this short trip to Maine but on reflection during the many hours waiting around the now notorious JFK airport, I feel duty bound to record some kind of account. Especially considering very [...]