Recording Studio Rockstars

My guest today is Scott Michael Smith a Grammy nominated Mixer, Producer, and musician based in Los Angeles working largely in music for the screen. Scott got his start at the legendary Village Recording studio in Los Angeles where he became a staff engineer, working with artists like John Mayer, Keith Emerson, Colbie Caillat, Carole King, Fink and many others. He spent countless hours in the stud...

My guest today is Larry Droppa the owner and president of API since 1999, when he acquired the company at auction. He and two friends launched ATI, the live console company, in 1988, positioning that company's Paragon console as the premier live sound mixing tool for many years. After adding Uptown Automation in 1995 and then API in '99, Larry's quest for audio manufacturing notability had been sa...

My guest today is Bjorgvin Benediktsson an Icelandic-American author, audio educator, and entrepreneur. He is also a friend of mine and the founder of www.audio-issues.com where he has taught thousands of music producers how to make a bigger impact with their music since 2009. His latest book, You Get What You Give is a business parable a la The Go-Giver that follows Casey, an aspiring music produ...

My guest today is Adam Greenspan A Grammy-nominated engineer, mixer, and producer who had a pretty good start to his career engineering Faith No More's "Album of the Year" at age 20. He later spent time at two world-class studios, Westlake Audio and The Village Recorder, working with artists such as Marilyn Manson, Rage Against the Machine, and Bono before going freelance in 2000. As a consultant...

My guest today is Rafa Sardina a recording and mixing engineer with 5 Grammy wins, 12 Latin Grammy awards, and a total of 60 Grammy nominations during his career including winning the South African SAMA award in 2018. A Basque native of Spain Rafa started out with four years in med school before deciding to pursue his passion for music which led him to Full Sail University. After graduating as val...

My guest today is S. Husky Hoskulds a Grammy winning engineer, and mixer who moved to LA in 1991 to study audio engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He began his career working with Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as a staff engineer at The Sound Factory in the early 1990s but would quickly move on to independent projects with Michael Penn, The Wallflowers, Sheryl Crow, Tom Wai...

My guests today are Roger Alan Nichols and Tyler Bryant. Roger has been a guest on the show before to talk about producing great rock records with his band Dreaming In English and artists like Paramore, Seal, Larking Poe, and Steven Tyler and you can hear his story on episode RSR45 . But today we are here to talk about the records he makes with the other Tyler of Nashville based rock band Tyler Br...

My guest today is Brent McCollough a Nashville-based producer, keyboardist, and artist. He started playing the piano by ear at the age of five later accepting a full scholarship at the University of Alabama to pursue a degree in Music Production and Performance followed by a full-time graduate teaching fellowship for his master's degree in Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas. He records...

My guest today is Tony Black a Grammy-winning music producer, mixer/engineer & songwriter/musician. He has contributed to recordings totalling more than 50 million units sold or downloaded. He won a GRAMMY AWARD for his contribution to the album "THE DIARY OF ALICIA KEYS" for BEST R&B ALBUM. He also mixed and recorded "RIDE OR DIE" on the Grammy-winning album JAY-Z "HARD KNOCK LIFE VOL.2". Tony sp...

My guest today is Tony Succar a two-time Latin Grammy award-winning and #1 Billboard charting artist, producer, and composer/arranger Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Miami, Florida. Tony's produces music in the world of salsa, jazz, pop, and afro-latino-inspired music. He has a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters degree in Jazz Performance from Florida International University. In 2018, Tony was nomin...

My guest today is Kurt Ballou is a Grammy-winning producer, engineer, mixer and studio owner in Salem MA with extensive production credits on some of aggressive music's most successful albums. In addition to his studio work, Kurt is the guitarist in ground breaking hardcore/metal crossover act CONVERGE. Kurt's studio, God City Recording, was constructed in 2003 and contains the finest analog and d...

My guest today is Billy Decker a Nashville producer, engineer, and mixer with multiple #1 hits for clients like Chris Young, Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker, Jason Aldean, Jaime Lynne Spears, and Sam Hunt and even George Jones. Billy is known for his high-speed method of mixing using templates and systems for getting to the creative side of mixing immediately without getting bogged down in the tech s...

My guest today is Justin Francis is a multiple Grammy Award nominee as an engineer, #1 Billboard chart mixer, and budding producer based right here in East Nashville. His work can be heard on records ranging from Ronnie Milsap to Alice Cooper including Top 40 hits for Little Big Town and Kelsea Ballerini; soundtracks with Kacey Musgraves and P!nk, and releases from diverse artists as Rodney Crowel...

My guest today is Chris Adams, aka Ahee, an EDM producer and artist with extensive experience touring clubs and festivals known for his prolific musical output, helpful YouTube tutorials, high-quality sample packs, & crowd engaging live sets. I discovered Ahee's Youtube channel when I was searching for tutorials on using the Serum wavetable synth from Xfer Records and really enjoyed the ways that...

My guest today is Daniel Schlett a Producer, Engineer, Mixer and owner of Strange Weather Studio seen on the cover of Mix Magazine in 2019 as one of the best rooms in Brooklyn NY. Daniel's production finds itself at the creative intersection where acoustic and rock recording meets loop and edit based production. His discography ranges from NYC hip hop to live in-studio performances, to rock produc...

My guest today is Brian Murphree mastering engineer at Soundporter Mastering in Spring Hill TN. After recording his first band in 1994 at a studio in Decatur, AL, and taking the mix-engineer helm in 1999 for his punk band, Random Conflict, followed by a 5-year stint with Surf Rock band, Daikaiju, Brian has been focused on recording, mixing, and mastering for underground artists who might lack the...

My guest today is Kevin McMahon of Marcata Recording first started by The Walkmen in 2000 as a purely analog facility located in Harlem inside what had been a Nascar production facility. Kevin joined in 2003 and took over daily operations, bringing his collection of vintage microphones, preamps, and a long history of studying great live performance from the decade of work as a live sound engineer/...

My guest today is Morgan Page a GRAMMY-nominated producer and DJ with hundreds of millions of plays, and charted multiple Billboard, Beatport, and US Dance Radio #1s. Morgan has built a massive live following performing at major festivals across the world, including Coachella, EDC, Electric Zoo, Burning Man, and Ultra Music Festival, as well as countless shows in the world's top venues and clubs....

My guest today is John Storyk, registered architect and acoustician, is a founding partner of WSDG (Walters-Storyk Design Group). He has provided design and construction supervision services for the professional audio and video recording community since the 1969 design of Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios in New York City. John Storyk received his architectural studies from Princeton and Columb...

My guest today is Patrick Rene aka Killah Trakz a Miami native rapper and hip hop music producer who has worked with artists like Iconz, Rick Ross, 2 Live Crew, and Uncle Luke to name a few. An analog junkie at heart adapting in the world of digital, Trakz has been at the forefront of the digital revolution of music distribution by having one of the most downloaded albums in the MySpace / Napster...

My guest today is Stephen Shirk an engineer, producer, and owner of Shirk Studio in Chicago. Originally from Bloomington, Illinois, he began playing in bands through junior high college at Miami University where he earned a degree in Business and Marketing. In 1998 he moved to New York City to chase his dream of working in a recording studio where he worked at The Hit Factory, Pink Noise and Three...

Marc Daniel Nelson is a Latin Grammy-nominated producer/mixer. He has been producing, mixing and managing creatives for over 19 years. Since our last interview, Marc has been diving headfirst into the film and tv world for music. In 2018, Marc engineer and mixed the score for the film "Amanda" that went on to be nominated for the French Academy Award for "Best Score". That following spring he mixe...

My guest today is Shawn Èverett, a Juno and Grammy-winning Canadian producer, engineer, previously a guest on episode RSR137. In that interview, we talked with Shawn about his background schooling and his production and mixing philosophies. He has worked with many great artists including Grammy-winning Alabama Shakes, Weezer, Margaret Glaspy, Pete Yorn, Warpaint, John Legend, The Killers, Julian C...

My guest today is Bill Cheney co-owner with Jim Romney of Spectra1964. Bill designs mic pre amps, eqs, and compressor limiters for studios following in the footsteps of William Dilley who founded the original Spectra Sonics company in 1964. Bill has been a guest on the podcast before to talk about the history of Spectra Sonics and Spectra 1964 on episode RSR227. So if you want to learn more about...

My guest today is Bill Schnee an internationally renowned producer, engineer and mix master. In a highly decorated career that spans five decades, Bill has engineered many gold and platinum albums with a wide variety of artists that include Three Dog Night, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart, Chicago, Steely Dan, Natalie Cole, The Jacksons, Marvin Gaye, Dire Straits, Ringo (with all the B...