Sound

Sound has been at the centre of my career, with periods of studio recording, live sound mixing, radio broadcasting and film and television sound recording, on location and in post production.

My introduction to sound recording came with extended sessions at the Decca Studios in West Hampstead in the late 1960s. Working with legendary producers like Kevin Daly (see http://kevindaly.org.uk) and engineers like Ian Churches was a great introduction, especially as multi-track technology was in its exciting infancy. In the following years I picked up lots of expertise from people like Bill Leader and John Gill to the point when I got a job teaching recording at what was to become the music and media school at Salford University.

john-adamsA year out at The Northern School of Film and Television provided me with an opportunity to convert my skills to the screen and that’s provided some interesting experiences such as filming overnight  with a property police car on location in a Leeds railway arch near some activity that was probably criminal……
Then there was the time filming in Spain when it got so hot that all my equipment shut down, exceeding maximum operating temperature. Even equipment has to take a siesta sometimes.

Nobody’s asked me to do any filming since I retired but I’m doing enough music studio work to keep me happy and also keeping my transfer bay occupied with batches of old recordings making their way into the digital domain.