Ed Donnelly: Capturing Authenticity

Ed Donnelly is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer, record producer, and activist from Pioneertown, CA. He has worked with Willie Nelson, Matchbox Twenty, The Cult, Gladys Knight, Willie Nelson, Smashing Pumpkins, Del McCoury, Nathan Jacques, OK Go, Exodus, Tom Morello, O.A.R., Madness, The Crystal Method, Deadmau5, Cole Gallagher, Zac Brown, Crowded House, Marc Cohn, CrysP Tyger, Bighead Todd and the Monsters, Jake Shimabukuro, Barenaked Ladies, Tsar, Killola and more. Donnelly regularly performs with Little Silver Hearts and records with GhostsDream. Little known fact: He previously held Top Secret Security Clearance with the Department of State and Q Clearance from the Department of Energy.

He currently runs The Barber’s Basement Recording Studio in Highland Park and the Electric Desperado Studio in Pioneertown, CA.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

• The live-show habit that made him a calmer, more confident studio engineer
• How Ed decides which mix decisions are worth agonizing over and which ones aren't
• Why pre-production is the most important part of the production process
• How thorough pre-production creates more room for spontaneous moments, not less
• Why mistakes often make a record sound better
• The volume trick he uses to tell whether a mix is actually balanced
• Why he tells keyboard players to stop playing with their left hand
• Why younger artists are asking for rougher, less polished production these days

To learn more about Ed Donnelly, visit: https://www.barbersbasement.com/

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