Ep 35 — Recording Engineer & Mixer
Dani & I met through a mutual Bitesize Bodacious Babe guest, the ever so lovely Phoebe Fox (Ep 29 Music Photographer). Dani was one of Phoebe’s shout outs, and I was thrilled to hear Dani was keen to chat with me about working in a recording studio and her role as a Recording Engineer and Mixer.
What we talk about
✨ Dani’s entry point to the industry → no background, she picked it up on the job
✨ Her path to now, starting with landing work experience with Flood at Assault & Battery
✨ Hustling — working at studios whilst building her own portfolio
✨ Tips like, in the words of Jimmy Hogarth “the more you are in the studio, the better you are going to be”.
✨ Love of Arcade Fire
✨ Working in a recording studio during the lockdown
✨ Doing her first full-on tracking session on tape in 2020 at Rockfield Studios in Wales
My guest
Dani Bennett Spragg
Recording Engineer & Mixer@dani_rbs
www.danibennettspragg.co.uk
✨ Dani currently works at Toast Studios in London alongside Craig Silvey who is a Grammy Award-winning producer & engineer (Arcade Fire, Florence & The Machine, The National)
✨ A bodacious hustler, starting her career as a runner at 17 whilst still at school
✨ She has worked in studios including, Assault & Battery, Electric Lady, Room 17, Hoxa, and many more delight.
✨ Worked alongside producers including; Flood, Alan Moulder, Catherine Marks, Craig Silvey
Path to now
Presently Dani works at Toast Studios with a guy called Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire). She started in the studio when she was 17, with no background experience, in her October half-term at school. It was at a studio in North West London called Assault & Battery (@assaultbattery ) where she did a week of work experience with Flood.
✨ Dani then worked at the studio as and when she could whilst being at school and working jobs.
✨ As her pals headed off to Uni Dani decided she wanted to work in a studio in New York. She set about firing out emails to studios in NY.
✨ She got two replies, one from Electric Lady, one from Room 17. She worked at both at the same — time. With Electric Lady, after a fortnight she decided it was not for her and then continued to work at Room 17 and pop in as and when they needed a spare pair of hands.
✨ After 4 months in New York Dani returned to London and started at Assault & Battery full-time as an Assistant in 2015. She spent 6 months of Recording and 6 months of Mixing.
✨ Then moved on to a studio called Hoxa HQ in 2016. A boutique studio in West Hampstead run by Jimmy Hogarth. Dani became the in-house Assistant & then the in-house Engineer.
✨ This is never a full-time job, she was there every 2 weeks a month when there were external sessions.
✨ Dani spent 2016–2019 working at Hoxa and building her freelance portfolio. Hustling away, Dani was in the studio pretty much every weekend recording with someone to help build this.
✨ Early 2019, mainly engineering and no longer doing a lot of assisting
Artists Dani has worked with…
✨ Malena Zavala
✨ The Amazons
✨ Baxter Dury
✨ Superego
✨ Blanco White
✨ Unloved
✨ Julien Baker
✨ Blair Dunlop
✨ Palace
✨ The Rolling Stones
✨ Noel Gallagher
✨ Jarv Is…
Recording vs. Mixing
“75% of the job is reading the room.”
In a recording studio, you can be an Assistant Engineer (which is a recording Assistant) or you can be a Mix Assistant (where you generally work with a specific person).
Assistant Engineer
Initially Dani was an Assistant Engineer in the Main Tracking Room for around 6 months. She was mainly the Second Assistant on whatever came through the door.
The day-to-day is setting up sessions (mics, patching, plugging everything in) and telling the engineer about the studio, to make the engineer’s life as easy as possible. You have got to know all the quirks of that studio.
Mix Assistant
“A big part of the job is watching, figuring out that persons methods, and being able to pre-empt what they need.”
Dani then started to work as a Mix Assistant with Alan. Which broadened her knowledge and gave her a grounding in recording and micing.
Day-today, prepping all the sessions, setting up the studio every day. A mixer at Alan’s level will do a track a day.
N.B. a lot of mixers now work solely in the box. Which means they do not require any physical hardware. If they are doing that, there is not much need for an Assistant.
Advice & Tips
✨ Record yourself, or local bands with your basic set up
✨ As soon as you learn on the channel on the desk, then it’s just more of the same thing
✨ Once you get your head around one, everything starts to make sense
✨ As an Assistant — whatever studio you are working in, make sure you know it better than anyone else. Otherwise, someone is going to take your job
✨ Make yourself the most useful — e.g. if you are not there, no one else can work the studio
✨ Taking the leap into a fully freelance world is daunting
✨ If you sort out the studio, you are the person who knows where everything is. Also, it’s a great way to learn the space you are in
✨ Take any opportunity for downtime
✨ Persistency and practice
In the words of Jimmy Hogarth “the more you are in the studio, the better you are going to be”
Shout Outs
✨ Malena Zavala argentina musician/band @malenazavala
✨ Catherine Marks (Wolf Alice, Foals) — first women she met in the industry, Australian producer who is based at Assault & Battery
✨ Alan Moulder (mixer) and Flood’s long-term collaborator
