Glenn Howard - Recording Engineer for Film, Music and Advertising
"I'm a big fan of RND products and the support has been simply amazing. I'm looking forward to adding more RND plug-in's to my system very soon."
Rainmakers' is a boutique studio specializing in in-house voiceover (talent, casting & recording), sound design and music composition for advertising, corporate video and special events... and everything in-between.
Give us a little backround on your career: How did you get involved with music?
Well, I started off by playing piano when I was 6. That lasted for a couple of years until I discovered the Rolling Stones. Then it was "goodbye piano... hello guitar!" I've been playing guitar ever since.
Did you have any education or training in electronics or audio engineering?
In 1986, I enrolled at The Recording Workshop (Chillicothe, OH) for their spring session. After pounding the pavement for a year and knocking on every recording studio door in Toronto, I decided it might be a good time to go back to school. I saved-up some money and in 1988, I enrolled at Sheridan College's (Oakville, Ontario) Media Arts program - graduating in 1991.
What made you choose a career in sound engineering?
I wanted a career that I could immerse myself in. Being a HUGE fan of music all my life, recording just seemed to be a logical step. It's been a 21-year roller coaster ride with loads of ups and downs and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
It is not yet so for a long time ago that you opened your own studio. Where and for whom did you work before?
My first job was as a machine room operator at Pathe Studios in Toronto. Not entirely a fulfilling experience... Next, I was hired as an assistant engineer at a place called Digital Music & Post Studios. This was a great training ground with some excellent engineers and a varied clientele. They were the first studio in Toronto with a Fairlight MFX system as well as the first studio in Toronto to adopt ISDN. At Digital I was able to cut my teeth on lots of different types of projects - mainly advertising and audio post-production type stuff during the day and then working on records at night. After 3 amazing years at Digital, I went freelance. In 1997, I was offered the job of Chief Engineer at The Beach Studios in Calgary. Eighteen months later, the freelance bug bit once again only harder this time. After engineering freelance for a year I had seed money and a well thought out business plan in place and started my own recording and production company. In October 2000, construction began and in March 2001, Rainmaker Studios opened it's doors.
You worked so far for very different ranges, for music productions, for film and television as also for advertisement. When you think back, which was your favorite project?
There are so many! One of the bigger highlights was in my early career when I got to work on song demos with Canadian music legend, Bruce Cockburn. Another was assisting for 9 months on a Sattalites record. Another highlight in 2000 included recording vocals with Usher for the TV movie, Geppetto. Finally, as a voiceover performer, the biggest highlight (so far) was being chosen as the voice for Audi Worldwide in 2003. THAT was huge.
Is there any occurence, which you remember particularly gladly?
Back when I was an assistant engineer, I was doing a session with producer, Terry Brown (Rush, Cutting Crew, Blue Rodeo...) We were recording slide guitar solos with this amazing guitar player named Arvo who was having a bit of a bad day and was getting frustrated. Unbeknownst to Terry, I decided to run a slave 1/4" w/ Dolby SR of all Arvo's guitar solo takes in case there was something we needed to comp together later. As the session wore on, Arvo was feeling less and less inspired and there was a bit of tension in the room. Terry suddenly turned around asked me what I was doing... I explained that I'd been quietly recording all of Arvo's solos. Terry didn't say anything but shot me a smile as if to say, "well done!!!" That was when I knew I was meant to do this job.
With which artist or on which project would you like to work, if you could decide?
Either Dave Grohl or Lyle Lovett.
You are a user of RND Plug-Ins. Which RND Plug-ins do you use most frequently?
I use the Detailer plug-in.
What are your favourite features?
The interface is laid-out extremely well making the Detailer's functions very easy to navigate around. The A/B comparison feature is great for evaluating different setup's. I also like the fact that 3 dither types are included.
What are their specific advantages? What are they able to realize what others can't?
Frankly, my mixes sound huge with more definition than I've ever had before in the mid-range and the highs are also very pleasing.
Any special hints or techniques you want to share with the readers?
Adjust the drive control to 3 or 5 and play around with the knee settings until you find what you like. Use the A/B often to compare your original mix to your "Detailed" mix. Some variances can be very subtle while others are more dramatic so always listen first, identify what things need to be addressed in your mix and then apply any parameter changes to the Detailer's controls.