Charlie choc full of tips for sweet sounds in recording studio
Published on 14 February, 2011
Charlie Macneil has spent 20 years learning how to channel the passion of musicians into great performances in the recording studio. And he's spent the best part of the last 10 years helping his students undertand they need more than a technical knowledge to succeed.
Success also relies on helping performers "bring out their natural style and look inside for their own interpretation for a song", Charlies says.
LINK FOR Guitarist bags recording deal, enrols as student
They also need to be able to handle 'creative differences' which can sometimes be so extreme that "paint is peeling off the walls with screaming matches".
Charlie is among a talented group providing the face-to-face teaching for a unique music program available in Noosa, thanks to a harmonious relationship between Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE and CQUniversity's Bachelor of Music program represented by Dr Derrin Kerr.
Students completing SCIT's diploma-level music program gain credit for articulation into the second year of CQUniversity's Bachelor of Music (Creative Music Technologies) or Bachelor of Music (Contemporary). One stream is aimed at people interested in commercial and artistic sound production while the other targets those keen to expand their performance skills.
CQUniversity's Professor Matthew Marshall says "the partnership between CQUniversity's School of Creative & Performing Arts and SCIT is an exciting new development and one that will expand opportunities for our students and open up new pathways for development in our respective institutions".
Charlie graduated from media studies/sound production at Charles Sturt University in 1990 and was hired as a sound engineer and tour manager for the Melbourne-based Overnight Jones band.
"I did extensive touring with them and lots of live work, including when they supported visiting overseas singer Michelle Shocked and toured with Paul Kelly and Weddings, Parties Anything," he said.
"They got a record deal with Polygram and recorded at Joe Camilleri's Woodstock studio and Joe, who is a legend of the industry, offered me a job as a studio assistant. I started out doing everything from making coffee, mopping the floor and cleaning the glass to running the fold-back and headphone mixers.
"This was at a time when Renee Geyer was recording songs by famous Australian artists and I got to work with a wide range of visiting songwriters, producers and engineers. It was a great step in my education, seeing the different production styles.
"The next phase was building up my own mobile recording studio and touring, mainly around NSW, to record many bands. I did around 30 albums over a four-year period, including doing the album cover artwork and leaving them with a finished product."
Visiting his sister on the Sunshine Coast, Charlie was offered a job at the Planet Noosa recording studio and spent a year there before the business was sold in 2002.
Around the same time, he got the opportunity to help create a new music department at the Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE, working with the talented Robert Brock, who teaches the performance side of the program.