LEIGH DEVLIN
Leigh studied at Red Tape Studios, Sheffield in 1998, which eventually led to him co-founding Kenwood Studios. His best known project there was working on Dizzee Rascals' 2003 Mercury music prize winning 'Boy in da Corner' LP.
Since then, Leigh has worked at many studios with songwriters, producers and artists, from major label chart artists to local unsigned hopefuls. His roles have included songwriting, engineering, producing, mixing, remixing, and of course, mastering. His latest music project, 'MinusBlue' had its second LP 'Living Life in Phases' released on Seamless Recordings in March 2013.
With his varied studio background, working with both electronic and live based bands, Leigh has mastered across all genres.
Leigh currently teaches mastering at Point Blank London, one of the worlds highest regarded music technology schools.
our engineer
Leigh describes his ethos with Blue Steel Mastering as:-
‘'Blue Steel Mastering is a company that I had been thinking about forming for a few years.
I see mastering as a vital part of the music production process. In my capacity as a production tutor, I have seen the struggles that fledgling - and even experienced - producers go through to make their productions sound as good as their contempories do. It’s at the mastering stage when that happens, when the smiles happen, when all the hard work pays off and careers can begin. It’s quite magical really, and very enjoyable!
Of course, sometimes the mastering stage will show up problems in the mix that need to be addressed. At that stage, drawing on my production and mixing background, I can offer practical advice to improve on the final result. Importantly, what I won’t do is flatten the life out of your track. I believe in preserving and enhancing the dynamic nature of mixes. Although it is key in todays' market to be competitively loud, I have worked on techniques to achieve that without breaking out the L3 at the first opportunity!
Thats the ethos really, that mastering should be a two way communication process, and maybe even a learning process, both for the artist and myself too!’'
