Producer. Mix engineer. Sound designer. Audio educator at Collarts. Free tool: https://teapawt.net/t.co/hRANJc3Pcw
Melbourne
Joined January 2013
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Cast and crew screening of our short film Love, EROS last night. First time everyone's been in the same room since we shot it almost a year ago.
I was the cinematographer and supervising sound editor. Huge shout out to director Luke Robson for pulling this whole thing together, and to my student Lapo who made the sound work look easy.
Now we're submitting to festivals around the country - hoping to land spots at MIFF, St Kilda, and others. Wish us luck.
I am addicted to dotted 8th delays
🎚️ Rhythmic delays.
Delay can go far beyond the typical echo effect. By carefully syncing the delay to your track’s tempo and using rhythmic subdivisions, you can create a groove that complements or even replaces traditional percussion. This is what I did many times. Delay can execute a percussive function.
@natemixing
What if you had a mix engineer in your pocket that you could ask anything, any time?
I built one. It's called Ask Dan.
It's trained on the knowledge and experience I've built up over 15 years of producing records and nearly a decade of teaching audio production at university.
I've been teaching long enough to know the same questions come up over and over again. What ratio should I use on vocals? How do I know if I'm over-compressing? What compressor should I use on drums? When should I use a FET vs an opto?
These are the questions I've answered hundreds of times in classrooms and studios. Now there's a way to access that knowledge whenever you need it. Not generic AI answers, but responses based on how I actually think about mixing and production.
This is still a prototype and it's not public yet. I'm testing it with a small group first to make sure it actually delivers. But I wanted to share what I'm building because honestly, this is one of the most exciting projects I've worked on in a long time.
More to come.
In the meantime, if you want to check out some of my other free tools, The Compressor Calculator and The Compression Visualiser are both available on my website. Link in comments 👇
The Compressor Calculator and The Compression Visualiser. Both free.
danmurtagh.com/free-tools/
17 years ago I worked on Double Dragon’s Devastator, my first full-length album. Still at uni in Adelaide, assistant engineering while Ian “E-Dog” Miller produced. Had no idea what I was doing - ended up being some of the most brutal metal to come out of Adelaide from that era.
Few years later they got me to mix and master “Sons of Asena” at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne.
Now DD’s have reformed. Playing Froth and Fury Jan 31. E-Dog’s mixing them live. Northy’s running the festival. I played heaps of gigs with all these guys back in the day. It’s basically a giant family reunion - 20 years of mates and metal.
Coming from Melbourne to experience the brutality all over again. Hope to see you there!
I’m producing some educational videos on audio production and was playing around with some new lights today.
Still in preproduction but I am super excited to show you what I’ve been cooking!
What do you think of my backdrop?
Skill > Gear
Bad mixes happen because people:
• Don’t have critical listening skills.
• Don’t know what to listen for.
• Do something because "tutorial said so".
• Don’t purposefully gain stage before mixing.
• Don’t know their monitors/headphones.
I’ve heard great mixes done on $80 headphones, free plugins, $500 laptop. And some terrible mixes from big studios.
Bad mixes happen not because someone doesn’t have some UAD Apollo or Neve console.
Gear helps. But skill defines.
In addition to producing records, making films and teaching audio production, I also enjoy photography.
Here is a picture I took of the Milky Way.
Taken with my Sony a7 IV, 16-35mm f2.8 GM.
Enjoy 👍
If your lead vocal take is slightly out of time or pitch and you double against it, you’re going to have two problems instead of one
Recently finished production on our romcom “Love, Eros”, a short film about an off-grid mountain man who falls in love with a trendy woman from the city.
Directed by Luke Robson, mixed by Lapo Dini, and cinematography + sound supervision by yours truly.
We were lucky to have it mixed at Melbourne’s premier post-production facility Music and Effects. Big thanks to Doron for the tour and chat - incredible to be in a space where Underbelly and the Oscar-winning The Lost Thing were mixed.
Love, Eros enters the Australian and International film festival circuit throughout 2026, hope you get a chance to see it!
The algorithm is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
There’s also a negative side.
X has a flaw that rewards fast slop over interesting and insightful takes and makes X feel like a dumb, less interesting, place.
The algo does not directly reward fastest to post, but its more of a snowball effect that is effectively does the same thing. The first to post a hot news item, on its own, get a lot of velocity (engagement), forming a positive feedback loop that tells Grok (people are interested in this).
Grok does not actually know by reading if its an interesting post or piece of news, it relies on people clicking on it or viewing it to tell, and that means the post can be raw news, no analysis or take. Nothing original or transformative.
That sets into motion a cycle of boosting that makes this post take priority, and removes views that come later (more like a see-saw than an outright suppression, only so many "view" slots in a day, but right now its slants Very fast and heavy, too much towards "fast" imho).
The net result is that X gets DUMBER. Insightful posts take time. Successful leaders or thinkers have little time, and will post when they see it and can take the time to craft good thoughts on it, but the algo punishes them for not being early.
So you get first post news (often without any insight, just bot posting works), getting all the views, and all the thinkers with good takes get buried. Since follower counts don't matter at all, just because you are well followed doesn't help directly.
The net effect is you see more slop, less thinking. Whatever its faults before, the former X algo let you see a lot more thinking.
Also, bring back memes. Why did they vanish?
Comping vocals is a legit art form
Pitch, placement, texture, and how they combine with doubles, harmonies and the greater context of the song takes experience and taste
Recording vocals isn't about one take. There is more to it when you work with a pro-recording engineer/vocal producer. For instance, your vocals are sometimes aligned with the transient of the kick drum and snare drum to get your timing perfect. Vocal comping, pitch correction, and professional help are other benefits you get as well.