Iain Roberton
Course Studied:Studio Sound Diploma
Current Employment:
Mix Engineer & Studio Manager
Iain started working at Sarm Studios in autumn 1996 and as an assistant worked on projects including: Madonna ‘Music’ (produced by William Ørbit, Mirwais, Sigsworth & Stent), Radiohead ‘Kid A’ & ‘Amnesiac’ (produced by Nigel Godrich), Blur ‘13’ (Produced by William Ørbit), Suede ‘Head Music’ (Produced by Steve Osbourne), Spice Girls ‘Forever’ (tracks produced by Rodney Jerkins), Pet Shop Boys ‘Nightlife’ (produced by Craig Armstrong & Pet Shop Boys), Bush ‘The Science Of Things’ (produced by Langer & Winstanley), Hanson ‘Snowed In’ (Produced by Mark Hudson), Leftfield, Cranberries, Gary Moore, Embrace, Mel B, Zucchero, Victoria Beckham, & Gabrielle. He also worked on soundtracks for “Ordinary Decent Criminal” (composed by Damon Albarn), “Ravenous” (composed by Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman), and “Band of Brothers” & “The Winter Guest” (composed by Michael Kamen).
Quickly becoming in-house engineer, Iain worked on projects as diverse as R Kelly, Maxwell, All Saints, Frankie Goes To Hollywood 5.1 mixes, Sasha, Ultra Nate, Elisabeth Fraser / Charlie May, Dina Carroll, Tom Jones, Michael Kamen, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Patricia Kaas, as well as many projects with Trevor Horn
Moving to Sarm Manegement in 2002 as a freelancer, Iain worked primarily with producer William Orbit, working with artists such as U2, Blur, All Saints, Pink, Beth Orton, Finley Quaye, Doves, Dido, Robbie Williams and Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as William’s solo albums “Hello Waveforms” and “My Oracle Lives Uptown”
Additionaly, he worked on more projects with Trevor Horn including Tatu, Lisa Stansfield, Lovefield, Faith Hill / Pearl Harbour, as well as Spooky, Pepsi Max, Natasha Thomas, Morrissey, Orbital / David Gray and many others.
Since late 2006, Iain has worked for Imagem Production Music (formerly Boosey and Hawkes Production Music) as in-house producer and mix engineer, producing albums for the three in house catalogues, and mixing much of the content.
How Alchemea helped
Alchemea gave me a solid technical grounding which meant that I went into my first assisting job with a lot of confidence. A lot of the kids i met and trained who hadn’t been through a place like alchemea didn’t know one end of an XLR from the other. Of course, the most fundamental thing about working in a studio is actually not the technical aspect, it’s about dealing with the people. You can only learn that on the job, from watching masters at work however my experience at Alchemea did mean that i at least knew what i was doing before i got into a studio.
The crazy hours at Alchemea definitely prepared me well for the realities of working in pop music production. As a student I would be booked into the SSL room from 10pm saturday to 10am sunday, and the Soundcraft Room 10pm tuesday til 10am wednesday every week of the advanced course. I was pretty much living at the college. This was good grounding however as during the first 3 years working at Sarm I was averaging around 80 hours a week, primarily asisting, and working for William and Trevor which was incredibly intense.
