MCLEAN PRODUCTIONS
Production Portfolio
A collection of work by ruairi mclean
Overview
My name is Ruairi McLean.
I am a music producer and multi-instrumentalist who specialises in the capture and production of rock, indie, and alternative music, with a background in performance and live sound. I am currently studying towards a Bachelor of Arts in Music Production at Leeds Beckett School of Arts, and have recored several EP's of a multitude of genres, from game music to radio rock. My primary DAW's are Logic Pro X and ProTools.
Background
My musical background begins in youth, while playing traditional irish sessions with my father around our hometown of Macclesfield.
This hereditary love for percussion once again piqued my interest at the start of highschool, collaborating with friends to hone our skills as musicians, determined to make it out of Macclesfield.
This actually somewhat manifested as, while at sixthform, our band "Between Thorns" gained a large online following with over three million streams on Spotify. We went on to play festivals such as 'Y-Not?' alongside Kasabian, James, Paul Weller, The Wombats, Royal Blood and many others.
All the while, alongside this local fame I found myself engrossed in my sixthform studies, fixated on the production of music moreso than performing. So with a healthy appreciation for music theory and performance owed to my time in bands, I made the decision to persue my career in the digital arts and apply for my dream production course at Leeds Beckett. Here, I began to refine my skills using the network of knowlegable people, and the endless resources at hand. It is also here that I renewed my love for writing and performing music through 'The Regents',
Playing with The Regents at university presented the unique oppertunity to be able to sandbox tracking a band in a full scale professional studio, without any of the constraints one might face in a real world scenario. This undoubtely contributed more than anything to me developing my style as a producer, as it allowed me to experiment with different capture methods and post production techniques which one might have otherwise overlooked. I continue to work alongside the connections I have made at univeristy to grow as both a performer and a producer.
BA (Hons)
MUSIC PRODUCTION
Currently studying towards
11
TRACKS
Published involved in
5
YEARS
Experience in production
8
YEARS
Experience in performing
A song written by my friend Ben O'Shea of the regents, the production of this song became to be an exercise in resourcefulness, and making do. Recorded in my uni bedroom, several aspects of this song utilise impromptu sound design to build texture. The 'tambourine', for example, was constituted of an empty porcaline plantpot with a teabag in the bottom, and a handfull of plastic fixtures and the bottle caps from that evenings work.
This track, Take Me Down, is a piece of my first year coursework. The assignment was designed to immitate freelance mixing work. We were provided with the stems, and instructed to mix the track in pro-tools to a deadline. While some of the original recordings such as the single mono snare track and the room mic were not the best, overall the mix turned out well. Whilst it is limited, it could be improved by a master.
Written by my friend Rhys Hopkins of "The Regents", this track is called "Pieces". We were sat in my room of an evening and he was playing it on the guitar when I suggested we tracked it. So I spent the whole night capturing and mixing it using a TM-80 and a Scarlett solo. Considering both the acoustic and technological limitations, it is one of my favourite acoustic pieces I have mixed due to it's raw and intimate sound.
Another piece of coursework, this cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit was tracked using an SSL desk, mixed in protools and mastered in logic. Whilst the performance itself is lacklustre since I tracked the drums without a metronome at 8 in the morning, experimentation with mic placements on the amps, as well as utilising outboard gear, led to a guitar tone which I feel is somewhat true to the original. The logic master is just a basic comp and limit, so can definitely be improved upon.
As proof of a diverse portfolio, above is a piece of game music I produced for an indie game I was developing. It is inspired by the soundtrack of Super Mario Galaxy, as well as C418's Minecraft soundtrack, and was composed in logic using the Korg Modelling Synth and Kontakt sampler instruments
