Imaging From Ireland or MEET Denzil Lacey!

I was following this Irish guy for a few months on soundlcoud and after listening to his latest demo, I thought it would be worth reaching out. Denzil was starting his path in the imaging world under the wing of our first Iron Imager Paul Duffy and is now creating awesome Imaging for Spin South West in Ireland. He will be a speaker on this year’s Imaging days and does a lot of different stuff  beside imaging f.e.web design / programing and and and.
Learn how he took his first steps by reading and learning from my blog (I am so thrilled to hear that) and of course he shares his plugIN recommendations. Enter Denzil!

Which production system do you use and why?
I used Adobe Audition 3.0 at my first Imaging gig for four years – I loved it at the time, seemed flexible and easy to use. I then started using Pro Tools 8 for freelance work, as I got it free with a soundcard and loved it. Now, I am on Pro Tools 11 in work and 12 at home and actually cannot use anything else at all.

Pro Tools makes workflow much easier – you can be much more creative using automation and your files are much more organised. If anyone is debating on whether to move to Pro Tools – try it on the subscription service and learn the ropes.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/263567459″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

What are your favourite plugIns?
I personally believe the AIR plugins that come preloaded with Pro Tools are really epic – they do so much – it’s not about the software, it’s about how you use it. I also use Waves, a few Ozone plugins and a nice little M-Audio Midi keyboard at home when I want to create loops, beats and sound design.
Personally my go to plugin is Waves H-Delay, which gives your production another level and is perfectly matched on the grid through automation. Play around with it and start creating some awesome sounds.

Also, the preinstalled Air 7 Band EQ is really good – i mean really good for a free plugin. The sound it gives is like nothing else i’ve ever used. It sounds crisp, warm and full.

How do you schedule your work?
S&P and commercial activity would always have to take priority as they pay the bills, and there is so much of it – so that takes up a huge chunk of time. Having systems in place to manage your time are super important – I use a cool cloud-based organiser called “Wunderlist” which ensures I keep on track with tasks and I also collaborate with other team members so they can see the progress.

If you haven’t looked at this yet for scheduling your work and to free up your desk, then I would recommend getting something similar – it’s a lifesaver!

What do you love about working at SPIN South West?
We’re a well respected station and also the No. 1 for 15-34’s in our coverage area which is always a good sign! We get involved with so many cool projects and the creative boundaries are always pushed to ensure we stand out.

What is the best Pro Tools or production trick anybody should know?
Set up your DAW properly so that you are not recompressing pre-mastered tracks. For example, you are making a power intro – sure you want to process the actual intro, but you don’t want to re-process the actual track as that just sounds nasty on air.
You can set up Pro Tools with clean tracks that bypass the Master Processing. Create a new stereo track with your master processing settings and send everything to that, that you want processed. Then, for the tracks you want bypassed – send them to the master which has no limiting or compression. Simples!

How do you get inspired and what do you use as source of creativity?
Soundcloud (in my opinion) is one of the best things on the internet – it’s really great to see what other stations are doing in terms of station sound and to be inspired.

Who were your radio production idols, who influenced your work as a producer?
I learned pretty much all the basics of imaging off former Iron Imager, Paul Duffy – so I always owe him that credit for helping me get started. The team at Capital in the UK are people I’ve always looked up to – particularly Ashley Bard and formerly Chris Nicoll who now works at IMGR. Luckily I would consider Chris a mate and he would always give me guidance and tips on how to improve – let’s face it, we are all still learning and we should never lose the run of ourselves.
Also obviously Dave Konsky and George Taylor who have always pushed the boundaries on everything they do!

The Benztown Blog also really helped me when I was starting out, especially with understanding the fundamentals of Pro Tools and beatmixing – the Katy Perry one was one of the first I experimented with!