Thanks for your interest!

Right now, if you were to ask me the age old ice breaker "what do you do", I would say...

I am a...

Professional Musician...

Songwriter...

Music Producer...

Mix Engineer...

Percussion Music Composer...

Poet...

Actor...

Video Maker...

The list goes on and on...

Poetry is how I met my wife Karen back in 2010.

At the time, she was the Editor & Chief of Sanskrit - a literary arts magazine at UNC Charlotte.

I was in a Creative Writing class (also at UNC Charlotte).

A mutual friend of ours who worked for the magazine insisted that I submit some poetry I was dropping in the class.

I got the poetry published.

Our mutual friend asked me to recite my work at the gallery reception for the magazine's release.

He introduced us at the reception and the rest (as they say) is history.

I've been an internet entrepreneur since the age of 25.

I started a "funny sweatpants company" with a friend while I was working on my MBA degree (also at UNC Charlotte).

By year three, we took the brand from unknown and novel to producing six figures in revenue by Y3.

The taste of success was enormous.

It left me desiring to learn more about sales, copywriting, and growing online businesses.

Creating music is something that has interested me my entire life.

My first song was likely sung into the cheap microphone of a Fisher Price tape recorder at Age 4-5.

Drums were on my birthday and Christmas wish list until I was 12 when my mom finally bought me a snare drum.

I remember the countless days shooting hoops in our front yard driveway.

That's where endless melodies would pop into my head.

It’s been there all along.

I was a drumline captain for my high school in both my Junior and Senior years.

I wrote cadences for our drumline to play and fell in love with the process of writing and creating music.

I finally convinced my mom to upgrade my snare to a full drum kit. So I also played drums in rock bands with friends growing up.

I started making electronic music at age 15.

Like most, I started with a modest setup.

I made beats in MTV’s Music Generator for PlayStation 1.

I recorded them using a cheap Radio Shack tape recorder that sat on top of a small TV (right beside the mono speaker).

This is the very setup I used to make a rap song for a 9th grade English class.

I took on the persona of a rapping chicken named “Cluck Fo’ A Buck”.

The song I made was hilarious (see: hilariously stupid).

I had to record the full song in one pass so it was a bit of a struggle… but worth it.

I can remember so well the feeling of playing the song back for my classmates and teacher.

The whole room erupted in laughter (I am pretty sure they were laughing with me, not at me).

I felt like I could entertain while being creative and caught respect for it.

“Music production” had already hooked me.

During the next several years, I upgraded my setup to my first "computer-based studio".

It used a copy of Cakewalk Plasma and a cheap microphone that shipped with every Dell computer at that time.

I ditched the rapping chicken persona.

I adopted a more serious and lasting rap persona: Pete Wurthy.

PW derives from my middle name Peter and worthiness of a home stay on the mic.

The “u” lets the fans know they had a piece of the name.

In 2003, I got my first “real” microphone: a Samson C03 multi-pattern condenser mic.

I also got my first “real” preamp: a Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC100.

I started making beats in an early version of Fruity Loops.

Along with downloading instrumentals, I recorded my debut rap album using this gear.

In college, I ditched my stock soundcard and bought a M-Audio Audiophile 2496.

I had no idea what a compressor even was and I applied the same preset to EVERY vocal recording I did.

I meant well but was clueless and got lucky enough to make decent sounding productions.

During college (late 2000s), I knew that I wanted to produce and record with better results.

I endured a terrible recording session at a local recording studio (which is well documented).

As a result, I started the long journey that has become my professional life as a music producer and mix engineer.

I bought books, courses, and watched thousands of hours of YouTube videos.

I spent saved up money on a top-of-the-line preamp and mic only to have results disappoint me.

My acoustics were terrible.

My productions sounded amateur.

My mixes sucked.

For a long time, I felt the recordings I made in high school (on budget gear) actually sounded better than my recordings with pro gear.

Life sucked and not only did I feel like I hadn't progressed, I felt like I regressed.

It depressed me and I did not release music for YEARS!

I had no choice but to examine every stage of the music production process and take it HEAD ON!

I kept telling myself "as long as records can sound as good as [fill in the blank song], I'll keep trying."

Instead of starting with recording (which I should have), I thought "if only my mixes were better".

I practiced mixing.

I ran Front Of House at my local church.

I practiced mixing every day on “mix off” sessions in forums.

I asked producer friends to give me songs to mix.

Then I thought it was my mastering skills.

I reasoned I should "master" mastering.

I definitely learned what NOT to do struggling to get my masters sounding better.

But even working on that never addressed bigger issues "upstream".

Then I thought it was my gear... "if only I had a more expensive [fill in the blank piece of gear], it would sound better."

Spoiler Alert: it wasn't the gear, it was my ear.

I needed to spend more time listening to records I liked the sound of and develop vocabulary around them.

I listened to tons of records I liked.

I tried to mimic the sound of the records through my mixing.

Once I hit a wall, I realized that moving microphones in some cases had a more profound effect on sound than an EQ.

Then I started to pay more attention to how my raw recording and audio files sounded before I mixed.

I realized that spending more time on those affected my mixes and masters.

Spending more time dialing in the sound on a synth would make life much easier down the line.

Things were starting to click.

The big "aha" moment for me was when I heard my mixing idol Dave Pensado say something profound.

He said what we as producers and engineers offer the world is 3+ minutes of escape from the harsh realities of life.

He said everything you do in audio has to impact feeling, energy, emotion, and vibe.

I realized I had paid way more attention to how things "sounded" than how the "felt".

Over time, I started recording, mixing, and mastering through the "feeling filter".

I stopped obsessing over "is this too bright?" and paid more attention to "does this make me feel edgy enough?"

The gear became an extension of making a listener feel, not something you slap on to sound better.

It was a simple set of shifts that transformed my music productions.

I stopped second guessing and started feeling like an end listener.

My goal is to teach many other engineers and producers how to tap into this emotional filter.

I know this is a huge shift and one that doesn't have much instruction or support.

The next phase of my career will provide mentorship to anyone using sound in their work.

Thanks so much for reading!

Adam