Serve the Song
The song comes first. Always. Every technical and creative decision should help the music become what you want it to be.
Lennox Head Recording Studio
Make the record
you want to make.
Recording • Production • Mixing
Great recordings
start with the music.
Fraser-Rose Recordings is the studio of Rhys D. Webb, a recording engineer, producer, and musician with more than 35 years of experience making and recording music.
Technology matters, but it should always serve the music. My job is to understand the record you want to make, bring experience and ideas when they're useful, and know when to get out of the way.
Another Set of Ears
Sometimes that means offering an idea, questioning an arrangement, or hearing something you've stopped hearing. Sometimes it means recognising when something already works and leaving it alone.
Both Sides of the Glass
I've worked most of my life as both a musician and a recording engineer. The experience of making music has always informed the way I record it.
Recording
Vocals, instruments, overdubs, small ensembles, or whatever the record needs. The aim is simple: capture great performances with sound, character, and feel — and make every part worth listening to in its own right.
Production
Follow the ideas and give them room to develop. Each new layer can inform the next, and even something that doesn't survive the final mix may have helped shape the record around it.
Mixing
Bring it all together, then find out what the record really needs. Strip things away, create space, and find the point where nothing else can disappear without losing something essential — then build from there.
MUSICIAN AT HEART
I've worked in audio professionally for most of my life, but music came first.
I'm a multi-instrumentalist and lifelong player, with decades spent recording, producing, mixing, and making music. That experience sits within a professional audio career that has taken me through studios, broadcast, television, location recording, and post-production.
That experience matters in a studio. I understand what it's like to be on the other side of the microphone, to chase a sound that isn't quite there yet, to know when a performance has something, when another take isn't going to make it better, and when we really do need to play it one more time.
THE STUDIO
A purpose-built space for making records.
Fraser-Rose is a private recording and production studio in Lennox Head, built around great instruments, carefully chosen analogue equipment, and a comfortable environment in which to make music.
There's a beautiful Kawai acoustic piano, a collection of guitars, amps, and other instruments, a wide choice of microphones, analogue recording gear, and monitoring I trust. But the point of all of it is simply to have the right tool available when the record asks for it.
Some days that means getting a sound quickly and moving on. Others mean trying three microphones, moving an amp, changing an arrangement, or playing something one more time because this time it really does need one more take.
Curious about the gear?
WORKING TOGETHER
As much — or as little — as the record needs.
Some artists come in with finished songs and know exactly what they want. Others have a voice memo, a handful of chords, or a record that's almost there but isn't quite working yet.
I can record, produce, arrange, play, or simply offer another set of ears. Sometimes the job is helping a player find the performance that's already in them. Sometimes it's stepping back and looking at the whole record — what the song needs, what it doesn't, and what might bring it to life.
And if what it needs isn't something we can do here, I probably know someone who can. I've built relationships with musicians across Australia and overseas, so bringing another player into a project remotely — whether that's bass, vocals, trumpet, drums, or something less obvious (bagpipes, anyone?) — is simply another option.
Or maybe you've already made the record and just want it mixed. That's cool too.
The level of involvement is entirely up to you.
THE MONEY
Let's work out what you want to make — and what you have to spend.
Every project is different, so I don't book the studio by the hour. Tell me what you're making, where you're up to, what you'd like to achieve, and what you've got to spend.
I'll tell you whether I think that's realistic. If it is, we'll work out the best way to approach the project within that budget. If it isn't, I'll tell you that too — and we can look at what might be possible instead.
Once we've agreed on the project and the budget, watching the clock is my problem, not yours. I don't want someone worrying about what another take is costing while they're trying to sing it.
If the guitar sound takes a little longer to find, a vocal needs another pass, or we decide something isn't working and need to rethink it, I'd rather our attention stayed on making the record better.
LET'S MAKE SOMETHING
Got a project in mind?
Tell me what you're working on, where you're up to, and what you'd like to make.
Get in touch