Aneek Thapar – Full Member

How would you define your main role on most of the projects you work on at the moment?

Well, for the past year I’ve mostly been mixing and mastering records and TV/film scores in stereo, 5.1 and Atmos, with a couple of collabs / additional production gigs for Max Cooper and Evan Gildersleeve as well. Previous years have seen me writing scores with Marc Canham for shows on Disney + and Netflix, making samples and loops for Loopmasters and music for apps like Ninja Tunes’s Jamm Pro and Novation’s Ampify Studio (incl. Launchpad, Blocs Wave, Groovebox etc.)

Additionally, I’m one of the co-founders of the boutique sample instrument company – Void & Vista and for that my role spans across Artist Relations and Outreach, event planning and marketing as well as sampling / recording, sample editing, sound design and mastering.

To quote the legendary Garth Marenghi: “Author, Dreamweaver, Visionary, plus Actor!”

Please tell us a bit about your musical background. How did you get started in the music industry? What was your pathway to your current role?

There are a few key events really the first one was a family friend sitting me down and putting a guitar around my neck when I was maybe four years old. That was the ‘hook’. Then I saw Back To The Future and the scene where Marty blows up all the speakers. That was the ‘line’ followed by him being “too darn loud” at his band’s audition. That the ‘sinker’

Ffwd to high school and in my first year, a bunch of the older kids got me into punk and hardcore followed by Sigur Ros, Aphex Twin and The Dillinger Escape Plan. At 11 yo I was sneaking out to shows and racked-up my ticket stub collection at long-gone venues like The London Astoria, The Mean Fiddler and The Peel. I cherish those days.

After school, I went off to college to study a BTECH in music tech at Kingston College, followed by a year long HND at BIMM in Brighton (one of the best years of my life) and the eventually on to De MontFort uni in Leicester. Meeting more wonderful friends along the way.

I finished Uni, got an internship at Ninja Tune with Matt Black from Coldcut and after a year I was hired freelance to work on the Ninja Tune remix app and be his assistant. I was always mixing, mastering and producing outside of this and eventually ended up making loops and samples for Loopmasters and Novation’s Ampify as well. Among all this I worked for Micah Wabro in post production sound, which was really insightful and taught me a lot. They were great to work for.

What or who inspired you to follow this path?

MTV. Seeing people do cool things showed me it was possible for me to have some kind of career in this industry.

Are there any highlights from your work that you are particularly proud of?

I’m really proud of my colleagues at VOID & VISTA and what we’ve achieved since we started two years ago. They are the brightest, most talented and hardworking people I know and I couldn’t be luckier to be a part of this with them.

What’s one tip you can share with other MPG members that could help their workflow?

There’s so many. It’s too hard to pick just one.

Learn your shortcuts. Then make your own!

Try Soundflow and grab the pack for your DAW. The Pro Tools one is great! Make your own macro’s!

See if you can have multiple copies of your DAW open. Work on one of them while the other is bouncing stems. I’ve done this a lot. Great for multitasking when it’s crunch time.

Try Snapper, really useful app for viewing waveforms in MacOS Finder.

If Ableton is your main DAW, use Live Enhancement Suite.

What’s one tip you would like an MPG member to share with you?

How to deal with difficult clients! Esp if you don’t have management to help you out.

Do you have any words of wisdom for people wanting to get into a similar music production role to yours?

Yes! Stick with the nice, good people. Don’t worry about who’s ‘cool’. Egos are a PITA so find good, talented people and stick with them all the way. Build a network of great peeps, help people out, introduce them to each other. Then, invite them all to a big party with lots of food and booze. Ha.

Visit Aneek’s website: https://www.aneek-thapar.com/