Stephen Sherrard: A Career in Sound, A Future in Focus

After more than three decades immersed in the art of music production, recording, and mixing, I am officially retiring from the professional audio industry.

Producing, recording, and mixing music has been my full-time profession since 1994, and a serious passion for many years prior. While I never sought the spotlight, I am deeply proud of the body of work I built, primarily collaborating with talented independent artists throughout the greater Seattle area. From my early days on staff at Triad Studios in the mid-1990s to establishing my own private studio, DBAR Productions, I’ve had the honor of helping countless musicians bring their creative visions to life.

Mixing has always been my favorite part of the process—that sweet spot where musical intuition and technical craft converge to highlight the raw emotion of a song. I have always championed a “music-driven” approach, building every mix from scratch without static templates and focusing on “invisible mixing” that serves the song rather than technical showmanship. That philosophy led to some memorable milestones over the years, including winning the 2012 Sennheiser/Neumann Bo Bice mixing contest and placing third in the 2011 Sound On Sound – Dave Pensado Mixing Contest.

Resources for Musicians & Engineers

Throughout my career, sharing practical audio knowledge was just as important to me as the work behind the console. Though I am stepping away from client work, my educational library remains online:

• Music & Technology — Resources for the Recording Musician
  A comprehensive archive of articles, guides, and insights drawn from decades in the trenches. Topics cover recording techniques, mixing philosophy, mastering fundamentals, navigating the business side of independent music, and select gear and software reviews.

The Next Chapter

Life inevitably brings shifts in focus. A few years ago, a brain tumor resulted in significant high-frequency hearing loss in my right ear—a clear signal that it was time to re-evaluate my path. Following the loss of my mother-in-law last year, my wife and I made the decision to move up our retirement plans and relocate to her family home in Vancouver, BC to help care for her aging father.

Stepping away from professional audio gives me the freedom to focus on family, travel, and my long-standing creative passion: wildlife and nature photography. If you’ve followed my work in sound over the years, I invite you to join me in the visual realm:

• Stephen Sherrard Photography — Fine art landscape, travel, and wildlife galleries and prints.
• Backyard Hummingbirds — Close-up photography, high-speed video studies, and resources celebrating hummingbird behavior.

To every artist, producer, and engineer who trusted me with their art over the past thirty years: thank you. It has been an immensely rewarding journey.