Studio Owner
Rocky O’Reilly – Producer, Mixer & Engineer
Rocky opened Start Together (named after his favourite Sleater-Kinney song) while he still played in Indie-Pop two piece Oppenheimer.
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Since then he has developed Start Together’s facilities for musicians and engineers, while continuing to produce, write, record & mix with a wide range of artists from across the world.
He's worked with The Wood Burning Savages, The Florentinas, And So I Watch You From Afar, Baby In Vain, General Fiasco, Wheatus, Math The Band, TOUTS, Callum Pitt, Matt Caughthran (The Bronx) Tim Wheeler (Ash) Nathan Connolly (Snow Patrol), ROE, Queen Zee, Adam WarRock and Dizzy Dustin (Ugly Duckling)
If you would like to work with Rocky, please contact Pip Newby at Friends Vs Music
Belfast-based Freelance Engineers & Producers on our roster
Ryan McGroarty - Producer, Mixer & Engineer
Ryan is a musician, producer, engineer and mixer who has toured extensively across Ireland, UK, Europe and North America. He has had his music used as theme tunes on national BBC and sync'ed in movies and television.
When not on stage, Ryan brings a lot of musical interaction to his productions, often playing guitar or synths as well as programming and arranging when needed. He plays in Belfast dream pop band Beauty Sleep and has also recently been producing and mixing with Catalan, May Rosa, Hex Hue and Alana Henderson.
Michael Bell - Producer, Mixer & Engineer
Michael grew up in Belfast assisting in Start Together, before enrolling at LIPA in Liverpool, studying music production while working in many of the city's leading studios. He has now returned to Belfast and has been working on a range of productions, mixes and live sessions.
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Recent projects include Wohn, Taylor Lally, Kid Apollo, Patrick McEleney, Birches, Von Loop and Foreign Mornings.
Niall Doran - Audio Engineer
Niall is an audio engineer with over a decade of experience working in commercial studios on a wide range of music and professional audio projects. He is equally at home working with folk artists, heavy bands, operatic recordings or jazz ensembles. He enjoys live recording sessions and also records, edits and mixes audiobooks and podcasts for many clients throughout Europe. He's worked with a long list of artists and labels and has a huge passion for community within music, working on projects with Beyond Skin, Urban Affinity and more.
Sophie Price - Engineer
Sophie is a producer and musician based in Belfast. She plays in Belfast punk trio Gender Chores and has been an assistant audio engineer and presenter on The Live Room Belfast, a series of live performances made at Start Together.
She has also worked with us on our Women in Music scheme as well as recording and mixing sessions with new and breaking artists.
Friends and Alumni
Ben McAuley - Producer, Mixer & Engineer
Ben is a producer, engineer and musician from Belfast who writes music and plays drums and guitar with a number of bands and artists, as well as producing and engineering records in all kinds of genres.
Chris Ryan - Producer, Mixer & Engineer
Chris is the main writer, drummer and vocalist in Robocobra Quartet and also releases music under the moniker Sorbet. He produces and mixes from many studios across Ireland. Recently he has used Start Together to complete projects with Just Mustard, Junk Drawer and NewDad.