Capel Sound Studios

Located in the expanding suburbs of Capel Sound, west of Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Capel Sound Studios is a professional team of experienced sound engineers.

The engineers have years of recording time under their belts, producing artists from all over Australia and overseas. They are also musicians that understand the process of creating only quality results, which is a core value of the business.

Bringing the highest professionalism to business projects they draw on a wealth of knowledge working as key directors in creating quality results without blowing out the budget.

Dave Walker

Studio Manager & Engineer

Dave lives on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, about an hour out of Melbourne. 

His main instrument is the guitar; he can sing and can play a bunch of other stringed instruments with varying degrees of proficiency. He has played in a heap of bands across different genres since first moving to Melbourne in 1996.

Since 2008 he has recorded and produced albums across a wide range of genres from First Nations Artists, South American Punk, Celtic Harp and most stops in between.

He is the studio manager at Capel Sound Studios, working with a range of artists and a great crew of creatives.

He was sound technition on the 2018 and 2019 Bush Bands Business weeks for Music NT, and WA Arts Sand Tracks Tour tech to remote communities in the same years.

Working with First Nations bands is a passion; recording and producing Black Rock Band's second album as well as remote recording in Gunbalanya have been highlights. Tour managing and working closely with Black Rock Band on the road and studio has taken him to some incredible places; the Guts Tour of the top end with Bad//Dreems in 2022 being a good example.

Over the years he has also taught guitar and undertaken mentoring with young bands, including working as the guitar tutor at the annual Mornington Community Primary Schools Music Camp.

Read Dave’s Full Bio

Dan Swan

Studio Owner & Engineer

Dan is a Mornington Peninsula local and studio owner at Capel Sound Studios.

He is a proficient singer, guitarist, and drummer with many years of experience playing in bands. Covering a wide range of styles from Country to Progressive Heavy Rock in groups Low Rent and Vitruvian Man.

Dan has been a recording audio engineer for over 20 years with experience on many projects, large and small. Having worked closely with Mushroom Group he has post-production and live experience with some of Australia’s most talented artists including:

  • The Rubens

  • JET

  • Archie Roach

  • Paul Kelly

  • Shane Nicholson to name just a few.

He is also a very experienced songwriter with honed skills in song form, lyric crafting, chord progressions and tempo/groove writing. He extends these skills as a mentor to younger or less experienced artists as a means to bring their creativity to life or simply put on the producer hat and bring the best out of the recordings.

Thomas Marshall-Gregory

Producer & Engineer

Tom is a lifelong musician with over 20 years of playing, born and raised on the Mornington Peninsula he’s been exposed to many talented performers from the area. Tom has been a performing artist for nearly 15 years playing venues all around Melbourne and Australia with hardcore and metal bands including Along Shorelines and Scourge.

Being in bands when he a teen led him quickly to the studio as a recording artist, where he fell in love with the process of bringing a song to life. Tom has recently completed a Bachelors Degree in Music Production at Collarts, where he sharpened his technical skills including becoming ProTools Certified and racking up over 10,000 hours in Ableton Live. In learning Ableton, Tom discovered a passion for working on a wide variety of electronic music becoming an expert a Sampling, Synthesis and Midi programming.

Tom is a lover of all music having worked on Country, Rap, Pop, Metal, EDM everything in between and takes great joy in creating with others and on his own. Tom is a multi-instrumentalist; however he specialises in vocal production and beat-making. While Tom is versed in many styles and genres, his favourite kinds of music to work with are Metal, Hip-hop and anything experimental.

Studio Layout

The studio comprises of three spaces, control room, dead room and live room. With capability for full band recording including drums.

Complete separation for recording gives excellent control on the final result and ensures the process runs smoothly, every time.

The control room includes facilities for tea/coffee, running water and fridge with a comfortable setting for recording, mixing and mastering, treated perfectly for the most optimal audio frequency response.

The dead room is perfectly ‘dead’ from annoying reflections which is critical when recording the voice for professional outcomes or to keep a bass cabinet completely clear from the rest of the in use microphones.

The live room is perfectly setup for the right results, treated acoustically to capture the natural room reflections.

Gear List

Speakers

  • Yamaha NS-10M

  • Dynaudio MKII

  • ADAM A7X

Microphones

  • 2 x Gefell UM70

  • 2 x RCA BK-5B Ribbon

  • Neumann U47 (Warm Audio Clone)

  • AKG C214

  • 2 x AKG C1000

  • Shure Beta 52A

  • 5 x Shure SM57

  • 2 x Shure SM58

  • 2 x Calrec CB20C

  • Many Others

Interface

  • UAD Apollo 8

  • Focusrite Octopre

  • Focusrite Scarlett 18i

System

  • Mac Studio (2022)

  • Avid Pro Tools

  • Apple Logic Pro

  • Ableton Live

  • Plenty of Plugins

Outboard

  • Warm Audio WA73-EQ (Neve Channel Strip)

  • Universal Audio 6176 (Preamp/Compressor)

  • JLM TMP-8 (Preamps)

  • Joemeek Twin Q (Preamp/Compressor)

Guitar Amps

  • Fender Deville

  • Fender Deluxe

  • Fender Tweed

  • Kemper Profiler

Guitars

  • Maton Acoustic

  • Martin Acoustic

  • Fender Telecaster (US)

  • Cole Clark Mistress

  • Many Others

Drums

  • Gretsch 6-piece House Kit (On Request)

Pedals

  • Many Options