Audeze catches up with audio engineer Randy Belculfine

December 17, 2024

Randy Belculfine wearing Audeze LCD-X headphones with guitar in hand

Audeze Artist Profile

Randy Belculfine

Randy Belculfine is an American audio engineer, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist from Boston, MA. He is best known for his work with Australian superstar Tones And I, with whom he’s won multiple ARIA awards.
 

In Their Own Words

 
"I've been able to refer back to them at any point in my workflow for a complete and honest picture of what I'm working on, and they've served as an incredibly viable solution for producing and mixing while travelling."
- Randy Belculfine
Randy Belculfine wearing Audeze LCD-X headphones

Notable Works

Can you pick a few highlights from your work that you're especially proud of?

Absolutely. Tanerélle's latest release Electric Honey (Encore) includes some of my favorite moments from her project to date, and has been an absolute treasure to work on. The latest Tones And I album Beautifully Ordinary was the center of my attention for much of 2023-24 and finally dropped this past August. Another particularly rewarding experience has been with burgeoning nightmare-pop act PRTTY RIDICULOUS, which has been an absolutely wild creative journey.

 

How would you define your main role on most of your projects these days?

Music Producer & Songwriter.

What was some favorite music growing up and how has that evolved?

I was exposed to a lot of 80s-90s rock music from a very young age. Extreme, Van Halen, Kansas, STYX, Alice In Chains, and lots of Dream Theater. My dad played guitar and sang in a rock band while I was growing up, and I always looked up to him. In my teen years I got really into modern metal bands like Periphery, Meshuggah, and Animals As Leaders, but my scope really opened up beyond guitar music while studying at Berklee College Of Music.
 
My experience studying production and engineering changed my perspective entirely. Making records in such a stylistically diverse setting allowed me to discover exactly how much music I loved, and I became an obsessive listener. My early 20's were something like a musical enlightening for me as a result. A few big ones from that time:
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly, Kaytranada 99.9%, Anderson .Paak Malibu, Porter Robinson Worlds, The 1975 I like it when you sleep, Radiohead In Rainbows, Magdalena Bay Mercurial World, Denzel Curry UNLOCKED, Travis Scott Rodeo.

 

Can you name any factors that influenced the course of your musical life?

Beyond my dad’s encouragement of me to constantly pursue my dream, I have to say that my friendships with fellow professionals had the biggest impact on me throughout my career. At the beginning it’s very common to feel threatened by people in a similar lane to you, and to operate as though you’re in competition with them. It was a serious turning point for me when I chose to embrace pluralism and let myself be friends with the badasses around me. There’s plenty of music to go around!

Can you describe a moment of frustration from your past work, and how you may have overcome it?

One very real point of frustration for me was after completing my first major label project as a producer. I followed it up by inundating myself with far more projects than I could handle, which resulted in some serious burnout. Do not recommend. Thankfully I’ve taken some great lessons from that, though it took sacrificing some projects and assessing my distance from others in order to get myself on track again.

What is your current favorite instrument, effect, or piece of gear?

Lately I've been really vibing with Music Man Guitars. A friend of mine loaned me his Stingray for a few sessions and I haven't stopped thinking about it, such a fun instrument and the build quality is insane.
 
Also, for tracking vocals I’ve started using sE Reflexion filters. Richard Stolz and I tracked vocals with Tones in Byron Bay last year and we managed to get some incredible vocal takes despite being in a wide-open log cabin type space. I never would’ve thought we’d get keepers in a room like that.

 

Do you have any words of wisdom for people who might aspire toward a similar path?

Everyone has something to teach you, and everyone has something to learn from you. Don’t rob yourself of those lessons, and do not gatekeep your wisdom.

 

How long have you been working with headphones, and how do you use them in your workflow?

Headphones are critical to my workflow. I’m traveling constantly and working in completely unpredictable environments where I don’t necessarily have time to measure the room and test reference material on the speakers before go time. If I don’t have a trusted pair of cans I can check on, things get weird real quick. I typically make coarse adjustments on speakers while artists are jamming out, but I take advantage of every moment where I’m in headphones to lock in and fix problems in my familiar listening environment. Mostly after the session for tracking/production. While mixing I’m constantly back and forth between speakers and cans.

How have your Audeze headphones affected your work? Can you tell us what you've been working on with them recently?

Audeze's have completely changed the way I work. I've been able to refer back to them at any point in my workflow for a complete and honest picture of what I'm working on, and they've served as an incredibly viable solution for producing and mixing while travelling. It's a rare experience to listen on a set of speakers/cans and think: "this is what music is supposed to sound like". I had that experience on day one with my LCD-X's.

For the better part of the last year I've been travelling back and forth between Australia, Bali, and LA for the latest record with Tones And I, as well as music directing for her ongoing tour. Wrapping up productions and show tracks with them has been a dream; they've allowed me to work seamlessly wherever I'm needed.

 

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