Mike Thornton Email & Phone Number

Manchester, Gb

Manchester Area, United Kingdom

I will be going quiet for a season, my retirement plan starts with a complete stop, a sabbatical if you like, where I am going to take a complete break from everything. Then after a few months start to plan what I want to do and not do in this next phase of my life. I will still be a part of the blog as chairman of Production Expert Ltd, so I have not gone completely, instead, this is the next phase in my life. So I say Au Revoir rather than goodbye.

Manchester, United Kingdom

As COO, I oversee the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of a business as well as strategic planning for the future.Co-founder of some of the most successful music and audio production blogs on the planet. Pro Tools Expert, Logic Pro Expert, and Studio One Expert offer news, tips and tricks for users of the some of the most popular audio production platforms on the market.From early beginnings, in 2008 the blogs have grown as the first point of call for those wanting to excel in their use of these software platforms. I joined in 2012 when the first of the current blogs was launched - Pro Tools Expert.The sites are now run by a team the of audio professionals who deliver some of the best content for music and audio production on the web.

Manchester, United Kingdom

Although I have been offering loudness training since 2012, With recent events I felt it was time to set up The Loudness Practice. With The Loudness Practice, I can more formally offer my advice and experience to broadcasters, production companies, in fact, anyone who needs to deliver or handle loudness compliant content. A number of busy audio professionals have approached me asking for my help explaining that they don't have time to go through all the white papers and research papers to work out what they need to be doing. Broadcasters want their staff and freelancers trained so they can produce loudness compliant content. Networks are looking for help in writing their delivery requirements that audio professionals can easily understand what they need to do to meet the delivery specs.I can help with all these examples and more. Please get in touch and see now The Loudness Practice can save you time and money.Check out some of the articles I have written...

A varied client base who are look to me for a more creative and editorial input to their content confirming our position as an audio 'one stop shop'. I have completed a number of projects that involved me in a sound design and production role, drawing from my significant experience, this is proving to be a successful extension to the range of services. A good example of this would be the 'New News' project for AstraZeneca. For more information see the Portfolio section or our web site. http://www.osd-uk.com/portfolio/animation-for-astrazeneca-corporate-presentation/ This was conceived, recorded and produced in our facility in North Manchester.I am also an audio dubbing editor & mixer and a Digidesign Pro Tools specialist with a growing experience in 5.1 surround working in radio, TV sound, and 'new media'.Examples of work include....TV WorkDubbing editor and mixer for series of 6 x 1 hour documentaries ‘ The making of a monster’ for Sky TVDubbing Editor & Mixer for ‘The Creative Write Kit’ – a DVD with a range of TV dramas presented on an interactive DVDDubbing Editor & Mixer for Open University DVDsRadio Dramas'Shedtown'; ‘Cheque Book & Pen’; ‘Craven’ – 5 x 15 min Womans Hour drama series; Divided We Fall (Awarded a Sony award in the Community category) – a drama for community radio looking at racial tensions in a northern commmunity see http://www.talktotaz.co.uk/divided_we_fall.phpRadio documentaries'The Story of The King James Bibles' - 3 x 30 mins; 'Merry Christmas Morris Minor'; Three Series of ‘What’s the point of’, ‘Archive Hour – ‘Giving way to a new era’ (Sony Nominated), ‘Desperate Dreams’ (Sony Nominated), 7 series of ‘The Choice’ (Sony Award in 2004); ‘From this Moment on’, the history of LSD in ProLogic Surround.‘Behind Enemy Lines’ for Remembrance weekendOnline contentRecording, editing and mastering hymn samples for Church of England wedding web site http://www.yourchurchwedding.org/hymns-media-player.aspx

I provide loudness training to help professionals to make the transition from peak normalisation to loudness normalisation. I have presented courses in Dubai, Portugal and the BBC in London.I provide 5.1 surround production and acquisition training and consultancy to both broadcast and post production facilities. For example a 5 day course for OSN in Dubai which included assisting them with developing workflows and integrating the new loudness specs.

In 1990 I went freelance and undertook a lot of OB work for companies like Chrysalis TV Mobiles and my previous employer Key 103. Another client was VisionLink Satelite Services providing my services as a Technical co-ordinator for high profile satellite conferences with multiple international linkups. Clients included:- SmithKline Beecham, Shell, AT & T and National Grid from countries as far a field as Czech Republic & Kenya. More recently the client base has included The Oldham College where I am an accredited media NVQ assessor and North West Vision & Media where I am an accredited radio and Pro Tools trainer. I also have significant experience of preparing audio for on line use including Skillsoft NHS training schemes and the Working Class Movement Library.

United Kingdom

The Support Squad was created after recognising that areas such as quality control and technical support often suffer when resources are limited.Small developers are working 24/7 to give their customers the best possible service, which takes away from their development time and impacts their personal life.With ever-decreasing staff budgets, larger organisations often find it hard to get beta, certification, QC, or other vital quality services. This has a direct impact on brand reputation.We are a dedicated team of audio professionals who will provide operational and technical support for audio companies without a support crew or those needing additional short-term staff.The Support Squad offers a bespoke, on-demand service for those who need premium technical assistance for their audio technology brand, large or small, software or hardware.

Production Expert is a unique group of blogs developed over the last decade to bring unparalleled learning resources for the music creation and post-production communities coupled with up-to-date news and opinion grounded in our fearless independence.The Production Expert team are first and foremost professionals working daily in music and post-production. Our content is informed by a team who are practitioners, meaning our tutorials are devised to help those working in real-world scenarios. Product evaluation also benefits from this experience ensuring that when products are tested, they meet the needs of those working in studios every day.The Production Expert site has brought together all of our expert knowledge of Pro Tools, Logic Pro and Studio One and combined it with more general music and post-production content. This layout means our readers can choose what to read and what to ignore without missing out on other content. This makes it easier for us to share content with the right audience fast. Unlike many media outlets and publications, we’re not generalists who dabble in specifics but experts who understand that at times some content transcends a specific audience. This new simpler approach has seen an increase in traffic of around 20% since July 2018.Our combined email newsletter has over 61,000 subscribers with an average open rate of 23.5% compared to an industry average of 12.6%. Clicks are equally impressive with a list rate of 3.9% compared to an industry average of 1.4%, showing we generate interesting content that leads to a regular response.650K+ PAGE VIEWS per month500K+ UNIQUE VISITS per monthFacebook - Over 250K followersInstagram - Over 20K followersTwitter - Over 40K followersLinkedIn - Over 6.5K members of our group

I write a workshop every month on Pro Tools outlining a feature or function in Pro Tools. Recently I have covered Region List management, Splitting Sessions, Handling Missing Files and a series of tips and tricks for beginners and experienced users a like.

The site has a single aim; to be the number one Pro Tools support community on the web. We get around 140,000 visitors a month checking out over 500 free patches for Structure, over 20 hours of video training comprising of over 400 FREE HD videos. There’s much more, so welcome.

The aim of the partnership is to bring together our expertise and influence for the benefit of the Pro Tools Community in both music and post and to offer manufactures and distributors a single point of access to the huge community this will create.

I am an accredited competence assessor assessing the new ITV Creative & Media apprenticeship scheme.

I am an accredited competence assessor assessing the new BBC Creative & Media apprenticeship scheme.

A varied client base who are look to me for a more creative and editorial input to their content confirming our position as an audio 'one stop shop'. I have completed a number of projects that involved me in a sound design and production role, drawing from my significant experience, this is proving to be a successful extension to the range of services.

I provide 5.1 surround production and acquisition training and consultancy to both broadcast and post production facilities. Recently I ran a 5 day course for OSN in Dubai which included assisting them with developing workflows and integrating the new loudness specs.

I was an audio dubbing editor & mixer and a Digidesign Pro Tools specialist with a growing experience in 5.1 surround. I work in radio, TV sound, and 'new media' and I am committed to high quality in all areas at an affordable price.

I am an accredited NVQ assessor for the media industry currently working on the Advanced Media Apprenticeship that has been piloted here in Manchester and is being rolled out across the country now.

We were a co-operative of radio producers pitching, selling and making radio programmes for clients like BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service with a wealth of experience in story telling and programme making and could help your organisation get its message across.

The Omnibuss Mobile was an ex BBC B type sound OB wehicle that we re-fitted out with new equipment and handled a wide range of music recording and broadcast OB work for broadcasters like Granda TV and Border TV working with artists like U2, The Saw Doctors, Daniel O'Donnell and Ken Dodd.We became the first OB truck to be Dolby Surround capable and I mixed the first UK broadcast of a Dolby Surround transmission for Granada TV from Tranmere Rovers ground to be followed by 3 years of mixing football in Surround for Granada TV.

I then became the outside broadcast department and built two HGV outside broadcast vehicles. The first a mobile stage vehicle - The Star Truck and the second a music recording OB vehicle - The Multi Truck. I was responsible for all the stations OBs including FA cup finals, taking the breakfast show out and about to places like Dublin, a bus on the bus route from Manchester to Bolton and back and Strangeways prison.Inside I was instrumental in the creation technically of Key 103 in the Piccadilly Plaza buildings. I was also one of the first people to engineer live acoustic sessions when artist came to visit the station and some of those sessions ended up on albums including Vigilante man with The Alarm on 20th September 1989

I worked as maintenance engineer on a 4 week shift cycle improving the station's infrastructure and keeping it on the air

Once I had completed my apprenticeship I became Marconi's sole audio test engineer in the broadcast section. On the development side as there hadn't been a specialist audio development engineer in the company for some time I started to modify and re-design products to improve them including the audio channels on the Marconi Mk 9 camera and the Marconi MR2 1" VTRs.

I served my apprenticeship as a block release student at The Chelmer Institute and in the first year also was trained in the Marconi Training school to use a mill, lathe, solder to military spec, and technical drawing. In the second and third years I was supposed to be on placement in different parts of the company. However after my first placement in "TV Test" the audio test engineer retired and so I was asked to replace him whilst continuing my training.