A musician, turned engineer, turned designer, Ryan O John started playing music at 5 years old, performing his first show at age 12, and recording albums at 13. After hundreds of shows and 6 self-recorded albums, his life snowballed into that of a recording engineer.  While pursuing a degree, he worked at a large format studio engineering, and toured as a sound engineer for several bands.

Eventually, after a decade of touring 49 weeks a year, he found his way into Product Management and Product Design working on consoles for Avid, software for JBL, interfaces for Universal Audio and much more. With a focus on the customer experience and innovation, he prides himself in being connected to the customer, and not just solving problems for them, but finding a way to make complex problems seem simple.

Currently based in Los Angeles, and occasionally living in London, he still tours as a Front of House audio engineer, and sometimes monitors. Recent touring clients include Labrinth, Annie Lennox, Danny Elfman, Sara Bareilles, Carly Rae Jepsen, Michael Bolton, and most recently James Arthur. His longest-term artist is Jessie J whom he’s mixed for about ten years.

And if all that wasn’t enough, he also mixes a lot of records. Most recently doing a lot of Atmos mixes.

Ryan never slows down! Keep up with him @ryanojohn on social media.

Favorite concert or live show you’ve attended as a fan (not for work)?

The first concert I ever saw was Pink Floyd, the Division Bell Tour, it’s what made me want to do this… Truly an astounding show considering the production that existed at the time.

Is there anything you try to do every off day?

I’ve got two things I love on off days:

First, find the best coffee in town… It’s an easy way to connect with some locals about something you’re both excited about, and the folks in the high-end coffee shops tend to know the best coffee in the next city you’re about to be in.

Second, go karting… It’s a great way to get the entire crew or band to join in on something competitive and fun. 

One to three must have work-related tool(s)? (Computer, gear, tool, phone app, etc.)?

It’s a challenge to pick a short list, as each gig is quite different.  I have a ridiculously flexible fly-rack for my FOH gigs… It’s got MADI IO via a DirectOut Andiamo that converts 32 channels to/from analog, which pins into a Universal Audio Apollo x16 for any effects processing and noise reduction, and a 500 series rack with ten channels of various extraordinarily high quality and tonally different compressors.  That rack alone covers pretty much anything I could need… I feel like that counts as one work related tool, while also counting as fifteen!

Also, a Smaart rig, with a measurement microphone, and my annoyingly large keychain with some 20 or so USB keys that include restore keys and updaters for various consoles, as well as many iLoks and keys full of show files.

Are there any standard industry practices that you’d like to see change?

I think it’s a strange thing that there are monitor engineers that will plug their talkback straight into the back of their desk. As a FOH engineer, I want two-way communication always, for ALL aspects of communication. So, I would always prefer that the monitor engineer’s talkback hits the split. Also, I’ve had scenarios where it was incredibly helpful to have had the talkback recorded in the virtual soundcheck, it prevented someone from being thrown under the bus.

Since you began working in this industry are there any concepts or practices you’ve implemented that have positively impacted your work (reduced stress, saved time, etc.)?

Something a bit uncommon that I do, is posting all board mixes to a Dropbox that my artist and artist management have access to.  Minutes after the show is done, they all upload. The mixes that upload include a full mix, an instrumental only, and a vocal sub-mix. This has helped out many times wherein a mix was needed for something immediately but management wanted to clean up the vocal pitch.

Where do you see the industry going in the next 5-8 years?

Fortunately, all the technology has made great sounding shows much easier to achieve. The tools are better for capturing, the tools are better for mixing, and the tools are better for deployment and reproduction. At this point there’s almost no excuse to have a bad show. I imagine that chunks of the work will end up with AI helpers, such as the PA deployment, I imagine the software will get a heck of a lot smarter at this implementation, and I also expect that physical steering of boxes using angles and spacing will become a thing of the past wherein more and more boxes will be doing digital steering rather than mechanical, whether that’s for the best or not.

How much sleep do you actually get? And how do you manage sleep deprivation?

I sleep a solid seven hours every night. I also sleep on planes fortunately well, often asleep before the plane even takes off. More than sleep deprivation, the constant time zone shifts are actually the hardest part for me. In tour busses, I have an ‘alarm clock’ that actually has a sun-lamp on it, that just slowly turns on at the alarm time. It’s a much better way to know if it’s daytime (which honestly gives you better sleep rather than having to check the clock in the middle of the night over and over again anytime you wake), and set an alarm without waking up your bus-mates.

What improves your day at a show?

Positive vibes! Problems always occur, but dealing with them with positivity is everything. The most exhausting thing for everyone is negative vibes or complaining about issues. Let’s solve them together and move on.

Our industry isn’t as glamorous as often perceived. What motivates you to work such long hours and be away from home for extended periods?

When the show is right, and you see/feel the crowd respond emotionally to the music, it’s incredibly fulfilling. Honestly there isn’t a feeling in the world quite like knowing that you have been a part of an emotional experience for a crowd.

What advice would you give to someone just starting their career in the live production industry (perhaps something you wish someone would have told you when you were getting started)?

Well I started a podcast that’s literally all the possible tips and tricks I could possibly teach someone, so that’s a good starting resource. It’s called Live Sound Bootcamp and “teaches” the entire process from reading a stage plot to complex Front of House tricks for the biggest of tours.

But apart from the technical stuff, the most important thing is learning how to listen, and how to ask questions. The difference in how people ask questions really affects the quality of answer you will get back. When you ask a question that implies knowledge and understanding, it’s easier for the person receiving this question to give you a useful answer, because they know at least a little bit more about what you understand and the depth of your request. For example, “man that vocal sounds great how did you do that?” is not a particularly easy question to answer, because I have no idea how much the person actually understands. Whereas “the vocal is really clear and up front, and nothing ever gets in the way of it, do you have any particular processing you’re doing to make that work?” may be exactly the same question, but it’s actually answerable as it shows me that the questioner has an understanding of the process of mixing.

What's the most essential thing in your suitcase?

By far, the most useful thing to have around is my phone with an international plan!  Everything can be purchased anywhere at this point, but my “international” phone is what enables that.