Adam Dempsey

One of few mastering engineers in Australia to specialise in audio mastering, Adam Dempsey offers a wealth of experience in all music genres, based in Australia’s music capital, Melbourne.

Adam has been privileged to work with artists on thousands of national and international releases across all genres, including Gold and Platinum certified, ARIA Award, International Acoustic Music Award, Australian Blues Award, Music Victoria Award, Golden Guitar Award, and Jazz Bell Award winning and nominated releases, along with countless projects receiving radio airplay. He brings an ear for detail and a collaborative “do no harm” approach to music mastering.

Having long been a supporter of independent radio and artists and a Triple R and PBS FM subscriber discounter, Adam is also a proud member discounter of Music Victoria and is an Apple-accredited Apple Digital Masters Provider.

Background

Adam’s interest in music and audio began at an early age with 1/4” reel to reel tape recorders, progressing to editing on a twin-deck cassette tape recorder with 5 band graphic equaliser and soon wearing out its motors.

In 1986, while studying trombone and performing in the high school concert band, and playing harmonica and drums in the school rock band, Adam delved into community radio as a volunteer announcer and trainer, being one of the founders of what is now Yarra Valley FM. This led to mobile disco DJ work, 8-track recording, RMIT student radio (now SYN 90.7), a stint in film sound as a boom mic operator, engineering studies at Melbourne’s famed Sing Sing and Metropolis studios, live sound mixing, and as a drummer for 14 years in several bands across Melbourne.

Following 11 and a half years mastering at Australia’s first independent mastering facility, initially mastering for cassette tapes (running two rooms), Adam soon became Senior Mastering Engineer in CD mastering and audio restoration, also alongside Australia’s premier jazz record label Newmarket Music.

In 2006 Adam took an opportunity to freelance and began working from Deluxe Mastering in Melbourne’s arts hub of Brunswick.

In 2011, seeing a need to further support local artists, Adam revisited community radio. He co-produced and presented Radio Roarhouse for four years (100 episodes) along with radio training mentoring at Melbourne station North West FM for non-profit arts initiative Roarhouse Melbourne. Adam was also a proud business sponsor of diverse weekly show, Eclectica, at Melbourne’s 3MDR community radio, and continues to support independent radio wherever possible.

Courtney Barnett, Adam Dempsey and Jen Cloher