About David Bartley

I’m an experienced audio mix engineer and sound designer working remotely or on site in London.
I mix and design sound for ads, trailers, promos, brand films, other short format films and games.

I absolutely love working with sound, I bring this enthusiasm to every project and I enjoy continuing to learn and hone my craft.

Having spent two years at McCann’s in-house post production facility, I left to join audio and music company Cord, where I spent 3 years full time before going freelance in 2016.

Whatever the project is, I aim to get the audio to the highest quality. If needed, de-noising and removing reverb on dialogue, de-clipping etc and shaping it all up to be in the best condition, using industry standard iZotope RX.

I then set to work on carefully editing, ensuring that where music has been edited, every beat is on time, and any dialogue issues are removed.

When mixing I look to maximise the impact of the sound, always considering the context of audio with the picture. As with the film, the impact of the sound should ebb and flow, bringing emotion and holding the viewer’s attention. If the soundtrack does not already have a strong finish I will look to build this autonomously and add elements if needed, or give advice on how this could be achieved.

I am very detail orientated – I find the differences between OK and amazing to lie within these tiny margins.

I am experienced mixing to a whole range of broadcast specifications, online specifications, and VOD eg Amazon Prime and Netflix. Whatever your audio specs are, I can help you understand them and nail them first time.

With sound design, I build highly realistic soundscapes with depth, as well as the heavily stylised promo, trailer and gaming genres. I have over 200,000 licensed SFX in the arsenal, about 2TB, including many of my own field recordings, and I work on games, both in game design and launch trailers, which are very demanding for sound design. I carefully curate the best SFX and always aim to combine sounds together, and add foley where possible / appropriate, to ensure a unique soundscape.

My aim is to add value to the production, be flexible, be easy to work with and facilitate getting it done. I am fully aware of the challenges of modern production and last minute changes are no problem for me.

I offer work by the hour or by the day, depending on the scope of the project, and bespoke fixed fees are considered if, for example, you need some time split across several days, or you need some mixing with a bit of added sound design, these things can all be discussed, and I always offer discounts for longer bookings.

Credits

Education