Ralph Stokes

I'm Ralph, a mixing and mastering engineer based in Newcastle, UK. I've been obsessed with how music sounds since I first picked up a guitar, and I've spent nineteen years turning that into a career. It started with playing guitar, leading to a production degree at Newcastle College, years in bands producing and performing hybrid electronic acts at festivals. I built Blueleaf Studio nine years ago, and for the last two I've also been main engineer at Loft Music Studios. I've worked across rock, pop, folk, metal, EDM, reggae, afrobeats, singer-songwriter and plenty in between. Growing up on 90's heavy rock gave me my foundation, but decades of experimentation and raving means I'm just as inspired by OTT's layered electronic production or a well-crafted folk arrangement. My studio is built around comfort and honesty: treated acoustics, analogue-modelled processing, and a wood-burning stove for winter sessions. Shaping other people's songs for a living is the best job in the world