RSR492 - Ryan Ordway - Producing Americana at The Studio Portland in Maine

Recording Studio Rockstars

Lij Shaw

Music

4.8 • 543 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2025

⏱️ 129 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"It's all about intention." In this episode of the podcast, Lij Shaw sits down with seasoned artist, songwriter, and producer Ryan Ordway, who shares insights from his two-decade journey through the music industry. They discuss various nuances of music production, covering topics from remote recording challenges to the importance of acoustics and effective studio management. Ryan emphasizes the need for adaptability, personal interaction, and practical tips to ensure high-quality sound and a smooth creative process. Aspiring producers will gain valuable strategies for optimizing their craft and navigating the evolving landscape of music recording.

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My guest today is Ryan Ordway, a multifaceted artist, songwriter, producer, and audio engineer, proficient in analog and digital recording, mixing, music licensing, session playing, and commercial studio management. With over two decades of experience in the music business, he has recorded and produced nearly 1,000 songs across musical genres. Ordway has designed, built, and operated three commercial recording studios throughout his career. In 2020, he partnered with The Studio Portland in Portland, ME, where he undertook an ambitious remodel completed in 2024. Under Ordway's direction, The Studio became home to 98.9 WCLZ's Studio Z series, through which he has recorded an impressive roster of international recording artists, including: Noah Kahan, Grace Potter, Lake Street Dive, Joy Oladokun, The Heavy Heavy, Gregory Alan Isakov, Josh Ritter, Hiss Golden Messenger, Talk, SMYL, Lucius, Cecilia Castleman, Joseph, and Charlie Crockett, among others.

Ordway's songwriting talents earned him an invitation to the renowned Blackbird Studios in Nashville, where he recorded with famed producer Ken Scott (whose client list includes The Beatles, Elton John, and David Bowie). His song "Easy Street," produced by Scott, was featured in Robert Willey's Getting Started with Music Production, published by Hal Leonard in 2015.

Recognized for his ability to create transformative experiences for clients throughout New England, Ordway was nominated for Producer of the Year at the New England Music Awards in 2023. His song "Back Again" was nominated for Song of the Year in 2022.

Ordway's original music is licensed in over 13 countries and featured on major platforms like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. His music has appeared in popular TV shows such as NBC's The Office, ABC's Happy Endings, and FOX's Raising Hope. In 2023, his cover of Rusted Root's "Send Me on My Way" won him a multi-year contract for Nature Valley's Life Happens Out There national TV spot He has worked with other national clients, including Klondike, Polo Ralph Lauren, and John Deere.

In addition to his technical expertise and commercial success, Ryan is a passionate educator and mentor. At The Studio Portland, he leads professional audio production training programs and recording camps, sharing his knowledge and inspiring the next generation of audio engineers and producers. Beyond music production, Ryan produces podcasts and provides voiceover (VO) and automated dialogue replacement (ADR) post-production services for elite clients such as Lucas Films, Netflix, HBO Productions, and Penguin Random House Audio Books division.

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Listen to this guest's discography on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5URoEkxCrLa3ESYMgxyR18?si=f386ffda39b14207

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of Recording Studio Rockstars is brought to you by Isotope, Native Instruments,
0:06.9	Roswell Pro Audio, and Atom Audio. You're hearing my voice right now through the beautiful
0:12.6	Roswell Pro Audio Aztec Tube microphone, mixed through isotope, ozone, RX, and Neutron,
0:20.5	all on atom audio monitors and headphones.
0:23.7	Please check out our awesome sponsors using the links in the show notes.
0:27.3	Also, please remember to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel because it's a great way for you to help support this show.
0:33.5	Now, get ready to rock.
0:35.1	I'm using isotope.
0:36.3	I love their dynamic EQ. But yeah, I use them every day. Like, you know, if I had like a short form list of like plugins, because we got, like, that would be one that, like, that would be a subscription that I would definitely have. Right. And that's for like music production, because you do a variety of stuff. You do audio books as well and voiceover and things like that. Yeah, I've done a bunch. And I hadn't done any of those until the studio, Portland, because that's, there's a lot of actors and that live on the coast of Maine. Surprisingly, yeah, there's lots of mind-blowing how many people live like, and you can see why it's so beautiful. But with the pandemic, a lot of them never left.
1:11.9	They had places here, and they just stayed and got rid of their spots in, like, L.A.
1:15.9	Just stayed up in Maine.
1:16.5	Yeah, like a lot of them moved up from California and up from New York City.
1:21.4	Yeah.
1:21.8	And they just stay there now. Welcome to Recording Studio Rockstars.
1:36.5	I'm Lid Shaw, and this is the podcast created to help you become a rock star of the recording studio.
1:55.0	At Isotope, tone shaping is topping the charts. Meet the Catalyst series. Plasma,
2:02.1	Aurora and Cascadia. Plasma's flux saturation technology brings dynamic warmth and depth to your mix.
2:10.9	Aurora takes spatial audio to new heights with lush adaptive reverb, while Cascadia adds exciting delays to your mix,
2:14.3	retaining clarity through its smart unmasking feature.
2:20.2	Get 10% off Plasma, Aurora, Cascadia, or any of the Isotope plugins with the special code, Rock 10, and make your mixes rock at Isotope.com. Howdy Rockstars, it's your host,
2:29.1	Lid, Sean. Welcome to Recording Studio Rockstars, bringing you into the studio to learn from recording professionals
2:35.2	so that you can make your best record ever and be a rock star of the studio yourself.
	...

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