MDIA Visiting Professional brings high profile music industry recording experience to the classroom

Many students who aspire to work in the music industry played video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero growing up with dreams of being in the studio with their favorite musician or band in the future.

Now music production students at Ohio University can take a class from a man who did just that, working with music industry legends like Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, David Bowie and Billy Joel and was one of the primary music mixers for those video games – Thom Cadley. Cadley started teaching classes for the Scripps College of Communication Media Arts and Studies (MDIA) program as a visiting professional this semester.

“I’ve been semi-retired from music production for a couple of years now while teaching as an adjunct and at trade schools. When this position came up, I felt that the time was right for me to commit to a more engaged faculty position,” said Cadley. “I’m teaching two sections of MDIA 2300 - Music Production and Technology I this semester.”

Cadley’s courses are specifically for music production and recording industry (MPRI) majors. School of Media Arts and Studies (MDIA) Director Josh Antonuccio says students gain important knowledge by taking classes from people like Cadley, and that’s why all of the MPRI instructors have substantial industry experience.

“The music and creative industries are predicated on learning by doing,” said Antonuccio. “These types of studio classes prepare students with the skills and experience necessary to navigate workflows for artist sessions.”

Cadley is a Technical Excellence and Creativity (TEC) Award winning and Emmy-nominated mixer who was chief mixing engineer at the legendary Sony Music Studios in NYC from 1993 to 2007. He oversaw the audio for Sessions at West 54th for PBS, VH-1’s Storytellers and many other live broadcast events. After 9/11, he co-produced and co-mixed The Concert For New York City. Cadley has also engineered Broadway cast albums such as Disney’s The Lion King, as well as numerous film soundtracks such as the Goya Award winning Calle 54 (Spanish Oscar for Best Sound).  He is excited about the industry knowledge he’s able to bring to students in the classroom.

“To date in class, I’ve mostly been focusing on getting them (the students) up to speed on the studio and the new equipment that was installed. So much of the class time is about getting them comfortable enough with the technology that they don’t consciously think about it. Once they get to that point, then they can start to get spontaneous and creative in the studio, which is the fun part,” said Cadley. “I’m also trying to get them to realize that whether working with big names or local bands, the producer’s job is still the same, and that is to make the studio a comfortable and creative place that inspires the artists to perform at their very best.”

Cadley paused his mixing career a few years back to get his BS in The Arts from SUNY Empire State College (Summa Cum Laude), and to focus on teaching the next generation of music production professionals. He has served as an instructor in several notable music production and technology programs including Pratt University, Middle Tennessee State University and Dark Horse Institute. Cadley continues mixing songs for release in immersive audio formats such as Dolby Atmos.

“Next semester I’ll be teaching two sections of MDIA 3300 - Music Production and Technology II, which is the follow up course to the classes I teach this semester,” said Cadley. “I’m hoping that sometime in the Spring I can have a couple of loose info-sessions, open to anyone, where we can informally talk about making music, maybe play with some recordings they might recognize and let them see that after decades of REALLY, REALLY hard work, producing music can still be fun. I’m also almost done setting up a little Atmos-enabled mix room at home and I’d love to find some local musician’s projects to work on.”

In addition to taking classes from industry professionals, MDIA students have many other experiential learning opportunities including OHIO-in-LA, SXSW, and Music Production Masterclass, of which there will be two this year: Studio G in Brooklyn with Joel Hamilton and Public Hi-Fi in Providence with Jim Eno of Spoon.

Learn more about the MDIA program here: https://www.ohio.edu/scripps-college/media-arts-studies.