Fiddlehead Studios
Mayne Island, BC | Toronto, ON
This page holds information about Fiddlehead Studios while we rebuild the studio website
Fiddlehead Studios is an independent recording studio run by Adam Iredale-Gray, with locations in Campbell Bay on Mayne Island, British Columbia, and on Dundas St West in Toronto, Ontario. The Mayne Island location offers an opportunity for musicians to get away from the city and focus completely on their recording projects in an inspiring natural setting. The Toronto location is a convenient and flexible space for live band tracking, overdubs, and mixing.
At the Campbell Bay studio, the main studio space includes the control room, a mid-size performance space with views over the field and bay, the organ and Rhodes, and a vocal booth; upstairs is a tracking room with piano, and other spaces are available for more isolation.
My preferred approach is to do as much as we can with the whole band playing together, and adding a few things later. I believe the energy of a band playing together live is inimitable. If a band is well prepared to go into the studio, they can save a lot of time & money by tracking together.
I began my recording and live sound career on Mayne Island when I was 12 years old. It started off with running sound at the Mayne Island Folk Club for many great acts, and I soon began recording at home with my computer, a little Mackie mixer and a couple of mics. In 2006 I recorded my first album for my own band Fish & Bird, and since then I’ve recorded and/or produced albums albums for a number of acclaimed artists including indie Americana group Lula Wiles, bi-coastal noir band Ghostly Hounds, Scottish / American trad project Jenna Moynihan and Màiri Chaimbeul, Brooklyn indie rocker Eleanor Buckland, and my own neo-trad group Aerialists. Albums that I have produced and engineered have been nominated for WCMA, JUNO, and CFMA awards.
Gear list
MICROPHONES
Condensers
AKG 451B
Neumann KM184 (x2)
Rode NT5 with MJE-384K “Roadster” Capsules (x2)
sE Electronics 4400a (x2)
Soundelux ifet
Audio Technica AT4033
Audio Technica AT4047
Audio Technica AT4060
Advanced Audio CM12 (x2)
Blue Bluebird
Dynamics
Shure SM7b
Shure SM57 (x3)
Shure SM58 (x2)
Shure Beta57
Shure Beta52
Shure Beta87 (x4)
Electro Voice RE-20 (x2)
Ribbons
AEA R84 (x2)
sE Electronics VR2 (x2)
Cascade Fathead w Lundahl (x2)
DRUMS
Taye ProX wood hoops 7×14
1960’s Rogers “Dynasonic” snare drum 6×14
1970’s unmarked Japanese wood snare 5×14
1960’s Rogers “Holiday” kit, 12 rack/16 floor/20 kick
Taye 12, 14, 18 toms
Cymbals by Zildjian and Sabian
KEYS
1991 Yamaha U3 upright piano
1964 Hammond D100 organ with a Leslie 122 and
built in tube synth bass
1974 Fender Rhodes
M-Audio Keystation 49
GUITARS
1978 Gibson J-50
2000’s Fender Stratocaster
2005 Fender Jaguar with TV jones Humbucker
2010 upgraded Squier Tele with Texas Specials
2008 Epiphone Casino with Lollar P90s
1990’s Fender P-Bass, with J-Bass neck and
Seymour Duncan pickups
AMPS
1977 Fender Champ (10” “Lil Buddy” speaker)
1971 Fender Princeton Reverb
1965 Silvertone 1484 “twin 12”
Vox AC10 (Upgraded Speaker and Tubes)
1970’s Ampeg B15N
Ampeg SVT3 with Traynor 410
IO and Software
Antelope orion 32 into a 2024 custom PC with
Pro Tools Studio 2023
And Plugins by:
Waves (Horizon + more)
Sound Toys 5
UAD 2 Octo
iZotope Music Production bundle
Celemony Melodyne 5
Fab Filter (Proq3)
etc…
MONITORING
Benchmark DAC1
Dangerous Source monitor controller
Dynaudio BM5As
Behringer powerplay p16 (x4)
ART HEADAMP Pro Headphone amp
Headphones by Audio Technica, AKG and Beyerdynamic (6+)
MICROPHONE PREAMPS
Chandler ltd. EMI TG2 (2ch)
Great River MP-2NV (2ch)
ART MPA Gold (NOS Sylvania tubes) (2ch)
Warm Audio WA412
True Audio Systems Precision 8 (8ch)
Audient ASP008 (8ch)
OUTBOARD
Rupert Neve Designs 5043
Empirical Labs EL8x Distressor (x2)
Daking FET II
Symetrix 501
Toft Ocean EQ-500(x2)
Joemeek meQ-500(x2)
DBX 530 (x2)
Radial Tank driver with MOD Tank
Roland RE-201 Space Echo
DIs
Radial J-DI
Radial J-48
Radial Pro-DI (x4)
Radial X-amp
DISCOGRAPHY
Fish & Bird – Self Titled EP (2007) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Fiddle / Vocals / Guitars / Accordion / Composer
Sweet Lowdown – Live off the Floor (2008) Engineer / Mixing
Fish & Bird – Left Brain Blues (2009) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Fiddle / Vocals / Guitars / Banjo / Bass / Composer
O’Mally – Speck (2010) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Fiddle / Guitars / Vocals
Fish & Bird – Every Whisper Is A Shout Across The Void (2011)(2 x WCMA nominated) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Fiddle / Guitars / Vocals / Composer
West My Friend – Self Titled EP (2011) Engineer / Mixing
David Newberry – No One Will Remember You (2012) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Guitars / Fiddle / Vocals / Mandolin / Banjo
Bull Kelp – Painting & Drawing (2013) Mixing
Fish & Bird – Something In The Ether (2014) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Fiddle / Vocals / Composer
Jenny Ritter – Raised By Wolves (2015) Engineer / Mixing /Producer / Fiddle / Vocals
Elise Boeur | Nate Sabat – Self Titled EP (2015) Engineer / Mixing
Aerialists – Self Titled EP (2016) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Guitars / Composer
Lula Wiles – Lula Wiles (2016) Producer
Hannah Rose Baker – Hannah Rose (2016) Engineer / Mixing / Producer
Scott Cook – Further Down The Line (2017) Engineer / Fiddle
Jenna Moynihan & Mairi Chaimbeul – One Two (2017) Engineer / Mixing
Aerialists – Group Manoeuvre (2017) (JUNO and CFMA nominated) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Guitars / Composer
GennaRose Nethercott – Modern Ballads (2018) Engineer / Mixing / Fiddle
Banquo – Whither Are They Vanished (2018) Engineer / Mixing
Dancehall Players – An Evening At Dan’s Hall (2018) Engineer / Mixing
Aerialists – Dear Sienna (2020)(CFMA winning) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Guitars / Fiddle / Composer
Dancehall Players – Unexpected Dances (2020) Engineer / Mixing
Jaiya – Samhain (2020) Mastering
Gail Noonan – Eagles, Ravens, Crows (2020) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Fiddle / Guitars
Dancehall Players – Out Of The Silence (2020) Engineer / Mixing
Eleanor Buckland – You Don’t Have To Know (2021) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Guitars / Vocals / Composer
Zoe Guigueno – We Were Radar Stations (2022) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Guitars / Fiddle / Vocals / Programming
Elise Boeur & Adam Iredale-Gray – Fiddle Tunes (2022) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Fiddle / Guitar
Ghostly Hounds - In The Rubble (2022) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Fiddle / Guitar
Dancehall Players – Out Of The Silence 2 (2022) Engineer / Mixing
Shadowfax - Orpheus (2023) Engineer / Mixing / Fiddle
Clanna Morna - From The Lowlands To The High Seas (2023) Engineer
Cluny Macpherson - Instant Classic (2024) Engineer / Mixing / Producer / Fiddle / Guitar
Other albums recorded at Fiddlehead Studios:
Jenny Ritter – Bright Mainland (2012) – Engineered by Adrian Dolan
Sweet Lowdown – May (2012) – Engineered by Adrian Dolan
Sweet Lowdown – Chasing The Sun (2014)- Engineered by Adrian Dolan
The Bills – Trail of Tales (2016) – Engineered by Adrian Dolan
West My Friend – Quiet Hum (2016) – Engineered by David Travers-Smith