Adrian Hall
Grammy-Nominated Mixing Engineer
Bio
SAE London Audio Production alumnus Adrian Hall has established a remarkable, decades-long career as a mixer, engineer, and producer, working with some of the world’s most influential artists and contributing to Grammy-nominated projects from his London studio.
Graduating in 1997, Adrian stepped straight into the heart of the UK’s recording industry. He began freelancing as an assistant across several London studios before securing a full-time role at the renowned Metropolis Studios: a position that became the foundation of his professional life. From 1997 to 2004, he assisted on an extraordinary array of sessions, observing world-class engineers and witnessing moments most people only dream of: Mick Jagger recording vocals, Jeff Beck tracking guitar, and sessions with legendary artists including The Clash, Michael Jackson, Ian Brown, and Ray Davies.
As his experience grew, Adrian transitioned from assistant to engineer, taking the lead on sessions with global stars such as Britney Spears, Shakira, The Black Eyed Peas, and Ray Davies. In 2004, he moved into full-time freelance work – a step that opened the door to a diverse client base ranging from household names to emerging talent.
Today, Adrian is best known for his work as a mixer, operating from his purpose-built garden studio equipped with a dedicated vocal booth. While much of his work is now remote, he continues to enjoy returning to large-format commercial studios, especially for full-band tracking sessions. His career has also taken him around the world, adding a global dimension to his projects and collaborations.
One of Adrian’s proudest achievements is the long-standing creative partnership he has built with Tori Amos, who is an artist he admired long before they met professionally. Having mixed her recent run of albums, Adrian cites this collaboration as a highlight of his career. Their most recent release has received a Grammy nomination, marking Adrian’s first association with a Grammy-nominated project and a milestone he describes as particularly meaningful.
Adrian credits SAE London for providing the technical grounding that helped him enter high-level studio environments with confidence. At a time when few institutions offered hands-on training with both Neve and SSL consoles, thus SAE equipped him with knowledge of the industry’s leading desks and skills that translated directly into his early opportunities at Metropolis and beyond.
“Learning on the same consoles used in the top studios meant I could walk in on day one and focus on everything else a session demands,” Adrian reflects. “It gave me a real head start.”
His advice for future SAE students is:
“Keep learning. Stay adaptable. Every studio, every artist, and every song requires something different. The more open you are to what each session teaches you, the stronger and more resilient your craft becomes.”
Study Audio production at SAE
At SAE, our Audio Production Degree can help students learn the latest production skills and techniques to further their careers.
Our course encourages students to adopt a future-facing mindset where they are keen to understand more about how innovation and technology will shape the industry and their work.
