If you've been enjoying the recent releases of Dream Theater and Rush, a driving force behind the sound of those projects is one of the hottest engineers around today: Richard Chycki. Richard is a multi-platinum engineer and mixer whose clients include such rock royalty as Rush, Aerosmith, Dream Theater, Skillet, Mick Jagger and many more.
Chycki has an uncanny knack for making rock tracks both hard-hitting and hit-radio-friendly. “I’m a music fan, first and foremost,” he says. “I have to be drawn to the personae, the songs, the sound and the excitement. Good music is good music, regardless of genre.”
Chycki began his engineering journey as a guitar player, working in studios in Toronto, Canada. He relocated to Los Angeles, recording and mixing in some of the world’s finest studios like Ocean Way, Henson, Capitol, and The Record Plant. He subsequently added artists like Pink, Seal, Shawn Colvin and Dolores O’Riordan from The Cranberries to his resumé. While he currently uses Toronto as his home base, Chycki’s client list keeps him in the USA and Europe.
Known for his pioneering mix work in 5.1 surround, prog icons Rush entrusted Chycki to remix the multi- million selling 2112, their career pinnacle Moving Pictures, as well as A Farewell To Kings, Signals, Snakes & Arrows and Fly By Night in surround. In fact, 24 of Rush’s last 26 gold and platinum awards in North America over the past 9 years have been given to him recognizing his surround mix work on their live DVDs. While rock acts Dream Theater, Skillet, Simple Plan and Our Lady Peace have also tapped his surround mix talents, other genres have caught word, most notably for DVD releases with P. Diddy/ Tyrese/Shaggy and Sean Paul.
Richard’s approach to album-making scores strong support from the artists. In a recent interview John Petrucci, Dream Theater says of Richard, “He's got a great attitude; he's hysterically funny, so there was a light atmosphere in the studio ... and I think that contributed to the kind of album that came out ...” He adds, “He has so much experience as a producer and an engineer and mixer ... he worked harder than I've ever seen anyone work in the studio."
On working with engineer Richard Chycki, Rush’s Alex Lifeson has said, “Rich is very settled in with the way that he hears the band .... [He] is such a great engineer.” And Neil Peart has said, “I have never enjoyed the recording process so much, nor been so satisfied with the results.”
Richard has recently recorded and mixed Dream Theater’s The Astonishing – a double CD rock opus following their 2013 grammy-nominated ‘Dream Theater’ album for Roadrunner Records. The Astonishing entered at #1 on Billboard’s Rock Radio chart and scored Top 5 in rock markets worldwide.
