Australians love to claim the best New Zealanders as our own, case in point is Senior Mixer Neil McIntosh.

I got into the sound industry after a mis-spent youth playing in bands and hanging around studios in NZ, I moved to Sydney and got a job building and wiring up studios, then building and installing ADX chase synchronisers.

My first post production job was resyncing Nagra rushes to picture, and laying up sound fx (back when Sound Design was called Tracklaying…) with a cart machine and the new state of the art Atari St computer.

I was lucky enough to spend many years learning my craft at the old Channel 7 facility, which was still fully analogue, with wall to wall Neve gear (not a virtual knob in sight!)

It was a great place to learn about location and studio recording, as well as mixing.That was where I discovered the digital age, using AMS AudioFile workstations, back when they cost more than a mortgage.

My most memorable project was with Rob Carlton on the Chandon Pictures series. Working with someone as nice and as as creative as Rob is always a pleasure.

If I wasn’t in this industry I would be bumming around in the Greek islands and probably drinking too much.

If I could have worked on any soundtrack in history, I could go with the popular choice being Blade Runner, which was also a revelation to me in the use of music and sound, but I think I’d go with either Castaway, or Dances with Wolves. Any film with enough space in the mix to hear the wind is good with me.

And the best advice I’ve been given is be kind to those you meet on the way up, you never know who you’re going to meet on the way back down.