Producing music has always been Steven's passion. When Steven intuitively set up his dad's karate equipment as his first drum set at age 7, his musician dad recognized the potential in his young son and brought home a real drum set. With his uncle, an accomplished pianist, and his dad, a seasoned bass guitarist, Steven was immersed in music. In 2000, he formed the alternative rock band, Internal Defect.
For six years, Internal Defect proved to be a wonderful introduction into the business and creation of music. Touring Arizona and California gained the band a following that allowed the release of their first album to become a profitable endeavor. While achieving this momentum, Steven acquired invaluable knowledge of marketing, public relations, tech writing, performance royalty organizations, copywriting, publishing, merchandizing, and the organizing live productions. He also developed a passion for production and engineering, as he felt that the quality of the sound greatly affected the experience of the listener.
Despite growing success, Internal Defect parted ways in 2006 - but Steven took with him the valuable lessons of how to make music collaboratively and profitably. Empowered by this knowledge and experience, he continued pursuit of a lifelong career in music. He learned to produce and engineer his own music from a small home studio setup and began writing on piano, synthesizers, bass, and guitar. To expand his knowledge base, Steven consulted with and learned from every audio engineer that he could.
In 2009, Steven built a much larger studio inside of his new home, working on his own collaborative projects and taking on clients. Still, with a regular day job, he could only produce and engineer from his home on a part-time basis. Thus, in 2011, Steven quit his job and sold his home to fund a new partnership with his great friend, Tom, at TallCat Studios LLC.
Steven was a music producer with TallCat Studios for more than three years, where he provided a variety of professional audio services for radio, television, film and both live and recorded music. Steven's portfolio of clients includes ABC's The Bachelor, Muscle Milk, Toyota, Honda, The Phoenix Suns, DB Rich Productions, Walt Disney Pictures, PBS, Esteban, Super Bowl Gospel Show, Gladys Knight, Anthony Hamilton, The Makai Souljahz, Hanna Mrozack, Gadiel Rodarte, Rocc Replay, Radio Blonde, Adam Esrick, @DJDonnieSix, Opytimsytical, Plant Sounds, Hidden Seasons, Noise Boys, Aeoliah, Olatunde, Austin Carthell, Pamela Williams, Jonathan Akre, Max Weinman, and many, many more. Steven was awarded the 2016 People's Choice Silver Telly Award for recording, mixing and mastering as well as in 2021, a Gold Telly Award for live audio capture.
Steven is currently working independently from his newly built home studio in Phoenix, Arizona. Please call or send an email to start your project.
Hi Everyone! Please leave me your feedback here! Thank you! -Steve
Greetings!
I’m a recording artist/producer/emmc/music enthusiast. I have been creating and recording my own music for over 10 years now. As I’ve used many programs to produce and record with, Pro Tools has been by far the most efficient and proficient in quality and sound compositions in my opinion! I’ve been using Protools for about 6 years now! I have bought bibles also watched countless tutorials. I thought knew a lot! Until I met Steve the “Pro Tools Mentor” turns out there was so much more I needed to know! I was stuck and at the point considering classes or just hiring and engineer to record me. I’m a very self assertive person so doing things on my own gives me better grad faction. I actually was contacted by Steve 2 years prior to come record in a studio he worked in at the time. I ended up loosing track of his info but luckily found it. I called Steve to discuss booking time when we started talking he basically informed that he was a mentor and works from home and will come to your home to teach you what you want know! I was instantly intrigued because I’ve never heard of anyone doing something like that. I met Steve at Tall Cat studios in PHX where he took me through a tour of the studio and explained the different hard/software consoles and equipment and a what they did! My knowledge instantly grew! I realized the sound I was trying to achieve I was never going to get unless I had that set up! Steve said “wait” I will show you how to get there, the best way possible with you already have! To me that was all I needed to hear to consider hiring Steve as my mentor! He came to my house he started teaching how to build a proper session use “sends” and parallel tracks aux, midi, vocal and instrument tracks. He showed me how to set tempo to use effects also save everything to external disc and get the best performance out of your computer! He also helped find a new laptop that runs my studio top notch! I hope everyone could gain something from this and learn for yourself how make the sound you want!
If you’re adamant about punctuality, integrity and quality service at a feasible price, Steve is the go-to guy. In my brief experience working with him, I have had the pleasure of going through equipment assembly, Ableton and Pro Tools instruction and valuable consultation pertaining to how my technical and creative abilities can converge and develop in the future. Steve has a genuine concern for what it is I want to achieve and he has an impressive sense of flexibility that enables him to contribute his wide range of expertise to even the most random and specific quirks of my workflow. He truly does enhance, teach and inspire and anybody who works with him will be investing in progress and tangible results. I am yet to meet an expert who breaks things down and translates complex technological specifications into understandable practices that can cater to established and aspiring musicians/composers/producers so efficiently.
Steve Burns not only set me on the path to professionally mixing and engineering my music, his philosophical approach provided amazing insight, helping me embrace my compositions and stay true to my vision. With an ear typically reserved for dogs and Kryptonians, his production advice has been invaluable and I like the fact that Steve is a musician himself, something you don’t always find in a producer. I believe this makes him infinitely more relatable. My songwriting has improved greatly, he helped me dial in and record better guitar tones and made my “tinny” digital drums sound acoustic and huge. And, thank the lord, he’s patient.
Steve Burns is a highly talented, knowledgeable pro I’d recommend for everything from producer to instructor to session drummer. I believe he has the potential to do great things in this industry.
Hello! My name is James Robertson, and I recorded a Christmas CD at TallCat Studios and Mr. Burns was instrumental in producing. He also played drums on the CD and I am very pleased with the final results, and I would recommend Mr. Burns to do any producing that you might need. If you need a drummer, he is available for that, and he was very knowledgeable with the recording, editing and mixing. I am very very pleased that he made this CD come to life.
Steve is easy to work with. He’s got a highly trained ear for hearing all the little nuances that are so important to a great sound. He doesn’t just settle for good, he’s looking for great in the recording and production. Want a killer radio ready song from scratch, Burns is your guy. I love what he gets out of my vocals. Butter! When I’m in AZ, Steve is who I record with.
I met Steve a couple years ago. I am an amateur keyboardist who had basically gone as far as I could by myself. I wanted to see what somebody else could do to take my music to the next level. Without having any musical background, education, or even musical vocabulary it was intimidating trying to find somebody that I could work with. I immediately felt comfortable with Steve. At first it was difficult trying to describe exactly what I was looking to do with the sounds that I had. Steve was an absolute gentleman as he was extremely patient. He was more than willing to give me the time that I felt I needed for each track. He has completed close to 15 songs for me. I am very happy with the outcome and the entire process. Steve is very organized. I could tell he made every effort to be flexible with the schedule. I believe he is fair when it comes to the cost of production and engineering. He was also able to fix some computer issues we had. He’s very familiar with ProTools and Ableton. I have great confidence in Steve. I plan on using him for my future productions. His willingness and love for music make him a pleasure to work with.
Hi! Steve is a very multi-talented musician as he is a talented producer. I’m actually recording an EP with him and couldn’t be doing it without him. Just his intuition and vision is incredible. I would totally recommend him to anyone looking for great advice, insight, producing, and/ or musician!!
Working with Steve was an enriching and wonderful experience for all of our group. Steve was able to adapt his studio and work approach to the needs of our Voces Unidas choir: a choir for Hispanics with Parkinson’s disease and their care partners at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center. None of the choir members had never been in a recording studio before, but Steve made them feel comfortable with his patience, knowledge and professionalism. The quality of his work is reflected in the CD and DVD that he produced for us “Parkinson’s Voices”. One of the songs included in the CD, written by songwriter and singer Jose Maria Lobo for our choir, is now competing at an international event: the World Parkinson’s Congress 2016! Thanks so much Steve!”
-Claudia Martinez
Hispanic Outreach Coordinator Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center