Alan Whelan commenced his working life at the age of 18, one month after finishing secondary school.
He started his apprenticeship at Starc Studios in Dublin. It was here that he initiated his training in sound engineering under the tuition of the late Alan Connaughton. Alan Whelan trained in all areas of sound including the technical aspects of maintenance, wiring, installations, sound proofing and sound theory.
Alan soon became the main house engineer at Starc, recording music for some of the foremost artists in Ireland. During his time at Starc, Alan also gained a wealth of experience in PR and Promotion, Artist Management, Recording and Publishing Contracts, and Music Industry legalities. He also acted as booking agent with Starc Records.
After seven years with Starc, in 1996 Alan decided to go freelance. During this time he worked on many projects in some of the bigger studios in Ireland.
After three years as a freelance engineer, Alan, now at the age of 27, opened his first business, Solitaire Recording Studio Ltd in Dublin in 1999.
The studio relocated to it’s current premises in 2004.
In the summer of 2009, the studio celebrated its 10th year in business and saw a major equipment upgrade to keep up with the best of current technology. The studio has had several upgrades over the years and all equipment is maintained, serviced a calibrated on a regular basis.
Since Alan started his career, he has worked both as Engineer and/or Producer on hundreds of multi platinum selling albums for various record companies and artists.
The studio has now been in operation for 22 years and continues to turn out world class recordings to this day. Work has diversified to include music, podcasts, mobile recording, mixing and mastering and also 6.1 surround mixing.