Dallas Clarke was virtually raised in a recording studio. As a child, he was surrounded by guitars and amplifiers and microphones — and electrical wiring, the crucial element that would lead to his career as an audio technician.
“I’ve always been fascinated by electricity and its connection to recorded music,” he says, reclining in his busy workshop in Glen Waverley.
For Dallas, it is a place of imagination, just like it was for Geppetto, the creator of Pinocchio. Some suggest that Dallas breathes life into dormant metallic objects, much as Geppetto gave life to Pinocchio from a piece of wood.
Dallas’s father nurtured that audio interest. Bruce Clarke O.A.M was a renowned composer and guitarist who initially worked with studio legend Bill Armstrong to produce high quality themes and jingles for early television and radio. He hired his own orchestra and later bought his own studio where Dallas would ask lots of questions and annoy the sound engineers. He was fascinated that the cables and wires he held in his child hands could contain a world of music. That early interest kickstarted a long career.
By the age of 12, he understood the subtle characteristics of a microphone when heard through a mixing board. Microphones were not just microphones, as amplifiers are not just amplifiers; they could actually subtly alter the sound of
