Niko Lyras

Audio engineer, producer and musician

Niko Lyras
Stellar sounding, world class plug ins for every mixing and mastering task imaginable. By far my favorite, go-to tools since I discovered them! MeldaProduction plugins have made it easier to achieve what I hear in my head.

Growing up in Athens, Greece, Niko Lyras played guitar in local rock bands and signed his first record deal at 17. Convinced that music was his career, he moved to the U.S. two years later and settled in Memphis, Tennessee, home of the soulful music he loved. Through his college years, Niko established himself in the local music community, playing everything from straight-ahead jazz to rock and R&B.


He opened Cotton Row Recording in 1980, steadily building a reputation as one of the city’s top studios for both emerging and established artists. Over the years, Niko has engineered, produced, and played guitar on hundreds of projects at Cotton Row and other studios in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

The walls of his Cotton Row studio are lined with the covers of albums recorded there, representing virtually every musical genre, from contemporary jazz artists to bluesmen like Albert Collins and Luther Allison, rockers like Roxy Blue and Saliva, gospel artists like Edwin Hawkins and the Clark Sisters, contemporary rappers like Three Six Mafia and Lil Jon, etc.


Niko’s musical and production talents have also been heard in major motion pictures and television shows, with music recorded both in his studio and live on location. His work has been widely honored by his peers, including a BMI songwriting award, a Critics Choice award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Canadian Juno and Felix awards, a Stellar award, three NARAS Premier Player honors and four Addy awards.


From his home base at Cotton Row, Niko continues to produce, engineer, run three music publishing companies, and stay busy as a studio and live guitarist. He performs with the instrumental group The Justus Brothers, and produced the band’s nationally-charting album on Memphis International Records. Other releases of his work include two smooth jazz albums by his instrumental group Voodoo Village on the 40 West label and a solo album, “Chunk Of Space Funk”, on Icehouse Records, featuring guest performances by Victor Wooten, Futureman, JD Blair, Eric Gales, MonoNeon, and Wendy Moten.



Partial recording credits:


BLUES

B.B.King,John Lee Hooker,Ruth Brown,Buddy Guy,Albert Collins,Little Milton,Luther,Allison,Gary Moore,Bobby “Blue” Bland,Jimmy Vaughn,Eric Gales,Keb’ Mo,Koko Taylor, Coco Montoya,Lonnie Brooks,Ronnie Baker Brooks,Eddy Clearwater,Bonnie Raitt


SOUL/R&B

Al Green,Eddie Floyd,Rufus Thomas, Isaac Hayes,The Bar Kays,Mavis Staples,Ike Turner,Duck Dunn (Booker T. & The M.G.’s, The Blues Brothers),The Roots,Wendy Moten


ROCK/POP

Z.Z. Top,Saliva,Roxy Blue,Foghat


GOSPEL

Edwin Hawkins,Walter Hawkins,The Clark Sisters,Dottie Peoples


JAZZ

Najee,Kirk Whalum,Victor Wooten


HIP-HOP/RAP

P. Diddy,Three 6 Mafia,Lil Jon,Raekwon,Krayzybone,Hot Boys,Eightball & MJG,Al Kapone,


INTERNATIONAL

Jim Corcoran (Quebec),Diane Tell (France),Sylvie Tremblay (Quebec),Omadiki Apodrasi (Greece),George Trandalides Global Vision (Greece),Craig David (England)


FILM/TV

Hustle & Flow (Paramount),Big Bad Love (IFC Films),Foreign Student (Universal),A Pyromaniac's Love Story (Hollywood/ Disney),The Ref (Touchstone),Going to California (Showtime),Soul Comes Home (PBS)


CORPORATE & JINGLES

International Paper Pepsi Cola Shearing Plough Federal Express Memphis Grizzlies Autozone Kansas City Royals Sam’s Town Harrah’s 

Niko Lyras recommends

MDynamicsMB

"MDynamicsMB is a powerful mastering plug in, as well as a general purpose mixing tool, bringing details to the surface and adding punch & definition."

MCabinet

Unique

"MCabinet comes to thee rescue any time guitar and bass tracks can use a bit of extra character."

MDistortionMB

"When it comes to guitar tone shaping, MeldaProduction’s MTurboAmp and MDistortionMB are at the top of my go-to list. Whether I’m looking for some extra body and definition, fusion style overdrive, blues bite or heavy distortion, I can start out with one of the on board presets and get there quickly."

MBassador

Unique

"MBassador is my new secret weapon for low end bigness."

MAutoDynamicEq

Unique

"MAutoDynamicEq is my quick fix any time two tracks have competing common frequencies (kick and bass, guitar and voc, etc.)."

MBitFun

Free

"MBitFun is great for adding subtle to outrageous distortion to drums, vocals, synths and anything else that can use a bit of delicious weirdness."

MConvolutionMB

"MConvolutionMB’s powerful filtering and volume controls let me widen and spread tracks beyond traditional reverb."

MDoubleTracker

Unique

"MDoubleTracker gives me the thickening I’ve always heard in my head but was unable to get with other doublers."

MTurboAmp

Unique
New

"When it comes to guitar tone shaping, MeldaProduction’s MTurboAmp and MDistortionMB are at the top of my go-to list. Whether I’m looking for some extra body and definition, fusion style overdrive, blues bite or heavy distortion, I can start out with one of the on board presets and get there quickly."

MLimiterMB

"In the industry’s brave new world, I master my own mixes more often than not. To that end, multiband limiter is a favorite secret weapon, especially when it comes to hard hitting content. It allows me to increase loudness by flattening the spectrum without any noticeable distortion."

MStereoExpander

Free

"When I’m looking for a bit broader stereo image, MStereoExpander gives me width I didn’t have before, with spatial clarity and harmonic richness, and without compromising my mix’s original texture."

MStereoSpread

Unique

"MStereoSpread has become a permanent fixture on my master bus, giving my mixes a bit extra 3D vibe."

MUnison

Unique

"MUnison is a high quality doubler-detuner. Its detailed controls over formant shift and detune shaping allow me to dial in the right amount of thickening to monophonic tracks such as vocals, synth lines and guitar solos."


Miklos Malek
← Miklos Malek
I use a lot of Melda Plugins, and this is not advertisement as I bought them for the full price. I must say, all of them are of the highest quality, but there are a few magical plugins that I can neither replace nor live without.
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Dutch trio blending incredible sound design with unrelenting and uncompromising beats and basslines.
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