Neal Avron (born December 31, 1965) is an American musician, record producer, mixer, and audio engineer. Working predominately in rock music, Avron began working on records in 1993 and achieved his production breakthrough when he co-produced Everclear's 1997 album So Much for the Afterglow. Avron went on to produce/mix a string of successful albums from the likes of Switchfoot, New Found Glory, Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, Weezer, You Me at Six and Anberlin.
Avron created headlines in 2010 when he mixed and/or produced each debuting number one album on the Billboard 200 for three consecutive weeks; Disturbed's Asylum, Sara Bareilles' Kaleidoscope Heart, and Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns. Avron later garnered recognition for his production work by receiving a Grammy Award nomination for Sara Bareilles' single "King of Anything" under the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance category.
Avron is noted for having particular recording techniques, believing that pre-production is essential before entering a recording studio. When recording, he prefers to lay down the drums and rhythm guitar first, as opposed to the conventional method of bass guitar and drums. Avron has noted, "Over the years I've had issues with recording bass first, especially when someone is hitting the strings really hard. For me it's difficult to tell whether the bass is in tune, because the fundamental is so low. When laying the rhythm guitars down first, it's much easier to tell whether the bass is out of tune or not. It also means that the bass has a place to fit."