Following on from our first recording masterclass, where James Towler took us through his live recording and live band in the studio recording methods, we have recorded a short follow on video at Steve Winwood’s studio. James also gives us a quick tour around the studio.
Click here to watch the video.
Right Said Fred
By Fran Ashcroft
A couple of weeks back I had the pleasure of working at Redchurch studios with the irrepressible, excellent Fred Baggs. Fred has a similar background to my own, and has produced some notable recordings in his own right (Mike – do a vid!), but on this session he’d be engineering for me. We spoke at length on the phone prior to recording about everything from sourcing tape to mic placement – the importance of preparation for a fast paced analogue session was certainly not lost on him.
The agenda was for two, back to back, one day tracking sessions. Neither band had recorded on tape before, so the musicians had to adopt a different way of working than they were used to – most of all playing together live, as a unit. No iso booths, no headphones. Performance is everything working like this, and as a producer you may have to use every trick in the book to achieve the right result. An often overlooked component is the power structure of a session.
Producers who are aware of this will exploit it for the good of the project, and the engineer is integral, in his unique position as buffer between producer and artist.
There’s no escaping the fact the a producer is an authority figure, so artists tend to look upon a friendly and accomodating engineer as an ally. He is perceived as a conduit by which a producer can be persuaded (though this is not true, ha ha!).
This artist / engineer dynamic is invaluable for defusing conflicts, and getting the most from a performer. A skilled producer knows this, cracking the whip at times – dumbkopf! – then letting the engineer offer comfort and reassurance. It’s a variation on the good cop / bad cop routine. I’m the bad cop, naturally.
Both bands were impressed by the rapport between Fred and myself and asked, “how long have you two been working together?”.
Since last Friday!
Towards the end of our sessions Fred said to me, “it’s been great working with you, really took the pressure off having to do everything myself”.
“Funny you should say that,” I replied, “I was just about to tell you the same thing…”
Phil Harding Producer/Engineer Video Interview at Strongroom Studios – Part One
At last. We are delighted to feature a brand new Phil Harding Video Interview. It’s been nearly 9 years since our last interview with Phil so this time we once again met up at Strongroom Studios in London to chat about Phil’s career and to find out more about the behind the scenes antics at PWL.
This first Part One will be followed next week with Part Two. Collect these features to create your own in depth Phil Harding video interview series! Complete your collection by subscribing to Resolution magazine to read the words and to soak up the amazing Phil Harding photographs taken by yours truly (available for your portrait sessions and weddings) 
This version is low rez, the full rez HiDef 50 minute version will be on the main site in a month’s time.
Of course there is far more to Phil than being one of the top guy’s at PWL so we also dug deep in to his recording and production career, right from the early days at Marquee Studios to the present day.
Phil has just published his self penned book about life on the factory floor at PWL so we urge you to clicky the link to Phil’s website to grab your copy now!!!
Special thanks to everyone at Strongroom Studios for their help and for the loan of the fab SSL studio and to ace reporter and producer George Shilling.
Seven-time Grammy Award Winning Mix Engineer Gustavo Celis has been nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for his work recording and mixing Mercedes Sosa’s Cantora 1. The mix was done by Celis at his own Elastic Mix Studios, in FT. Lauderdale, Florida.
“Mercedes was the one of the most unique voices in the Latin world and participating in this record was an exceptional experience I will tresure all my life. The song “La Maza” is one of my favorite songs in the Spanish language and having Mercedes and Shakira perform it together was such a treat. A great moment in Latin music. We may never see Mercedes again but her unforgettable voice will forever resonate”
- Gustavo Celis
Cantora 1 is nominated in the categories of Album Of The Year, Best Folklore Album and Best Package Design at the 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards.
Find more videos like this on RecordProduction
For the full sized video and for further information about Dave Rideau please visit this page.
Who is Chris Lord Alge? Rather than troll through the zillions of Google results on the Chris Lord Alge search and then finding that most of the results are duplicates of eachother (are people that lazy or is the web full of text replacation robots?) sit back and enjoy our exclusive epic 40 minute video interview (conversation really) with Nigel Jopson to find out all about the man and the techniques and why a dinner bell comes in handy on a mix.
