Ken Scott at Abbey Road Studios talking with Russ Cottier about drum microphone placement

Part Two of our exclusive video interview with legendary recording engineer and producer Ken Scott shot at Abbey Road Studios with Russell Cottier asking the questions.

In this second part we asked Ken about his microphone choices and placement when recording drums and came back to making decisions as you go along when recording and how important good monitoring is.

Come back just before Christmas for the third part of our interview!

 

WATCH PART TWO OF THE INTERVIEW
RECORDED AT ABBEY ROAD

Last Week’s Part One is here 

 

 

Ken Scott’s video guide of how to record and mix drums for students and engineers is a superb DVD pack. Find out more about the EDU version by clicking here!  Its videos cover everything from basic mic techniques to mixing and everything in between. Ken walks you through the recording process and on the second disk you get to play with the drum tracks that he recorded so that you can understand how he does things.

Special thanks to Ken for giving up so much time and to everyone at Abbey Road but we’d like to mention Mirek Styles, Colette Barber and Simon Campbell for their help in making this possible! We would also like to give special thanks to Russell Cottier  for coming all the way from Liverpool to record the interview!

Come back just before Christmas for Part Three!

ken scott epik drums sample library

OTHER EXCLUSIVE KEN SCOTT VIDEO FEATURES

Watch Ken recording the Epik Drums Samples (5 Videos)

Watch Ken talking in an interview with Nijel Jopson at Abbey Road

 

Ken Scott is a legendary British recording engineer and producer who recorded The Beatles, David Bowie, Elton John, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Billy Cobham, Duran Duran, Dixie Dregs, Missing Persons, Devo, Lou Reed, America, George Harrison and many other iconic artists in music history. He had his start in the 60’s working as a Tape Operator at Abbey Road Studios and from there went on to engineer and produce some of the most acclaimed albums of the 20th Century. Ken has recorded timeless songs such as “I Am The Walrus”, “Rocket Man”, “Ziggy Stardust”, “Dreamer”, “Walk On The Wild Side” and many others. One of the unique aspects of Ken’s career in music is the diversity of iconic styles he has been a part of from the 60’s to today.

“EpiK DrumS – A Ken Scott Collection” is a Sonic Reality virtual instrument/plug-in for drum kits and grooves with the authentic sound and feel of timeless classic albums. Expanding the Drum Masters series with high resolution vintage drum sounds, EpiK DrumS features drum kits and grooves of 5 of the world’s best drummers all recorded and mixed by legendary producer/engineer Ken Scott.

In this first massive volume from the Ken Scott Collection, Ken has recreated the drum sounds in the style of multi-track studio sessions he recorded with David Bowie, Supertramp, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dixie Dregs, Missing Persons, Elton John and The Beatles. These authentic classic sounds were achieved by using the same rare recording equipment, drum kits, percussion and expert technical assistance from Ross Garfield “The Drum Doctor”, advanced programming by Sonic Reality and collaboration with the original legendary drummers Bill Cobham, Terry Bozzio, Woody Woodmansey, Bob Siebenberg and Rod Morgenstein. All together it is one the most EPIK productions ever done for a software drum and groove instrument.

ISBN 10: 0739080881
ISBN 13: 9780739080887
PRICE: $29.99
 

Jake Jackson at the mixing desk at Air Studios

George Shilling took some time out of his holiday and visited Jake Jackson at Air Studios with the camera crew in August 2011 to find out how he has got on since winning the ‘Breakthrough Engineer’ award at The Music Producers Guild (MPG) Awards at the end of 2010.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH JAKE’S VIDEO FEATURE

Jake joined Air Studios in 1998 working on sessions with some of the most acclaimed composers in the world, now a freelance engineer in his own right, he is first choice for many composers because of his reputation as an excellent orchestral and band recording and mix engineer.

Encompassing all recording genres, his work includes, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis’s score to The Road, which he produced, recorded and mixed, and A R Rahman’s 127 hours. He has worked with Murray Gold for the last three years and their work together includes the scores for Doctor Who.

Browse our Gallery of Jake Jackson Photos that we took at Air Studios

 

dimitri tikovoi record producer in his recording studio london uk

George Shilling visited Parisian born and classically trained Dimitri Tikovoi with the camera crew to talk with Dimitri who has recently produced records for Rosie Oddie fronted band Oddysey and a beautifully crafted sonic masterpeice for The Irrepressibles.
Dimitri also recently produced tracks for The Young Knives and The Pangs. Apart from putting the finishing touches to his own very solo project Trash Palace, Dimitri is currently writing with Spanish diva Lantana, Sophie Ellis Bextor, new tracks for the face of Maxfactor Maya of Soho Dollsand the incredibly talented and new Atlantic signing Charli XCX.
Recently Dimitri has written with Maximals, Placebo and is currently co-writing and producing an album for Nicola Roberts of Girls Aloud. This video is copyright, please don’t copy or re-upload to other sites. To view you’ll need Quick Time installed and a fast internet connection.
 

We have wanted to interview Simon Efemey for years and at long last caught up with him at the lovely Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire.  The video runs for 10 minutes and you will need to have Quick Time installed and a fast web connection.

Click here to watch the video

rock record producer simon efemey video interview

 

Marc Joy talks record production with producer Fran Ashcroft at Ariel Studios UK

Marc Joy took time out of his session at Aerial Studios near Wrexham, UK, to talk about production with Fran Ashcroft.

Marc has a lot of experience working in live sound and has worked with Wishbone Ash, Eric Bell (Thin Lizzy) The Vibrators and more. He also has built up a large following for his mastering work over the last three years and has been doing a lot of work for Creation Records, Oasis, Bernard Butler, Primal Scream and lot’s more not to mention his mastering The Saturdays debut album which gets a few mentions in the video.

In the Studio, producing and engineering, Marc has been working with Tim and Sam’s Band, Matt Johnson from One True Voice, Mike Peters, Phil Daniels and recently on a film sound track for a new film based on The Alarm, “Vinyl,” Staring Phil Daniels and Kieth Allen.”

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

 

 

Recently Fay Hield invited us into her beautiful family home to talk about production of her new album ‘Looking Glass’ and her academic work on traditional music with Russell Cottier. The video is in Quick Time 7 or above format and requires a pretty fast internet connection to view.  The video is HERE

fay hield talks on camera with russell cottier about record production

 

Fay Hield began her singing life in the lively music scene around the Famous Bacca Pipes Folk Club in Keighley. She was instrumental in launching the Haworth Arts Festival and the Three’s Company folk promotions organisation, and performed as half of a highly-regarded duo with Damien Barber. During her time at Newcastle she formed the female a cappella quartet The Witches Of Elswick. The Witches recorded two acclaimed CDs — Out Of Bed, (Fellside) and Hell’s Belles (Selwyn Music) — in their four years together, as well as clocking up numerous radio broadcasts (including a spot on Woman’s Hour). Their true habitat, however, was in live performance, and they blazed their progress around the folk club and festival circuits.

After a year or two off the folk radar, during which she researched her PhD thesis and discovered motherhood, Fay returned to public view via occasional performances with partner Jon Boden. By this time she and Jon had fetched up on the moorland fringes of Sheffield where they run two clubs gaining national recognition – Royal Traditions (Dungworth) and Bright Phoebus (Sheffield centre).

In 2009 a new concert line-up with Rob Harbron (English Acoustic Collective) and Sam Sweeney (Bellowhead) was established, built around a striking repertoire of often obscure material drawn from rarely-thumbed collections. This spicy stew of songs and ballads, catches and caprices is showcased on her debut solo CD – Looking Glass, released September 2010 on the prestigious Topic Records.

Instrumentation includes fiddles, concertina, nyckelharpa, and guitar.  The sound is at once crafty and nimble, airy and graceful, full of zest and nuance, sensitive to the tradition yet utterly distinctive. Fay leads with a voice whose rough edges are still thrillingly intact, and which goes straight to the living heart of the songs.

The video is HERE

Fay’s website

soundpost.org.uk

brightphoebus.com

royaltraditions.co.uk

afolksongaday.com

jonboden.com

samsweeneymusic.com

www.robertharbron.co.uk