We are delighted to feature ace recording engineer Guy Massey in a video interview with Nigel Jopson shot during a break from recording the Coral at London’s RAK Studios.
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Guy Massey did his apprenticeship at one of the most prestigious studios in the world – Abbey Road – and is one of the most sought after recording engineers around. Guy Massey combines time engineering for producers like Dave Eringa, Steve Osborne, Mike Hedges and Gil Norton on projects ranging from MANIC STREET PREACHERS to BRENDAN BENSON, SPIRITUALIZED and IN CASE OF FIRE with recording directly with bands on his own.
Recent recording credits in his own right include THE CORAL, STEPHEN FRETWELL, THE BEES, DIVINE COMEDY and DAVID VINER. Production credits also include tracks on JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD’s “The Great Western” LP and DIVINE COMEDY’s “Victory For The Comic Muse”.
Doug Trantow kindly gave up an hour at the amazing LA Sound Gallery Studios to talk about his career. Doug’s worked on a very diverse range of projects including:
Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Sugar Ray, Tracy Chapman, Hanson, Nanci Griffith, Hootie and the Blowfish, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and he has been also working with film and TV soundtracks including CSI Miami. You don’t get a credit list like that without good reason and we were delighted to spend an hour chatting about how Doug got started right through to his latest projects.
We hope that you enjoy this feature and get in contact with Doug to meet up and work with him on your next project!
Special thanks to Doug for his time, everyone at LA Sound Gallery Studios and to Johnny Jaskot of Babblefish.com for the lighting, sound and much more!
Doug has a website so probably best to contact him that way.
David Pye has engineered countless independent release for bands and recently he has worked with Wild Beasts, Faithless, Dido, Pete Lawrie, Sargasso Trio, The Crimea, Fever Fever, and Teenage Fanclub as well as working closely with producer Rollo Armstrong on many different projects.
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This video is COPYRIGHT RECORDPRODUCTION.COM
As you will see by watching the video with ace interviewer George Shilling, David aims to deliver lifelike, true, and natural yet unique sounds with a leaning towards live performance and fast working. He is currently working alongside Richard Formby at Bryn Derwen Studios on the next album by Wild Beasts.
Watch the video feature with ace record producer Chris Sheldon at London’s Kore Recording Studios.
Chris Sheldon is one of the most talented and nicest people that you could meet and maybe that is one of the reasons that he’s so in demand as a producer. Chris has produced a huge number of records with names like the Foo Fighters, My Vitreol, Anthrax, Shed Seven, Terrorvision etc etc…
Tony Faulkner is one of Europe’s best known orchestral recording engineers and we are delighted to at long last, after many years of trying, bring an interview with Tony talking about his mic placement techniques. We met up with Tony at his house and sat down in the kitchen to chat. George Shilling fired the questions.
Tony’s Green Room Productions enjoys an excellent profile for recording classical music. ‘South Pacific’ to Mahler 2, from Hildegarde von Bingen to Saint-Saëns Piano Concertos, from Górecki’s Third Symphony to Medtner solo piano music Tony has produced award winning and best selling recordings using all formats from PCM and DSD to live webcasts and audiophile analogue.
Gary Langan, record producer, artist and recording engineer, is simply in a class apart. From his earliest days as a rookie at SARM Studios, Gary’s work has always stood out. We caught up with Gary at Metropolis Studios, London.
Gary’s recording career began as an assistant engineer at SARM Studios where he worked closely with founder and renowned producer Gary Lyons, his first and foremost tutor, Mike Stone, Roy Thomas Baker and the interminable Trevor Horn.
Starting out as a tea boy /runner, Gary’s enthusiasm soon saw him progress to an assistant on a variety of hit albums including Bay City Rollers’ “Rollin”, Queens “News of the World” and “Day at the Races” and was present to witness the first edited playback of the timeless Bohemian Rhapsody (which many will know was constructed in three sections due to its length and complexity).
During his time at SARM, Gary worked on many classic recordings including Lexicon Of Love, ABC and Yes and has been instrumental in creating numerous hit records including UK number ones for Spandau Ballet, the Boomtown Rats’ hit album “Rat Trap” and The Buggles’ “Video Kills The Radio Star” – for which he received the NME Engineer Of The Year Award. Gary also worked and appeared on Malcolm Maclaren’s 1982 album “Duck Rock”.
Gary was also a founder member of the ground-breaking group, Art of Noise who were the first to use the revolutionary Fairlight CMI Sampler noise to create listenable, popular, dance music – resulting in numerous hits including Tom Jones’ rebirth hit “Kiss”, the Max Headroom experience with “Paranoimia,” and, most notably, a Grammy Award for the cover of the Peter Gunn theme on the “Visible Silence” album. This was a personal landmark for Gary as well as the music industry in general as it broke new barriers in the academy’s awards due to it being, a. instrumental and b. A piece of urban music created by white musicians, which became hugely popular in the urban markets.
In 1983 Gary, alongside Carey Taylor and ex SARM studio manager Karin Clayton formed One Management, which looked after the interests of various engineers/producers/keyboard programmers, before founding the illustrious Metropolis Studios in Chiswick two years later. Gary spent a year seeking the best staff across the board, from engineers and management to maintenance and service to make Metropolis the UK’s premier studio and, with working relationships based on respect and trust, the Metropolis engineers were encouraged to push their work as far as they could – further than they may have had the freedom to do at the other studios of the time.
Alongside his Metropolis business commitments, Gary continued to engineer, produce and mix albums and singles for a variety of top artists including Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Scritty Politti, Public Image, Billy Idol and Spandau Ballet – who he became close working allies with, producing four of their five albums.
The nineties saw Gary venture onto the international stage with a spell in the States working with a selection of producers including Jon Carin, of Pink Flloyd fame, and mixing Billy Idol’s hit album “Whiplash Smile”, and in Europe working with The Stranglers’ Hugh Cornwell on “Wild” before teaming up with Chris Hughes (better known as Merrick, the drummer and Producer for Adam and the Ants and Co-producer and drummer with Tears for Fears) for a variety of projects including albums for Propaganda and Gay Dad.
The late nineties saw Gary enlisted by SSL to lecture on the use of their consoles to Japanese studio staff and students in Tokyo. Gary highlights this as a great experience, which allowed him to pass on his skills to those as passionate as himself as well as forging strong links within the Japanese market. The international links paid off with Gary teaming up with Personzs, a very successful Japanese group, enabling mixes for a selection of albums over the years in London, NY and Tokyo.
Present day and Gary has just completed 5.1 mixes for the Spandau Ballet DVD “Live (at the NEC)” and Jeff Wayne’s epic – ‘War of the Worlds’ as well as albums for James “Pleased To Meet You” – working alongside legendary producer Brian Eno, Wild’s debut album “Time” (EMI Classical new signing and brainchild of impresario Mel Bush). Gary was also once-again reunited with Trevor Horn for Lisa Stansfield’s sophisticated new album “The Moment” and the soundtrack for the remake of cartoon classic Magic Roundabout, whilst also finding time to record singles for hotly tipped London rock act Rooster’s self-titled debut album and work with PSII on the research and development of new game “Play Mix”.
The War of the Worlds is described, in Gary’s own words, as “An original masterpiece of epic proportions” and due to the depth of Jeff Wayne’s 1978 original composition there has been no stone unturned in the production of the 5.1 version, “The complexity of the original meant it was one of those definitive albums made for 5.1 mixing.” (WOTW is released by Sony Music on 6 July 2005).
Gary is represented by Karen Goodman at Upfront Management.
Credits include: artist – album – role
Rooster Singles Eng.
Lisa Stansfield (ZTT) The Moment Mix
Natalie Imbruglia (BMG) Album & LP Tracks Rec.
Magic Roundabout Soundtrack Rec.
Dina Carroll (Mercury) Someone Like You (from Bridget Jones) Mix
Dina Carroll (Mercury) All I Ask LP track Mix
James (Mercury) Album & LP Eng
Naimee Coleman (EMI) My Star – LP tracks Mix
Yum (Sony) Forthcoming album & LP Mix
Gay Dad (London) Leisure Noise LP Rec./Mix
Republica (Deconstruction) Single: Pretty Girl Hate Mix
Archive (Independiente) Take My Head LP Rec.
Bullyrag (Mercury) Songs Of Praise LP Rec./Mix
The Aloof (East West) Seeking Pleasure LP Rec./Mix
Big Country (Castle) Eclectic LP Prod.
Voice of the Beehive (London) Honey Lingers LP Prod.
Hothouse Flowers (London) Home LP Prod.
Public Image Ltd (Virgin) Don’t Ask Me EP Prod.
Then Jericho (MCA) The Big Area LP Prod.
Hipsway (Columbia) The Honeythief LP Prod
Public Image Ltd (Virgin) Happy? LP Prod.
Belouis Some (Capitol) Animal Magic LP Prod.
Divinyls (Chrysalis) What a Life LP Prod.
Hipsway (Columbia) Hipsway LP Prod.
Spandau Ballet (Epic) Through the Barricades LP Prod. /Eng.
The The (Epic) The Mercy Beat Single Prod.
The The (Epic) Angels Of Deception Single Prod.
The Dream Academy (Warner’s) The Dream Academy LP Prod.
ABC (Mercury) That Was Then… Single Prod.
R.P.M. (Warner Brothers) Photogenic LP Prod.
ABC (Mercury) Beauty Stab LP Prod. /Eng.
My Life Story (Parlophone) The Golden Mile LP Prod.
Big Country (Castle) Brighton Rock LP Prod. / Eng
ABC (Phonogram) Lexicon Of Love LP Rec. /Mix
Dream Academy (Warner Music) Life In A Northern Town LP Prod.
Hugh Cornwell (Pheonix Records) Wired LP Prod.
The Divinyls (EMI) What A Life! LP Prod.
T’Pau (Circa) Bridge Of Spies LP Prod.
Mick Jagger (EMI) It’s Raining Single Mix
Mick Jagger (Emi) Ruthless People Single Mix
Scritti Politti (Virgin) Hypnotise Single Mix
Jimmy Somerville (London) You Make Me Feel Single Mix
Propaganda (ZTT) Secret Wish LP Rec./ Mix
P. McCartney & M. Jackson (Sony) The Man Single Mix
Yes (Atlantic) 90215 LP Rec./ Mix
Billy Idol (Chrysalis) Whiplash Smile Single Mix
Queen (EMI) Day at The Races LP Rec.
Malcolm McClaren (Charisma) Duck Rock LP Rec.
Buggles (Island) Age Of Plastic LP Rec.
Elton John & Kiki Dee (Rocket) Don’t Go Breaking My Heart Single Rec.
Art Of Noise (ZTT) Who’s Afraid Of… LP Artist /Prod/Eng.
Art Of Noise (China) Invisible Silence LP Artist /Prod/Eng.
Spandau Ballet (Epic) Heart Like The Sky LP Prod. / Eng.
Scritti Politti (Virgin) Absolute Single Mix
Jimmy Somerville (London) Read My Lips Single Mix
Special thanks to Scott Mathews for the kind use of his music and to George Shilling for asking the questions. Many thanks to Gary Langan for giving his time and to Zen at Resolution Magazine for helping tie things up.
