Quality Sound Matters

It's pretty cool being asked to write about your opinion on a subject for the trade press. It is even cooler when you get a call from The Grammy folk and ask you if it's ok for them to post your piece on their Quality Sound Matters website. So, here it is people. Hope you enjoy the read.

Couple more things to report on.

Work on Mo Michael's album is rolling along nicely. In the mean time, Mo, film maker extra-ordinaire Jon Klein and myself holed up at RAK studio 2 for the day to film Mo perform 4 of his songs...Live. No overdubs, No trickery! Here's the first one for you.

Mo Michael performs his song Moses Jones Live at Rak Studios.

Lastly, it is with great pleasure and humility that I report that yours truly has been nominated for Studio Engineer Of The Year in the Focusrite sponsored Pro Sound News Awards this year. Fingers crossed.

Wesonator Interview

George Shilling & RecordProduction visited The Wesonator at Dean Street Studios, London, to find out more about his escape from Belgium to the production Metropolis of London and get a little insight in to his recording and production techniques.

Thank you Mike Banks for the filming, editing and amazing photography. And thanks Debs Skeldon from Big Sound PR  and Lise Regan at Dean St. for making this happen.

Check out some more of the fab photos Mike Banks took.

PHOTO GALLERY OF WES MAEBE PICURES THAT MIKE TOOK AT DEAN STREET

Wesonator Snacks, Fresh From The Sonic Cuisine

Let's start with the big snack first. I've been keeping quiet about this since we started recording, dropping occasional studio pics from the session, but now, it's official. The record is out and the lovely Jen at Trinifold gave me my copy yesterday when the band took to the stage at Kew The Music.

It all started when Trish at RAK studios called me in to record. When I asked her what the project was, she told me it was Ali Campbell from UB40. Cool! It only got better from there on. Turns out it's Ali, Astro and Mickey back together again and we were going to record some of their hits in acoustic format. They guys were joined by Winston Delandro on guitars, Paul Slowly on percussion and the amazing Matt Hoy on BVs. 

We set up in my fave RAK studio 2 and went on to record the full album in 3 days! I got even more excited when I was asked back to mix the record. We decided to stay in studio 2 so I could mix on the wonderful API console everything had been recorded through and after two days the entire record was done and dusted.

Mastering was set to happen at Metropolis and I had a blast putting the finishing touches to this work with Hippy Baldwin.

UB40 are the most amazing guys to work with and Ali, wow, what a voice! All it took was a great vintage Neumann U47 and a 70's era API mic pre and wallop, there it was: UB40.

If you want to hear the band, up close and personal, give this one a spin. 

Just a quick shout out to a few extra people who made this one happen: Thanks Trish for trusting me with the boys. Scott, Mike and Dave at Advanced Audio Microphones for introducing me to your mics. The CM67se and CM49 are all over this one. They even feature on the front cover artwork! Dennis Weinreich for the loan of your AKG The Tube. Max for being thrown in at the deep end as my assistant :-) and finally, Ali, Astro, Mickey, Matt, Winston and Slowly for being the coolest cats ever.

In the mean time I ended up in the gorgeous chapel at Royal Holloway in Egham to record the film score for Fiona Howe's new film and I spent a wonderful three days at The Park Studios in Wembley recording an EP for the very talented Georgia Nevada.  Mixing for that session has started and we have a few more overdubs to do. I'll keep you posted on that project as it comes along.

As per usual we'll finish up this news update with some Sonic Cuisine gear updates.

There are some new hard and software units gracing the room: Meris 440 mic pre, Drawmer 1960, Focusrite 3, Solo Dallas The Schaffer Replica (Thanks Goose & Fil), Moog MF-Trem, Roland Dimension D, A Cranesong Insigna, and a pair of Dynaudio BM5A MKIII on IsoAcoustics stands. Software newcomers: UAD Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, UAD Dangerous BAX EQ, UAD API Vision Channel Strip, Cranesong Phoenix & Peacock, Dave Hill Designs RA II. 

They're all looking forward to working on your new material.

See you on the other side of the glass.

Wesonator - Sonic Cuisine Update

Hi everybody,

This is a long overdue news update from the Sonic Cuisine.

Things have been crazy busy since the last February news feed so, there's a lot to talk about.  A  wide variety of musicians and musical styles have graced the faders in the last couple of months. I'm just putting the finishing mastering touches to  "The New Lady Radnor Suite" album I recorded with Fiona Bennett in the wonderful British Grove Studio 1. One Fiona is obviously not enough for the Sonic Cuisine and we're wrapping up Fiona Howe's album " Mermaid's Work". 

From two classical albums, I moved right into some cool rock 'n roll with Elliott Randall. We're working our way through the instrumentation for a very cool track indeed. It's an exciting track we rescued from a reel of 2" and it features an amazing singer ;-)

In the mean time my work with Mo Michael has been rolling along nicely and we have a full album's worth of material. The fab Gloria Nuti has been back with a couple of tracks and keeping that European vibe going, Italian fronted Delta Unit punk power house have an album on the boil too. A couple more mixes and a few vocals to go.

The last moth I've spent a lot of time in my favourite  RAK studio 2, recording a very special album in three days and mixing it in two! I then went off to record a fab track with the lovely Debi Doss, record a world premier of a new musical written by Mike Reed and John Theakston and then straight back into RAK for another marathon with the amazingly talented Albert Man & His Band. We recorded 14 songs in three days. Old school man.

On the writing front Audio Media published my article about Mastered For iTunes, the Cranesong Insigna review for which I also wrote the user manual.

And to finish it all off, I received great news from Debs at Big Sound PR that I am a Pro Sound News Awards finalist for Studio Engineer of the Year. Fingers crossed.

Launch Your Recording Project pt.1

Hey all, 

Here's a quick update from the most recent Tannoy newsletter. Some common sense tips and tricks for spending your recording budgets wisely and how to go about picking a recording environment that best suits your needs.

Enjoy.