He Did It! By George He Did It!
Mixing for UB40
Wow! It's been quite a roller coaster since the last May update.
My gorgeous RAK Studios family in London (Happy 40th Birthday by the way) has kept me very busy indeed. Producer Kevin Bacon and I spent a glorious 4 days in Studio 1 where we teamed up with the Burberry crew to record George Cosby, Fenne Lily, Ten Tonnes, Rosie Carney in a very special way. Our session was topped off with a fabulous day of recording the amazing Ben Taylor. To engineer this collection of great music and hear it back in quad on B&W 802 and 805 speakers was truly magical. I mixed all the songs down to stereo and they are all available from British speaker manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins' Society of Sound.
Sessions that followed included recording drums for a few of the songs on Celine Dion's "Encore Un Soir", strings and brass for Patricia Kaas, strings for Thomas David, backing vocals for Marti Pellow's new record, pretty much every percussion instrument you can think of for Pete Tong's "Classic House" album and a record with my Newbay Media buddy and experimental music guru, Gino Robair, featuring Tania Chen on prepared piano, David Toop on various electronics and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore on guitar.
Wholegrain Digital Systems invited me to demo the Quartet and Trio Dynamic EQ plug ins at the IMSTA conference which took place at SAE NYC. Before heading Stateside, I had two recording sessions and a mix to complete. The mix was so much fun. Tony Moore asked me to mix one of my new favourite artist's songs. Ilona and Tony had been touring in the States and recorded a new song in Nashville and had to have it mixed asap. So into the Sonic Cuisine we dove, pushed the faders up, got the tubes hot and finished Ilona's "Love's Out The Window" and it hit the airwaves the day after I mastered it. I then headed into the Goldsmith's College studio with RAIE to record three of her new songs after which I went straight back into RAK Studio 1 to record the songs to complete UB40's new album. We recorded and mixed both tracks, sent them off to mastering, the band went back on tour and I got on a plane to the Big Apple.
Little did I know, when I landed at JFK I got the call that I'd won the Pro Sound Award for Studio Engineer of the Year! So honoured. Thank you everyone for the votes and undying gratitude to all the artists who've allowed me to work on their music with them. without you this would not have been possible.
IMSTA in NY was a blast! All the manufacturers had their own little production suites and I got a lot of talking done! Sitting down with Duane the designer is always fun as you learn something new about this SUPER EQ which in turn lead to me being able to provide more in depth and kick ass demos for the visitors.
Debbie joined me shortly after and we spent a couple of days in Manhattan catching up with friends and watching the debate in utter disbelief. But hey, the pizza was great!
The plan was then to head on up to the Cape, spend a few days there and then explore Martha's Vineyard. En route on I-95 I got a call from Ben Taylor on the Vineyard, to tell me to hop on the ferry and come on over early to record some tunes.
Well, that's what we did. After an almost too hot time in NY, Martha's Vineyard welcomed us with foggy, wet and yet lusciously green weather. The next week was spent exploring the island, sampling the clam chowder and recording in one of the most magical places on earth. The vibe was truly stunning. The amazing colours of the leaves beginning to change, the house which is just divine and then Ben on vocal and guitar, Sophie on vocals and Wurly, John Forté on percussion, guitar and vocals and Ben's mom on vocals of course. What a week. I really did not want to leave.
Upon our return, it was pretty much immediately to the RAK 40th Anniversary party and then straight back into RAK Studio 3, driving the NEVE for Mo Michael. We recorded 8 songs in two days all thanks to the great talents that are John Bleaze (Drums & Perc), Winston Blisset (Bass), Elliott Randall (Guitar) and of course the man himself, Mo Michael on vocals and guitar.
The Sonic Cuisine hasn't been quiet either, I've just finished mastering a live album for Midge Ure, started a new mix for the wonderful Erin Dickins, and of course work is starting on the RAIE and Mo Michael mixes.
Oh and before I forget, Dave Hill's Solaris D/A by Cranesong , for which I had the pleasure of writing the manual, is officially available. Check it out, the sound will astound you.
Keep it coming folks. See you on the other side (or the same side) of the glass.
P.S. In case you missed it, here's a link to the Audio Media review I did of the Tegeler Audio Manufaktur Creme.
