This is not a full time job, rather VERY part time.

Great session with Paul in the Pool Studio (Thanks to Miloco) yesterday recording the songs that he has been performing live. Just Vocal and Electric Guitar. A real session with filming (videoing?) too. Coming your way soon we hope.

I know I keep banging on about this month's thrill - coming out of the box for the Sons and Daughters record. So I thought I would explain my thinking (and feeling). The project was beautifully recorded onto "One Inch" 16 track Analogue Tape. I wanted to integrate my usual "In the Box" mixing method into the whole process. I have fallen in love with the working method of setting up mixes and adjusting them later after input from Band, Producer, Record Company. Letting the mixes grow and be inspired by different tunes and mixes across the album is a method I really value, as a way of navigating the route to the best possible result, especially when I am not mixing the whole time with the band.

So I put together a "white room" for a month at Strongroom, initially with my rig, Apogee Ensemble and Metric Halo ULN-8 convertors, and a rented Fat Bustard. This has enabled me to work alone, and with Scott from Sons and Daughters and Keith (the producer). Recall on the Fat Bustard is very simple (most of the controls are notched), and everything else is recalled with the session and so the album has been taking shape nicely.

Finally I have rented an Ampex ATR 102 for a day at the very end of the session, so when all the mixes are approved I shall be able to print the whole album to half inch tape at 30 ips, as well as back into Logic at 96k.

I came out the box for the Sons and Daughters LP Mix, and it was a new experience for me. I have successfully tracked in the past with my ULN-8 and my Ensemble at 44.1k so I was hoping for a simple and stable solution again - though this project was 96k. I had quite a few problems - interfaces not being recognised, terrible glitchy audio, no audio, Logic complaining about wrong sample rate and more. I had to replace the firmware on the ULN-8 and the Ensemble although both were already at latest firmware and latest drivers when I started the project, it seemed they became corrupted. Shutdowns did not always solve the problem, and though I was enjoying the project, the music, the audio and the challenge I found it very frustrating at times, and wondered if my system would be more stable with 2 Ensembles or 2 ULN-8s instead (though I would still have to aggregate). I also considered (and am still very interested in) a non aggregate 16 output system using an Aurora 8 hooked up to my ULN-8.

After reinstalling the firmware on the Ensemble I followed the instructions exactly and switched on the computer before powering up the Interface. This made me think that switch on order might be important, so from then on I booted the computer before switching on any Audio Interfaces. This seems to work very much better, and now my system seems to be stable and very useable.

A short video of me with Emmy the Great in Red Bull Studio

I write about my attempts to get a great sounding mix (in German). Here.

Had fun mixing an LP for Noam Rotem at The Crescent. Stormy in London, Sunny in Tel Aviv. Communicating with Dropbox and Skype.

I take part in the series. Trailer here

Recording Finished. Pop Up Studio dismantled. Mixing next month.

2 weeks into recording and everything sounding fresh and exciting. Next week - vocals, acoustic guitars, strings and final percussion plus a couple of electric guitars. Then mix!

Footage of our De-Re-Construction Time Again event on youtube

Photo by Britt

I have had the pleasure of mixing Sleepy Sun's live version of The Chain recorded at ATP vs The Fans last year.

Gotta Love It


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Alphaville: Interesting afternoon in the studio with Marian and Martin working on arrangements and vocals for a new song. Replacing, reducing, editing, enhancing, focusing. Enjoyed supper afterwards in Teddington. Followed by a good phone conversation with Pete, (who is currently in NY) about ideas and ways of working. .

Enjoyed a great day in the Limehouse Studios with Wild Palms recording A and B sides for a single.
Pics.

Mackintosh Braun Mixing is now underway. Uploads of multitracks to iDisk working fine. Laying out songs into Logic.

I want to use cloned drives in a drive bay so that I can easily replace the drives in my Mac Pro (if/when they go down) and just carry on working - without having to bother with a restore. I’ve had a very helpful exchange of eMails with David Schachtner at OWC, and settles on this solution for now. I also bought this cool dock bundle

Had a fun and productive afternoon in their beautiful studio with dEUS.



More pics here

Novation Launchpad arriving tomorrow! :-) I like the look of that.

Planning the mix of a couple of tracks for Missing Traces. Waiting for parts.

Finishing tweaks of Panico LP

I was invited to British Grove Studios to be one of many judges for the MPG awards 2010. It was a really interesting and challenging experience. I took some pics.

Veckatimest (which I mixed) is a Rough Trade Album of the Year

We Have Band give away an mp3 of Honey Trap (mix and additional production by me).
Available here

“Modern Drift” a taster of the new Efterklang album, “Magic Chairs”, available here.

My Mix. Check it out!

Next week I am mixing an album for Panico. They have been recording in Glasgow and Paris. I shall be mixing in London. The parts for the first song have arrived.

Had an interesting visit to Assault and Battery. The evening was introduced by a couple of REAL professionals - Flood and Alan Moulder - both looking well and relaxed (and younger than I remember!)
Nick Young followed with an overview of the Miloco empire and then Jim Motley from SSL gave an interesting talk about the history of the company, as well as a slick demo of the Matrix.

Very interesting interview with Flood and Alan here

HTRK parts have arrived for a single mix next week.

Off to Paris for a couple of days in rehearsal with Panico. Then they record in Glasgow and I mix later in November.

After a month in Strongroom and an intensive 4 days with Mads tweaking (and the rest of the band all listening remotely via uploads) the new Efterklang LP is pretty much ready for Mastering at Sterling Sound with Greg Calbi

Gliss LP 'Devotion Implosion" released in UK this week. Mixed by me and mastered by Greg at Sterling.

Awarded a “Golden Ear” at Sound Edit 2009 in Łódż
for “Visionary and Pioneering Solutions in Music Production”

Grizzly Bear “Veckatimest” debuts at #8 in Billboard Chart. Mixed by me and mastered by Greg at Sterling.

The track I made with SCUM - Warsaw Signal - is No 1 in the list of 10 tracks you have to hear according to NME this week.