| ON LINE MIXING/MASTERING/FREE CONSULTATION/MUSIC FOR MEDIA/LOCATION RECORDING

Don’t do it

•February 24, 2013 • 6 Comments

I bang on about not having much time to do stuff I want or need to do. So as I draw closer to finishing the studio, I thought it might be a good idea to beat myself up about the mistakes I’ve made along the way that’s cost me time.. hopefully you might learn what not to do…….

I always knew I wanted a ‘proper’ mixing desk.. and as such I built the worktop around that…..around the desk I eventually got, actually: an 80 cm depth of worktop to take the desk.

What I forgot about, or chose to not think about, was the need for patchbays and the fact you need extra rackspace for it.

Before getting the desk, I built a couple of racks for my outboard…and didn’t particularly think about where to put them… really stupid! Luckily, I’d included a cupboard I’d built for some in/out trays… and with a little modification that did the trick.. swallowed everything pretty perfectly….. hindsight , though, leads me to advise you, potential studio builders, to just build as little as you can, til you get ALL the bits…..

I replaced some shelving, too….the ones I built were OK…. but I wanted some thinner ones, and IKEA started this modular system… cheap and perfect….again, I wish I’d finished the main bits before shelving it.

So… I find myself saying ‘nearly finished’ over and over and over.. popping out to finish a job, then finding another to start, but providing the desk connections all work (I almost daren’t test the patchbay!) all I have left to do is complete sawing up some speaker shelf supports, then do a flipping good hoover, wipe down and I’m done. Ready for use….

I’ll leave you with this.. ace b-side of New Order’s Fine Time..

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Tags: allen and heath, arm your ears, john meredith, new order, sabre

Feb update

•February 10, 2013 • 1 Comment

Sporadic blogging, as ever… Not through lack of good stuff to write about, but through a lack of time and it not being on my list of things to do.

So, I finished mixing an EP by the Daydream Club. That was a real treat…… Adam from the band is quite the organised creative! : excellent to mix as everything was so well recorded and edited , it felt very much like old fashioned mixing where you’re not spending time tuning and cleaning up timing , you’re just balancing.
The mix head I had on was very much about balance and light compression/dynamic control…..kind of a 70s feel. I used the newish Waves tape simulator a fair few times…. Sounded especially good on the drum buss, fact fans.
Lots of tweaks later via email lists , the 5 tracks were completed and they’ve gone to U2′s mastering engineer … Really can’t wait for that result. The EP should take the band a long way….. Ace songs and brilliant arrangements, and lovely people.

Studio: desks now in place. Blanking plate sprayed… I went through 3 different greys… still cant get one the same grey as the other channels but it looks good as is.

Holds my Macbook, control interface and MIDI keyboard, with space to spare. Wired everything up last night…. Now need to label and test it all and have a big tidy up! Had to adapt layout of studio to get patch bays in…. Space is at a premium already!

Other news, I went to the Apple trainers conference. It’s been in Barcelona, Paris , Munich, Media City before… This one was in London….. I love going to this as its a great chance to talk to others from all round the world about problems they all face… And I learn loads. Highlight (other than the free bar!) was a Logic geek Toby Pitman ….. Dead interesting : he was on the music team for the closing ceremony for the Olympics ( with David Arnold) … Went through some advanced Logic stuff and told us what happened with Paul McCartneys fluffed intro!

The ‘big project’ is trickling along nicely… 6 months off to get into it would nice…..

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Tags: aatce, apple, arm your ears, john meredith, the daydream club

Stuff and nonsense

•January 12, 2013 • Leave a Comment

First week back at the mortgage paying thing I do, and my god I’m tired. Nice to see the rest of the team, and dare I say it, some of the students.

It’s been time to upgrade my Macbook Pro for a while and my new one arrived yesterday. I need to transfer all my shizzle over, and install all the stuff I need, upgrades etc… I shouldn’t moan: dead lucky to have the thing in the first place, but I’m not seeing a time where I can spend on it with concentration. Certain to have misplaced some install discs, I’m sure.

Had productive chats about the big project, and with baby steps that’s moving. Learning that good web people are much less reliable and findable than musicians!

Saying I was putting my ‘closed’ sign up on Arm Your Ears for a few months, a little something’s sneaked in. I’m doing a bit of mixing on the Daydream Club‘s new EP. Trialing a track and if it works out, will do the other 4 if I can work out the time. Really well produced, well recorded stuff and the lead track (called ‘Little Face’ ) is absolutely beautiful.

Studio wise, am waiting for the blanking plate for the Sabre.. should be a week for that. Just ordered 2 Neutrik patchbays, and looking for looms.

I’ve got to think about the racks I built for my gear.. maybe need to build 2u ones and spread them , or keep the 2 x 3 u ones I built and stand speakers on them.. maybe too high , though.. or maybe build new ones to put n the middle of the speaker shelf for the thin outboard (Drum and Bass Stations, MIDI interface and patchbays) and find another space for the deeper stuff.. TLA and Saffire.. hmm… lots of sitting there looking and thinking.

I intend to get a 23 inch Apple Cinema display down the line on an arm for the wall… so I need to work round that, too…. and there’s still drum machines and little keyboards I need to shelf up…. could do with a few months off!

..So what about Bowie’s single, then? Never been a huge fan, but what a masterstroke… pushing out a new single after 10 years away…how can anyone keep that level of secret anymore for 2 years?!

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Tags: arm your ears, john meredith, the daydream club

Another year

•December 30, 2012 • 2 Comments

2012 has been mainly about the studio. I spent (with some help from my amazing dad for water and electrics, Gary for plastering, and Nick for plasterboarding) converting the garage to a studio. I learned lots and lots and lots, but my god it was time consuming!

Still, I had time for music stuff, as ever. I mixed a couple of albums, mastered a few EPs and singles and albums, and squeezed in a handful of remixes.

Leaving 2012, the studio’s done except taking delivery of a new (well, 23 years old) mixing desk. The desk was always part of the plan, and the Sabre was my number one choice within budget and what I could do with it: its modular, so I’ve just removed 8 channels and 8 groups.. meaning I can , with a blanking plate, have my MIDI keyboard , Alphatrack and Macbook in the middle of the desk. Anyway, what you tend to forget with desks is, really you need patchbays, and for patchbays you need looms…. So that’s the next thing: to patch the whole thing up.

I digress. So, a busy year.

Good music this year? Enjoyed albums by The Shins (my god, ‘Simple Song’ is so ace), Grimes, Bat For Lashes, Saint Etienne, Magnetic Fields (sickly, but great), Jessie Ware, Hot Chip (hated it at the start, but grew on me lots), Pet Shop Boys (patchy), Richard Hawley , Sebastien Tellier, Tame Imapala and the XX.

Next Year, more of the same, but with a primary focus on ‘the biggie project’. Looking forwards to it.

Happy New Year

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Tags: arm your ears, john meredith

Such a Purfleet Day

•October 12, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Have been in Purfleet for a couple of days at the National Skills Academy’s new Backstage Centre : a massive purpose built production house for bands to use before they tour…. absolutely astounding in terms of scale.

Had a tour round the Royal Opera House Production facility, too: also, amazing.

Mid way through mixing the Refuge album.. single’s gone to be pressed (vinyl). Another week or two, then done.

I need a heater in the studio !

Oh, yes, and lovely Clive tuned the piano…. he’ll need to come back in a couple of months to raise it a little more, but it sounds lovely.

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Tags: arm your ears, backstage centre, john meredith, national skills academy, NSA, refuge

Oh dear

•September 23, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Ben mixing a single for a band called Refuge. It’s for a World Mental Health awareness campaign, apparently. Anyways, that’s in the bag: just got to master it. Pretty big mix: 14 brass tracks, same for string section, bass, drums, guitars x a million (ish) and vocals. Its the first time I’ve used an Exciter for ages… it counteracted the fact there was no under-snare mic, to to get the ghost note rattle popping through. Album mix to follow over next three weeks……and weirdly, am mixing everything then the drums ‘go on’ last… intrigued as to how that’ll work.

The soul/blues album I’ve been mastering’s now done: hats off to James from One Cure For Man for recording and mixing it ; sounds really good.. dead gutsy.
Mrs Ears bought a dear for the studio: like it?

In March I was asked to do a remix of I Am In Love’s single… it’s only just been released though. I knocked up a video for it, to.

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Tags: arm your ears, I am in love, james parkinson, one cure for man, palm, refuge, the rise and demise of john

Staple diet

•September 19, 2012 • Leave a Comment

… finished a pair of acoustic panels with a staple gun.. much tidier edges.

Look OK, and seem to do the job.

Studio needs a good tidy, but have lots of stuff on through October, an album to mix and the rest of the Summer Sundae stuff to get out of the way.. I imagine it’ll stay messy til then. Very much still finding my feet in the space, but really is starting to feel like home.