SOUND ON SOUND
The art of music production lies in serving the song — and working with James Taylor, Dave O’Donnell felt that modern production trends would hinder his aim of capturing emotive performances.
Mix engineers have a huge role to play in modern record production; but what does it take to turn a collection of raw tracks into a chart-topping single? In a major new SOS series, specialist mixers will be showing us exactly how they use the tricks of their trade.
Phil Tan, one of the leading mix engineers specialising in urban music, dissects his mixes for two worldwide hit singles from Rihanna: the apty-named 'SOS' and 'Unfaithful'.
John Legend's silky, R&B-tinged sound has revitalised soul music. Mix engineer Tony Maserati explains how he crafted that sound for Legend's hit 'Save Room'.
A combination of technical wizardry and old-school craft helped Bernie Herms and Andy Selby bring Josh Groban’s Broadway album to life.
Despite recording mainly live, Arcade Fire spent more than a year recording Reflektor. It was up to Korey Richey and Mark Lawson to get the results to tape.
Beyoncé's second solo album, B'Day, has yielded two of the biggest singles of the year. Jason Goldstein tells us how he put together hit mixes for 'Déjà Vu' and 'Irreplaceable'.
With its 150-plus tracks encompassing everything from a marching band to a children's choir, it took a special talent to craft a hard-hitting, radio-friendly mix from My Chemical Romance's 'Welcome To The Black Parade'. Enter Chris Lord-Alge...
'Hips Don't Lie', by Shakira and Wyclef Jean, is indisputably the biggest single of the 21st Century so far. Engineer Serge Tsai was the man who brought together many diverse elements to create a colossal hit.
Megastar Justin Timberlake shot back into the charts last year with 'Sexyback', a hugely successful — and highly unusual — collaboration with hot-shot producer Timbaland. Jimmy Douglass was behind the desk.
