Mixing / Production

As well as playing with some of the biggest names in the field, Andy La Rocque has turned his Sonic Train Studios into a metal Mecca.

English‑born producer and mix engineer Warne Livesey has worked with a wide array of musical artists from Australian band Midnight Oil to Scottish pop‑rockers Deacon Blue to blue‑eyed soulster Paul Young.

Danny Harle has made a career out of taking pop music seriously, culminating in a key role on Dua Lipa’s hit album Radical Optimism.

Liverpool‑based Tarek Musa caught his first major break, circa 2016, as drummer and vocalist of Manchester band Spring King. Musa’s production career has since taken in the likes of Circa Waves, the Big Moon and Gengahr.

With a CV that includes Westworld, Game Of Thrones and Prison Break, Ramin Djawadi is one of the busiest composers in Hollywood.

What would you hear — and what might you learn — if eight top producers mixed the same project their own way?

Hit‑Boy’s freewheeling production style has made him one of the hottest producers in the USA.

Is it ever appropriate to place a limiter on a routing folder for specific parts prior to them hitting the final mix bus?

Back in SOS July 2011, Mike Shipley said this about the producer Mutt Lange: “With Mutt, we always have programmable equalisers where we can EQ every word..."

Where better to reinvent the hits of Swedish pop titans Roxette in Dolby Atmos than Stockholm’s legendary Atlantis Studios?

We’ve never had so much choice when it comes to the tools we use to make music — but it’s important that you can choose quickly, and with confidence.

Over the years, David Kosten has helped create many weird and wonderful sounds, and selects ‘Seal Jubilee’ by Bat For Lashes as a favourite.

Casisdead’s Famous Last Words may be one of the best British rap albums ever made — but actually making it was an epic challenge!

Growing up in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara, Eduardo De La Paz didn’t have many opportunities to learn the craft of recording and production. He has since made his own name as a formidable mixer, and in the process founded a studio.

Quite a few engineers who work with bands like driving their drum submix into fairly heavy compression, but whenever I try doing this it seems like I end up losing the low‑end weight from my kick drum...

When the opportunity came to work with his childhood heroes Judas Priest, Andy Sneap didn’t just engineer and produce — he also mixed, mastered, and became the band’s touring guitarist.

Can plug‑ins ever match the sound of outboard and an analogue console? Our unique comparison recreates a 48‑channel hardware mix using software alone.

If there’s one thing that engineers and producers need above all, it’s a good mentor and role model — and they don’t come much better than MPG Icon Alan Moulder.

Famed English producer and engineer John Leckie gives details about one of his most influential works, the mini‑album 25 O’Clock, a pastiche of ’60s psychedelia.

This cross‑platform pattern‑based music production environment puts the fun back into music making.

Hard work and a love of sampling have made FNZ the hottest production duo around.