Mixing / Production

Roger Linn's name may be forever associated with the birth of the first serious, sample-based drum machine in 1979, but now, after years away from instrument design, he's back with a new guitar-oriented product offering rhythmic filter effects.

The Wavestation can prove extremely frustrating to use, but can produce sounds that are almost impossible to recreate on any other instrument. So here's some hands-on advice for getting the best from Korg's Wavestation series of synthesizers.

It's one thing to make music in your bedroom, quite another to run a successful record label from it. No wonder Mike Paradinas doesn't get much time to tidy up...

Once Rob Davis was a pop star himself with Mud. Now his songs have taken Kylie Minogue and Sophie Ellis-Bextor to the top of the charts.

The Strokes' Is This It was many critics' choice for the best album of 2001, and has gone platinum in the UK. Remarkably, it was recorded in a basic New York project studio by a then-unknown producer.

UK garage is the biggest underground dance music phenomenon for years, and has taken London collective So Solid Crew to the top of the charts. Crew member Swiss talks to SOS about their approach to production.

One-time SOS writer Mark Cunningham hadn't produced an album for almost 10 years — until a soulful ex-prisoner inspired him to get back behind the desk...

In this final part of our series, we look at how the major project studio-oriented MIDI + Audio sequencers (DAWs) currently handle surround.

Recorded on eight-track cassette, cLOUDDEAD's extraordinary debut album is an object lesson in lo-fi production and the creative use of budget equipment.

Abbey Road's famous Studio One has played host to innumerable big-budget orchestral recordings for film, but the final session before its refurbishment in 2001 saw it being used for a new purpose: to record the soundtrack for a video game.

As someone who's been hugely successful both in his native Britain and his adopted home of the USA, producer Peter Collins has a uniquely international perspective on record production.

We hear from more surround producers working at very different ends of the music business to see how they've created working surround systems, and how they make use of 5.1 at the mixing stage.

Software samplers are revolutionising studio recording, but can they replace their hardware counterparts in live performance? Jazz keyboardist Django Bates is in the process of finding out...

The flexibility of the effects assignment in modern MIDI + Audio sequencers (DAWs) can be daunting, so here's some advice on how to sort out the routing and order of your plug-ins for common recording and mixing tasks.

Try these tips and techniques for creating more convincing programmed rhythm parts in your sequencer.

Our series turns to the practicalities of setting up your own surround-capable recording system, and we talk to two radically different surround studios to see how they've coped — one at project- and one at pro-studio level.

Among his many credits as an engineer, producer, programmer and artist, Jon Astley is perhaps best known for his award-winning work remastering classic albums from the likes of The Who, Abba and George Harrison.

Super Furry Animals' recent album Rings Around The World is one of the first to be released in a custom-mixed 5.1 surround version for DVD as well as on stereo CD. Keyboard player Cian Ciárán explains how and why they embarked on this groundbreaking project.

BT revitalised the sound of boy band N'Sync, composed some of the most radical soundtracks to appear in mainstream films, and has a good claim to have invented trance. And he still finds time to talk to SOS...

The 'producers' producer', the 'guitarists' guitarist': Jay Graydon is back, with a new album and a renewed hunger for success. Always the consummate studio craftsman, when he talks technique, it's worth listening...

In recent years, Dublin has become one of Europe's hottest centres for pop production, and Biffco Productions are one of the top hitmaking teams who've made their home there.