Mixing / Production

By the time you read this, he could be clutching his first Oscar for his soundtrack for the historic blockbuster Elizabeth. David Hirschfelder discourses with Richard Buskin about the art, science and pyschology of scoring for the moving image.

Every week, BBC1's new Saturday night show Get Your Act Together takes an aspiring singer or group and attempts to transform their musc, image and performace, to turn them into true professionals — in two days. Among the eminent record producers chosen to work their magic on these acts is Steve Levine, who talks to Sam Inglis about the unique challenges involved.

Seven years ago, teacher, musician and engineer Howard Turner transformed himself into The Studio Wizard and placed an ad offering his services as studio trouble shooter and consultant. It worked like a charm...

A co-founder of US electro-pioneers Information Society, Paul Robb recently scored the new movie form the creators of South Park. He has a new band signed to Virgin and a dance side-project, yet still manages to write award-winning music for TV. Sam Molineaux joins him and his various alter egos in his new Los Angeles studio, Digitalis.

The Cardigans are the biggest thing to come out of Sweden since, er, Ace Of Base, and their recent hit 'My Favourite Game' represented a successful change of musical direction. Sue Sillitoe tracks down their regular producer Tore Johansson in his Country Hell studio to talk about how the song was put together. Reasearch by Matt Bell.

Paul Tingen catches up with the musical innovator and legendary force behind BeBop Deluxe at his minimalist home studio, and finds him producing more music than ever before.

It was the best-selling single of last year, and signalled a radical change of musical direction for Cher — complete with bizarre vocal processing. Yet, surprisingly, it was produced in a small studio in West London. Sue Sillitoe relates the astonishing tale of 'Believe'.

It's ever SOS reader's dream to make a record at home and have it go straight into the top five. David Lowe tells Paul White how it's done.

The Honeyz are a new R&B act, but behind the smash success of their debut single 'Finally Found' sits a familiar figure — Culture Club producer Steve Levine. Matt Bell dissects the track, and finds out how it was put together in Steve's compact digital home studio.

More than 15 years after the release of their last album The Hunter, the four original members of Blondie are about to make a comeback with a brand-new album due out early in the new year. Long-time friend and producer Craig Leon tells Sue Sillitoe how this latest offering was recorded.

Boss of the highly successful and determindly independent Mute Records, Daniel Miller is one of the UK music industry's unsung stars. Bill Bruce celebrates 20 years of Mute with the man himself, looking back on such highlights as his work with Depeche Mode — and takes a rare tour of Miller's superb home studio.

Sue Sillitoe meets the producers of Robbie Williams' 1998 number one hit to find out how it was put together. Additional material by Matt Bell.

His music for the futuristic shoot-'em-up Mech Warrior 2 earned him cult status and a heap of 'Best Music' accolades from computer magazines. Now Bruce Willis stars in his latest project. Sam Molineaux loads her tape machine and hunts out Jeehun Hwang in the City of Angels.

It's the dream of many an SOS reader to have a multimillion-selling worldwide hit with a track recorded in your bedroom — but as Crewe-based Dario G found out, it can create more problems than it solves. Matt Bell finds out how the group came through the turbulent waters of success to produce a fine debut album.

David Ferguson has worked his way up from sampling hoovers on tape to an enviable position as a highly sought-after TV composer. Debbie Poyser & Derek Johnson discovers how he managed it, and find out his views on the way the music-for-TV industry is developing.

Are programmers musicians? Marius de Vries certainly thinks so, and he's better qualified than most to air an opinion. Paul Tingen meets the man who's lent his talents to everyone from Madonna to Massive Attack.

Sam Molineaux discovers an early techno pioneer thriving in the heart of Hollywood; living proof of the maxim 'what goes around comes around'.

In pop music, production partnerships are pretty rare — especially ones as successful and long-standing as that between Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley.

Although Craig Armstrong has been building strong writing and arranging credits since the start of the '90s with such artists as Massive Attack, Madonna, Suede and U2, it's only in recent months that he's come to the fore as a solo artist in his own right, with his new album The Space Between Us. Paul Tingen notches up some Frequent Flyer miles to talk to him.

English electronic duo Mono are virtually unknown in the UK, but are in big demand in the USA, thanks to their single 'Life In Mono' being used as the main theme to the film of Great Expectations. US-based English writer Sam Molineaux talks technical to Mono's musical mainstay Martin Vergo, and provides the perfect perspective on the disparity between their British and Stateside success so far.

Acclaimed producer Mike Hedges has filled his studio with equipment that is almost as antique as the ancient French chateau that houses it. Paul Tingen catches up with a man who's far from manic but quite ready to preach the virtues of analogue.