Recording

We visit another group of enterprising SOS readers: TMS (which stands for The Musical Shed) is a six-man business partnership producing hip-hop and garage music for white-label release.

Over the years, Iceland has produced more than its fair share of innovative, experimental pop music. The country's latest hot exports, Sigur Ros, are currently recording an album in a disused swimming pool...

What can you do when you've reached the limits of technical innovation? According to Garbage, the answer is to go back to the basics of songwriting.

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...

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.

This month's Readerzone doesn't have a home studio at all, but instead has chosen to concentrate on location recording — and with his modest Portastudio-based setup he's achieving a degree of local success.

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...

Richard Buskin talks with two of Sweden's hottest writer-producers about their ongoing work as part of the Murlyn Music Group, including recent hit recordings by Jennifer Lopez, Samantha Mumba and Jessica Simpson.

How do you follow 10 years in The Prodigy, one of the most successful bands of the last decade? By recording a solo album in an outhouse adjoining a disused windmill, naturally. Matt Bell meets former Firestarter Leeroy Thornhill and his studio designer Joe Morena to discuss the making of a recording facility in a former double garage.

More and more musicians are trying to escape the sterile confines of modern commercial studios in favour of their own creative environments. Brendan Perry's highly individual recording space is uniquely suited to his eclectic style, as John Walden reports.

Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and that was certainly the case when Gregg Jackman decided to find a better way of recording string sections playing loud rock concerts. Hugh Robjohns talks to this inventive recording engineer.

How can an electronic band produce exciting, spontaneous, unpredictable and visually engaging perfomances? And if they do, is it really possible to capture the experience of being there in a recording? Rick Smith and Karl Hyde of Underworld believe they have the answers, as Paul Tingen discovered.

Sound On Sound's May 2000 SAE/MPG competition offered readers the chance to win a recording session in a London studio with a top producer. Tom Flint talked to the lucky winners about the recording of their demo — and to producer Steve Levine, who took on the job of transforming it into a potential chart-topper.

Ken Nelson favours the old school of recording, based around clean signal paths, live playing and analogue tape — but that hasn't stopped him working with some of the hottest new bands in Britain. Among them are Coldplay, whose debut Parachutes album crashed straight into the charts at number 1. Sam Inglis finds out how it was recorded.

Those who bemoan the lack of invention and experimentation in today's rock music must make an exception for Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips, two of America's finest and most successful 'alternative' outfits. Their shared producer and engineer Dave Fridmann tells Sam Inglis about their unique approaches to recording.

As a producer and engineer, Alan Moulder has been responsible for some of the most sonically innovative rock music of recent years. In a rare interview he talks to Richard Buskin about his approach to recording and working with Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins.

From his early days as a pioneer of British synth-pop, Martyn Ware has forged a career on the cutting edge of electronic music. And he is still innovating today — in 3D.

A hugely successful new album marks The Red Hot Chili Peppers' returns to form — and incredibly, it's nearly all in mono. Engineer Jim Scott talks to Paul Tingen about the recording process and the group's refreshingly direct approach to production and mixing.

Most jobbing producers would regard jetting off to exotic locations to spend a year with one of the most famous artists in the world as a fantasy. For programmer and producer Kipper, however, the dream became reality — thanks to Sting. Tom Flint caught up with Kipper in his Surrey home studio.