Recording

With 'Heroes', David Bowie pulled off the rare feat of having a major hit with a highly experimental piece of art-rock, which featured among other highlights live synth treatments from Brian Eno, pitched feedback from guitarist Robert Fripp, and a lead vocal with level-triggered ambience.

Nowadays, plenty of hit albums are recorded in bedroom studios — but Liam Howlett of the Prodigy has gone one better, by recording his latest in bed.

I am looking at buying a matched pair of SE Electronics SE1 mics for drum miking. Would the SE1s be suitable for 'over and under' miking of the snare? If not, could you offer any alternatives for this kind of configuration?

Some of the legendary names in engineering and production didn't just make great records — they also invented equipment and techniques we take for granted today.

The Beach Boys' SMiLE album was to have been the pinnacle of Brian Wilson's groundbreaking recording and production achievements — but it was never completed. This year, in an extraordinary tale of emotional drama, tape-vault archaeology and recording technology, Brian finished it, debuted it live, and then re-recorded it in the studio. SOS brings you the full story...

Recent years have seen a revival in back-to-basics recording techniques, but few engineers or producers have taken things as far as Jim Sutherland did with Edinburgh folk-pop band Aberfeldy...

When punk rock broke in 1976, the Sex Pistols caused panic in establishment Britain — and more than a few raised eyebrows in Wessex Studios, where Chris Thomas and Bill Price recorded the band's milestone EMI debut album.

Recording chamber music in Birmingham's Symphony Hall is not something you get to do every day, so SOS decided to make the most of the occasion by using two completely different setups, one based on professional equipment (manned by Hugh Robjohns) and one on project studio gear (operated by Paul White).

For his third album with Shania Twain, reclusive production legend Mutt Lange introduced an ambitious concept: different mixes and instrumentation for different markets. And as engineer Bob Bullock found, even the 'country' version left Nashville and its conventions pretty far behind...

The 18-month gestation period behind Michael Jackson's Dangerous album and its lead single 'Black Or White' saw '80s studio perfectionism taken to extremes — and despite their success, the experience helped to convince co-writer, engineer and co-producer Bill Bottrell that there had to be another way to make records!

Is there a way of using an external hardware compressor with a Roland VS1880 multitracker for mix compression?

Can you explain to me how data reduction in audio files is achieved? I understand the general idea behind data-compressed formats like MP3, but I have never seen an explanation of the actual process.

At the base of the inlay card to Michael Jackson's album Thriller, it claims that the album was recorded using the 'Acusonic Recording Process'. What is this?

I've read that the SACD format uses a 1-bit word length throughout. Why is this the case, and how does it yield higher audio quality than standard 16-bit CDs?

With help from their galaxy of high-profile collaborators, Unkle have embarked on an ambitious attempt to reinvent dance music.

When Duran Duran began work on their third album in 1983, they were already one of the biggest bands in the world — and with eight months of studio time and half a million pounds spent, huge expectations surrounded Seven And The Ragged Tiger...

I've been told that I should use an analogue compressor or voice channel with compression as a front end when recording digitally, as this will reduce the dynamic range of the input signal and make better use of the A-D converter's available bit depth. Is this true?

Kate Bush's 1978 smash hit debut single was also the first major project Jon Kelly had recorded. It proved to be a dream start for both artist and engineer, and a perfect illustration of the benefits of working with talented session musicians.

Cardigans producer Tore Johansson was thrown into unfamiliar musical territory when asked to produce the debut album by Scottish guitar band Franz Ferdinand, but the result was a commercial and artistic triumph.

The story of a multi-miked location recording session, from pre-concert setup to the post-recording software-controlled mixdown.

I record guitar using a Line 6 Pod Pro going into a Roland VMC7200 mixing desk via S/PDIF. While the guitar is plugged in, every so often a little audio spike comes through the monitors. Can you tell me what this noise could be and how to stop it?