
Taylor Swift Speak Now
Taylor Swift has become country music's biggest mainstream star, thanks in part to a stellar production team. Producer Nathan Chapman and mixer Justin Niebank lift the lid on Swift's latest hit album, Speak Now.
To find the exact phrase, put the words in quotes or join them together with a plus sign e.g. live+recording or "live recording".
To find, say, all live recording articles that mention Avid, enter: live+recording +avid - and use sidebar filters to narrow down searches further.

Taylor Swift has become country music's biggest mainstream star, thanks in part to a stellar production team. Producer Nathan Chapman and mixer Justin Niebank lift the lid on Swift's latest hit album, Speak Now.

Ever fancied having a separate compressor, noise gate and fader and automation on every channel of your mixing desk? The latest modules from PreSonus offer all of this and more, bringing that elusive 'SSL sound' within the reach of even the most basic consoles. Dominic Hawken puts the new units through their paces.

An 'Unplugged' session is going to require a very different studio from a techno track bursting with MIDI bells and whistles. Beyond that, choosing a recording studio is down to that elusive spiritual ingredient, 'the vibe'. David Mellor investigates pop psychology...

Getting the jitters about your digital clocking? Don't know your AES from your EBU? Then read on.

David Gilmour's chart-topping solo album was recorded on his own Astoria houseboat, a floating slice of studio heaven. Engineer Andy Jackson describes the making of the album.

Paul White talks to Malcolm Toft, the man behind the legendary Trident range of recording consoles, who now has his own company, MTA, which looks set to continue the tradition of analogue excellence.

Over a 40-year career, Phil Ramone has built up perhaps the most impressive discography of any producer working today — and although he emphasises the importance of traditional engineering and people-management skills, his work is also at the limits of what cutting-edge technology makes possible.

"When we originally mixed Avalon in stereo, I was thinking that it should be in surround,"says Bob Clearmountain. Twenty-one years on, he and producer Rhett Davies describe how they first made Roxy Music's classic album and how they finally got the chance to mix it in 5.1.

Composition runs in David Newman's family, and he's become one of Hollywood's most sought-after writers of music for film.

Best known for his collaborations with Elton John, Gus Dudgeon is one of the most successful British record producers ever. He talks to Sam Inglis about his work.

More Pro tools users than ever will now have the option of ditching the mouse and mixing from a full-featured hardware control surface, thanks to this collaboration between Digidesign and Focusrite. Hugh Robjohns and Paul White get their hands on the Control 24.

Few people can truly be said to be multi-talented, but jazz and soul legend Marcus Miller is undoubtedly one of them. Paul Tingen talks to him about his approach to making and recording music, and looks inside his Camel Island studio.

Pro Tools is virtually an industry standard for music production and post-production, even though its powerful mixing and signal processing capabilities have previously only been fully accessible through a computer screen. The recent introduction of Digidesign's own ProControl addresses that problem. Hugh Robjohns just loves being in control...

Designed as a replacement for high-end tape-based multitracks, Otari's original RADAR 24-track random access recorder/editor captured a sizeable chunk of the pro market. We take a look at its successor, RADAR II, which offers a host of enhancements including 24-bit audio.

Tascam have long been one of the big guns in the mid-range recording mixer market. Now they enter the digital mixer arena with a desk aimed at music and post-production work. Hugh Robjohns runs his digits all over it.

Since its first release three years ago, Nuendo has raised a great deal of interest among those who need a professional audio production tool, and with Nuendo 2, Steinberg have developed one of most ambitious native-based audio systems yet seen. But in an industry dominated by Digidesign, will it be enough to lure potential users away from their Pro Tools rigs?

Building on the success of previous mixer and control surface designs, Mackie's affordable Mackie Control promises the best of the soft- and hardware worlds — but will it make you hang up your mouse?

Whats best: hardware or software? Analogue or digital? Most studio tools have their strengths, but how best do you combine hardware and software in a modern project studio?

Bored with ordinary commercial studios, The Cure decided to cut loose for their latest album, and set up their latest recording facility in a Tudor house in the country. Nigel Humberstone visited the band on location to discuss the technology that made the move into the country possible, and the group's working methods.

The Godfather of German electronic music, Klaus Schulze favoured an all-digital approach to recording the '80s. The last few years, however, have seen a radical revision of his former philosophy. Paul Tingen meets the man for whom old working habits die hard...