Mixing / Production

Live sound engineer ‘Trip’ Khalaf and his colleagues talk about touring Pink Floyd’s classic 1979 album with band co-founder Roger Waters.

French pop music was once as uncool as you could get, but over the last 15 years, AIR’s distinctive, retro-tinged electronica has conquered the world.

This year’s Glastonbury Festival boasted a recording studio built of straw — complete with 24‑track tape and grand piano. SOS followed Joe Leach’s project all the way from blue-sky thinking to muddy reality.

Audio files to accompany the article.

Adele’s second album, 21, has broken sales records all around the globe. Mixer Tom Elmhirst and producer Paul Epworth explain how they created its multi‑platinum lead single, ‘Rolling In The Deep’.

What better place to start building your mix than the kick-drum and bass parts? Get them to work well together and you’re on your way to a good mix...

Prodigy live engineer Jon Burton talks to some of the world’s top sound engineers about the similarities and differences between tour and studio work.

We explore some of the most common causes of mix failure we’ve tackled in our monthly Mix Rescue column. Banish these demons and you’re most of the way to a devilishly good mix! Here are ten reasons why your mixes don’t work — and what you can do about it!

• Dev Featuring The Cataracs 'Bass Down Low' • Wretch 32 'Traktor' • Aloe Blacc 'I Need A Dollar'

Audio files to accompany the article.

Our tireless Editor In Chief tackles some studio acoustics problems while on holiday in Turkey, with a budget of precisely nothing!

The Black Keys’ Brothers was the first album to be recorded at Muscle Shoals in 30 years. But with all its equipment long gone, would engineer Mark Neill be able to recapture the studio’s legendary sound?

Hampered by high expectations and an unhealthy obsession with vintage gear, Fleet Foxes’ second album took a year to make, in five different studios...

Feeling that something was missing from their latest album, the Beastie Boys decided it needed remixing — by a “crazy Frenchman”...

Modern production techniques can have a place in traditional acoustic music genres: we even sneaked a triggered synth part into this Morris‑dance tune...

• LMFAO 'Party Rock Anthem' • Nero 'Guilt' • Noah And The Whale 'L.I.F.E. G.O.E.S. O.N.' • Nicole Scherzinger 'Right There'

Audio files to accompany the article.

The Studio SOS team sort out some acoustic problems, streamline a studio setup and brush up their drum & bass production skills!

Alison Krauss persuaded mix specialist Mike Shipley to return to engineering after a 10‑year gap — in a genre he’d never tackled. The result was a creative and commercial triumph.

Arctic Monkeys’ fourth album, Suck It And See, is a dazzling return to form — and to producer, long‑time collaborator and ‘fifth Monkey’ James Ford.

Are modern orchestral sample libraries really good enough to power an entire 90‑minute film score? Mark Russell found out the hard way...