EQUIPMENT

Equipment is only one consideration when making a quality recording. Good planning, rehearsal, choice of recording space and production will have a large impact on the final product. From an engineer’s perspective, it is the ability to listen critically and draw on the experience of making many recordings that results in a good sound coming together quickly and with minimal stress. Nevertheless, it’s useful to have a selection of reliable equipment that can tackle a range of recording scenarios.

I use Audient and RME microphone preamps, which sound neutral and have a low noise floor.

I have a collection of microphones by DPA, Schoeps, AKG, Neumann, Sennheiser and Coles, in addition to a selection of dynamic microphones by Shure, etc. This is ample for smaller sessions, chamber music, or a smaller orchestra in a good acoustic. For larger projects, I source additional microphones and equipment from hire companies; this is charged to the client at cost.

Recording, editing and mixing is carried out using SADiE, Reaper, ProTools or Logic X, as per project/client requirements. I use Harbeth loudspeakers and Sennheiser headphones for recording and editing.

I use iZotope RX Advanced 5 for de-noising and removing unwanted sounds like mobile phones and coughs.

Plugins used include Soundtoys, Waves, Melodyne and assorted others.

High resolution recordings of up to 192kHz, 24-bit can be provided on request.