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Which recording studios have
you worked in? Which recording studios have you worked in? Not that many really. Who have you worked with in the studio? Most of the studio work I have done over the years has been
with the bands of which I was a full time member. The first thing I did in the studio outside one of my own
bands was in October 1995, for producer Carl Simmonds, at ‘Pinewood
Audio’ in Pontypool. I have done several other sessions for Carl over the years,
including acoustic and electric guitar on four tracks of Jordan Adams’
‘Like A Lifetime’ album, on Silverwood Records, in February 2002, four classical guitar instrumental tracks for Telstar's 'Chimed Guitar' album, in June 2003 and various tracks for Ian Richardson, John Jones and 'The Mad Marconi'. In 2000, I began working for Community Music Wales and although
mainly employed as a teacher, I have also been asked to go into the studio
with certain CMW clients to act as an additional help during their recording
sessions. These sessions have led to me playing guitar, bass and percussion,
vocally arranging and performing backing vocals, as well as helping with
production ideas. Other sessions I have worked on outside my own bands took
place in April 2002, at ‘Warwick Hall Of Sound’, in Cardiff,
as a result of a speculative production contract I had signed with Newport
band Gracie. In recent years all my studio time has been spent recording my own material. My first efforts at recording were of course the tape recorder
in the middle of the room at band practice, but my first experience of
multi-track recording came with using a Teac ‘144’ 4-track
studio, hired from Dave Hopkins (bass player with Big Mac’s Wholly
Soul Band) way back in 1983. My first recording in a ‘proper’ recording studio
came in January 1986, at Peter Beese’s ‘Horseshoe Studios’,
in Magor. I continued to record Ritzi in the home recording environment and by the time I went into ‘Loco’ Studios with Cheer Up Tuesday (January 1990) I had gained sufficient confidence to pretty much take control of the whole recording. Even though I was again only self-appointed, the rest of the band let me get on with it and it became the first time I had ever had an engineer working under my direction. The first recording I was officially asked to produce was in 1997, for That’ll Be The Day. Although not a full-time member of the cast at the time, I was already working with them as their vocal arranger and was asked to co-produce the recording of six 50s/60s medleys, which were to be included on a compilation album, along with original versions of songs from the same era. The sessions took place at Peter Gabriel’s ‘Real World Studios’, at Box, near Bath and were engineered by Ben Findlay, who had previously engineered the likes of Wet Wet Wet, The Stereophonics, Van Morrison, Black Grape and The Levellers. The production’s director Trevor Payne produced the recording of the music and then handed the reins to me to arrange the nine voices and to record the vocal parts. I then spent two very long days/nights mixing the tracks with Marco Perry, at 'The Beathouse' studio, in London. Over the years that old Teac ‘144’ has been gradually updated with the additions of a Fostex 280, Roland R5 Human Rhythm Composer, PC with Cakewalk / Cubase / Sonar / Reason, Roland VS 880 EX Digital Studio Workstation, Roland JV 1010 Sound Module, Roland VS 2480 Digital Studio Workstation and various monitors, microphones, effects etc. So, I now have the capability to produce high quality recordings without the need to hire a studio. I have never been trained to use recording equipment, or
to produce recordings in any way. My limited knowledge and ability comes simply
from first hand experience of having spent time both recording and producing
my own bands at home and also performing for, or producing my own bands
(and others) in professional recording studios. What is a ‘speculative’ production contract? A speculative contract is an agreement between two parties to work together without any fees being paid in either direction, on the understanding that if certain goals are achieved, fees will become due. So, if I enjoy an artiste’s music and believe I can
give them a helping hand, Working speculatively as a producer obviously means that
it is possible that I may put a great deal of time and effort into trying to help
an artiste improve their sound, only to find that it comes to nothing
at the end of months, or even years of hard work. I am not willing to take this risk and therefore, I am not willing to work with any artiste on a speculative basis unless a written agreement, which protects both parties, is signed. The agreement that I use for speculative work has been inspected
by the Musician’s Union Contract Advisory Service and consequently
reviewed by a specialist music solicitor in London. The purpose of the agreement, for the protection of me as the producer, is to ensure that if my help does improve the artiste’s sound enough to help secure a recording/publishing contract I am rewarded for the time and effort I have put in. If it does not, then I am happy to accept no payment whatsoever. The purpose of the agreement, for the protection of the artiste, is to ensure that they cannot end up receiving any unexpected bills for my services, nor any unexpected claims on their songs with view to song-writing credits, copyright etc. Are you producing anybody at the moment? No, nobody at the moment - apart from myself that is.
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