Audio Media - September 2008 - (Page 58) Rock Down To Electric Avenue NIGEL PALMER talks to Guy Davie of Electric Mastering about loudness, décor, peaceable frogs and fireworks. E lectric Mastering is a relative newcomer to the London mastering studio scene, having been set up two years ago in Notting Hill by Pete Hutchison, owner of the Peacefrog Records label. From small beginnings Electric has grown in stature with a healthy mix of major and Indie label work presided over by resident Mastering Engineer Guy Davie and freelancer Mandy Parnell, experienced professionals with fine track records. The studio has attractive but functional décor with retro furniture plus an extraordinary cityscape view with Westway traffic passing silently not far away thanks to effective soundproofing. What was your progression as a mastering engineer, and how did you come to be at Electric? When I was in my early teens I got interested in recording, and saved up for a multi-track cassette recorder, a cheap keyboard and stuff like that, messing about as many people do. My first job was in a music shop in Epsom selling keyboards, drum machines, and recording gear: I began getting Music Week to look for a job in recording and saw a position for a trainee engineer at The Exchange in Camden. I started there in the copy room making cassette bin masters the day after my st birthday in . Did you have to do non-audio menial jobs? None actually – luckily Graham at The Exchange didn’t believe in having tea boys, runners and so on, he wanted everyone there to be involved in mastering to some degree, an enlightened attitude at the time. John Dent was there then, he was a partner in the business with Graham, and Ray Staff was also there. I slowly progressed to tape editing, I suppose I was at the tail end of that era really, then suddenly you’re in a mastering room cutting a ” for someone and you’re not sure how it happened. The work was about / vinyl and CD, [the latter] on the old Sony Umatic editor which sounded atrocious – looking back at the huge hit albums that were done through those things maybe we were all wrong, but compared to what we’ve got now it sounded pretty bad. I think the longest fade time you could have was . of a second – there was a fader on it but that sounded even worse with dithery crackle at the end, and then of course [there were] muting Umatic tapes, but that was all part of the fun. Presumably the technology improved during your time there? Yes, we moved to Sonic Solutions early on and stayed with that for quite a few years before getting SADiE , and later SADiE , then earlier this year I came across to Electric. Equipment-wise, Electric is up there with the best of them with Meyer X- monitoring, Pyramix and Logic workstations, a Neumann VMS- vinyl cutting lathe, and a Studer A stereo tape machine with both ¼ and ½” blocks and guides; outboard is to die for with a Maselec MEA- , an SPL PQ, and an original Sontec – a rare and sought-after line-up of analogue EQs – and other goodies include a Manley SLAM! analogue limiter, a Fairchild compressor, and the Weiss DS digital compressor. All that said, the centrepiece and undoubted star of the show is an original EMI TG mastering console acquired from EMI’s studio in Nigeria, with patchable onboard compression and EQ. The console brings something special to the party, as I was able to hear for myself when I visited the studio for a Q&A session with Guy, who had some interesting insights into both the studio and mastering in general. I started by trying to get a feel for the kind of workload he handles. NP: What have you been working on today? GD: Material for a band called Firework Night: it’s acoustic and orchestral, seventies, a seven-piece band with cellos, double basses, drums and guitars. Really good, a twenty minute track. Then a band called A K Momo for Peacefrog downstairs, and now I’m about to embark on a bit of a wellknown band that I’m not meant to tell anyone about! Elec trifying Equipment Photos courtesy of www.recordproduction.com > 58 AUDIO MEDIA SEPTEMBER 2008 http://www.recordproduction.com
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