RECORDING January 2023 - 28

Padgham
Interview by P aul
Vnuk, Jr .
How did you get started in audio
production?
British Grove Toontrack session photos by Mat Smith Photography
Behind the g ates of the
hitmaker
RAMMY Award-winning producer Hugh Padgham's discography is
filled with some of the most prestigious A-List artists of the past four decades,
including The Police, Sting, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Genesis,
Howard Jones, Kate Bush, XTC, Paul McCartney, The Human League, Public
Image Ltd, Melissa Etheridge, Trisha Yearwood, Bee Gees, David Bowie and
countless others.
He has recently been working with UK-based Gearbox Records, engineering
and producing modern jazz artists such as Graham Costello and Binker
and Moses. Binker and Moses' album Feeding The Machine was just voted
MOJO's top jazz album of 2022.
Hugh is also the " inventor " of the gated reverb effect popular in 1980s and
1990s drum tracks that is still peppered into productions to this day.
Toontrack recently celebrated Hugh's sonic percussion thumbprint in the
company's latest SDX expansion pack for Superior Drummer 3, appropriately
named the Hitmaker SDX. [See page 20]
I was excited to spend some time with Hugh discussing all of the above.
28 RECORDING January 2023
G
The first studio where I got a job was
called Advision in the center of London.
They did a lot of the early Yes there,
Emerson Lake & Palmer, Gentle Giant,
and other rock, pop and orchestral work.
I remember being a tape-op on Elton
John's " The Bitch Is Back. " Producer Gus
Dudgeon was a real hero of mine, and
I loved those early Elton John albums.
After about six months of working
there, I got let go because we were having
a terrible time in England with coal
miners being on strike and a fuel shortage.
We had a thing where you could
only have power for three days of the
week. The studio eventually got a generator,
but it was still difficult, and since I
was the last in, I was the first out.
Wow, that must have been tough.
I was pretty devastated. My dream
job of working in a studio had ended
prematurely. Luckily,
six months later at another independent
studio in London called Lansdowne Studios,
the second oldest independent studio
in London. I worked there for three
or four years with a very good mentor
who was quite " old fashioned " and
taught me a lot, like the proper way to
mic up a flute and how to mic up a string
section, and all that sort of thing.
Do you remember your
first
session where you went from
being a tape-op or assistant to a
full-fledged engineer?
I do because it precipitated my wanting
to leave Lansdowne. [Laughs]. There
was an artist in the 60s and 70s in England
called Roger Whittaker. His sort
of claim to fame was whistling. As far as
I was concerned, they invented the term
MOR (middle of the road) for him.
One day the engineer didn't turn up
to do his session, which was just a vocal
overdub, and I got stuck on the session-
I got a job about
hugh

RECORDING January 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of RECORDING January 2023

Fade In
Fast Forward
Roland SPD-SX PRO Sampling Pad
Session Log with Marc Urselli: Trasfrontera Japan, taiko drums, Kaoru Watanabe and Anna Sato
Soundware Showcase: Toontrack Hitmaker SDX
PreSonus Studio One Version 6
Hugh Padgham: Behind the Gates of the Hitmaker
LEWITT BEATKIT PRO
Soundware Showcase: Spitfire Audio Abbey Road Orchestra: Low Percussion
Studio 101 with Joe Albano: An Intro to Drum Recording
sE Electronics T2
Solid State Logic SSL CONNEX
API 3122V
Inside the Studio with Mark Hornsby: Steve Gadd
Plugin Outlet: Strymon BigSky Plugin
Panda Audio Future Impact v3
EFNOTE 3X & EFNOTE 7
Readers’ Tracks
Fade Out: New (Year’s) Studio Resolutions
RECORDING January 2023 - Intro
RECORDING January 2023 - Cover1
RECORDING January 2023 - Cover2
RECORDING January 2023 - 1
RECORDING January 2023 - 2
RECORDING January 2023 - 3
RECORDING January 2023 - Fade In
RECORDING January 2023 - 5
RECORDING January 2023 - 6
RECORDING January 2023 - 7
RECORDING January 2023 - Fast Forward
RECORDING January 2023 - 9
RECORDING January 2023 - Roland SPD-SX PRO Sampling Pad
RECORDING January 2023 - 11
RECORDING January 2023 - 12
RECORDING January 2023 - 13
RECORDING January 2023 - Session Log with Marc Urselli: Trasfrontera Japan, taiko drums, Kaoru Watanabe and Anna Sato
RECORDING January 2023 - 15
RECORDING January 2023 - 16
RECORDING January 2023 - 17
RECORDING January 2023 - 18
RECORDING January 2023 - 19
RECORDING January 2023 - Soundware Showcase: Toontrack Hitmaker SDX
RECORDING January 2023 - 21
RECORDING January 2023 - 22
RECORDING January 2023 - 23
RECORDING January 2023 - PreSonus Studio One Version 6
RECORDING January 2023 - 25
RECORDING January 2023 - 26
RECORDING January 2023 - 27
RECORDING January 2023 - Hugh Padgham: Behind the Gates of the Hitmaker
RECORDING January 2023 - 29
RECORDING January 2023 - 30
RECORDING January 2023 - 31
RECORDING January 2023 - 32
RECORDING January 2023 - 33
RECORDING January 2023 - LEWITT BEATKIT PRO
RECORDING January 2023 - 35
RECORDING January 2023 - 36
RECORDING January 2023 - 37
RECORDING January 2023 - Soundware Showcase: Spitfire Audio Abbey Road Orchestra: Low Percussion
RECORDING January 2023 - 39
RECORDING January 2023 - Studio 101 with Joe Albano: An Intro to Drum Recording
RECORDING January 2023 - 41
RECORDING January 2023 - 42
RECORDING January 2023 - 43
RECORDING January 2023 - sE Electronics T2
RECORDING January 2023 - 45
RECORDING January 2023 - Solid State Logic SSL CONNEX
RECORDING January 2023 - 47
RECORDING January 2023 - API 3122V
RECORDING January 2023 - 49
RECORDING January 2023 - Inside the Studio with Mark Hornsby: Steve Gadd
RECORDING January 2023 - 51
RECORDING January 2023 - 52
RECORDING January 2023 - 53
RECORDING January 2023 - 54
RECORDING January 2023 - 55
RECORDING January 2023 - Plugin Outlet: Strymon BigSky Plugin
RECORDING January 2023 - 57
RECORDING January 2023 - Panda Audio Future Impact v3
RECORDING January 2023 - 59
RECORDING January 2023 - EFNOTE 3X & EFNOTE 7
RECORDING January 2023 - 61
RECORDING January 2023 - 62
RECORDING January 2023 - 63
RECORDING January 2023 - Readers’ Tracks
RECORDING January 2023 - 65
RECORDING January 2023 - 66
RECORDING January 2023 - 67
RECORDING January 2023 - 68
RECORDING January 2023 - 69
RECORDING January 2023 - 70
RECORDING January 2023 - 71
RECORDING January 2023 - Fade Out: New (Year’s) Studio Resolutions
RECORDING January 2023 - Cover3
RECORDING January 2023 - Cover4
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