2015 Rolled In

Hey all,

Before January is out, here's a quick Happy New Year and may 2015 bring us lots of great music, wonderful talent and killer sounds.

There are a couple of things to update you on. I just got back from Namm 2015 where I did a nice little H.O.T. Zone talk to live and studio engineers and venue owners on how to get the most out of your system upgrade and on general business practices to ensure repeat customers.

In the mean time I'm excited to let you know that The Sonic Cuisine is now Mastered For iTunes certified, so let the war on over-compression and silly loudness continue. And I've joined the fold at the Music Producers Guild.

There are several projects on the go, on which I'll update you as they come along.

In the mean time, here's a little gear update:

Dynaudio BM6, Tannoy 802, 502 & 402. We've added a wonderful Empirical Labs Distressor EL8-X and we're test driving a sensational Cranesong Insigna Tube 500-series EQ. In addition to the Advanced Audio Cm67se, we've added the  CM251 to the arsenal. It sounds amazing and has been working over time on the Mo Michael recordings at RAK.

Also, a great book on capturing great sound at the source, the antidote to "let's fix it in the mix" attitude, Ian Corbett's Mic It! is now available. I've had the pleasure and honour of contributing to this super read. Check it out.

Have fun out there, be creative and see you on the other side of the glass.

Ringing out 2014

Hey everybody.

Time to squeeze in a little Wesonator news update and then get back behind the faders and finish up a couple more projects before the year is out.

I've been holed up in the studio with Elliott Randall, working on a few mixes for The Distortion Mirrors. In between these sessions I've decamped to RAK Studio 1 to record my Newbay buddy, Gino Robair and John Butcher making some amazing sounds.

The Sonic Cuisine has been rocking out with more mix work on Delta Unit and the very exciting Belgian group, THRIVE.

And to top it all off, I got to spend the weekend behind my favourite API console in RAK studio 2 with Mo Michael. There's 6 more songs coming your way and in the mean time you can get a taster on Mo's Soundcloud page.

A fabulous studio, one of the best sounding APIs, Advanced Audio CM67 & CM251, a Neumann KM84 and a vintage U47... combine that with a killer tunesmith and performer and you have magic!

And before I leave you to get on with your holiday prep, here are some insights from the Tannoy site.

Merry Christmas all and let's make it a wonderful and musical 2015.

See you on the other side of the glass.

Post AES L.A., gear, Bruce Swedien & vids

After a wonderful time in the Cali sun and the L.A. Convention centre strip lights, we're back in the Sonic Cuisine cooking up some killer music.

Monster Jaw's EP "Losing All My Friends" was released on Cobra Kitten Records and Debi Doss unleashed her wonderful voice on the Debi Does... EP.

Both cuts have been getting quite a bit of national radio play too.

I came back to find a stunning Hammond B3 performance to be mixed into Gloria Nuti's "Quando non sei con me". The man responsible for this fine growling is none other than Paul Brown. I'll keep you posted on that track's progress.

Just before heading out to AES, I had the amazing honour to mix another track for Elliott Randall's Couch Vid sessions. This one features the man himself, with a brand new guitar, John Tropea and Blue Lou Marini. Apart from using my DAW as a "tape machine", this is an entirely analogue mix. No plug ins, just hardware and real faders.

Obviously, you can't go to a gear show and not come back with some new toys.

A huge thanks to Mark Rubel from the Blackbird Academy for hooking me up with the EL8-X Distressor.

Jonathan Little is letting me test drive his brand new Little Labs Pepper and the guys at Advanced Audio have lent me their new CM251.

Quite a few cool projects on the boil in here at the moment: Mixing for Delta Unit, we've started work on Mo Michael's material and there's a few Elliott Randall irons in the fire too.

To top it all off, I found myself wedged between two of the industry greats, Bruce Swedien and Tony Maserati in the Tannoy newsletter. Honoured indeed. If you read to the end of the newsletter, there's some cool vids on the new Tannoy nearfields as well.

See you on the other side of the glass.

Some Audio News From The Sonic Cuisine

Hi all,

A quick post to keep you up to date on what's cooking at the Sonic Cuisine.

I've been spending some quality time up in Bradford with the Monster Jaw lads. We've recorded 4 new songs which we're in the middle of mixing.

Also just completed a mini tour with Australian hard rock band Deth Enemy in Germany, The Netherlands and the UK. Mix work continues on the next Delta Unit instalment and I had the great pleasure of recording the amazing Elliott Randall for a Samuel Purdey song, which we'll start mixing in June.

I'll be in the Swiss mountains for 3 weeks, mixing Leelo Pascal's new album in his wonderful studio.

So, you can expect various social media updates on that. And talking about social media, I stumbled across one of Barry Rudolph's posts. Have a looksie, it's an all-star cast.

http://www.barryrudolph.com/newtoys/toys14/ultimateguide.html

Keep in touch, see you when I get back.

Action snap from the Monster Jaw sessions. The Advanced Audio CM67 working overtime on vocal and dulcimer duties.

Wesonator & Mix "Build" $50K Analogue Studio

Mix Magazine asked me to write an article about spec'ing your own studio: My $50,000 old-school studio boasts brave analogue in a new digital world. And Markkus Rovito's $50K shows how to achieve a total in-the-box set up.

Click on the Mix Magazine March cover, below, to read the full article.