Tony Platt talks with Paul White about his career highlights, developing his recording techniques and memorable sessions with Bob Marley, AC-DC, Gary Moore and Uriah Heep.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction

00:27 - Contacting Studios

06:23 - Learning By Watching

08:59 - Tape Operator At Trident

11:19 - Moving To Island Studios

12:57 - Becoming An Engineer

14:56 - A Different Recording Era

15:58 - Recording Bob Marley

17:25 - Using Spill As An Advantage

20:26 - Recording Techniques

23:04 - Memorable Sessions

26:13 - Taking Time To Develop Bands

28:42 - From Analogue To Digital

33:54 - Incorporating Analogue

35:51 - Analogue Emulations

39:05 - Expanding Into Different Genres

41:56 - Current Music Projects

42:37 - AI In Music

Tony Platt Biog
Tony started as a “tea-boy” at Trident Studios in London before landing a job as tape operator at the now legendary Island Record's Basing Street Studios where he worked as an assistant on sessions with the likes of Traffic, The Who, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.

He engineered on sessions with John Martin, Free and many more, leading to him mixing the “Catch A Fire” album for a hitherto unknown Jamaican artist, Bob Marley and then recording and mixing the “Burnin” album, both of which arguably would launch reggae music into the mainstream.

As a freelance he recorded demos that prefaced deals for Thin Lizzy and the Stranglers before becoming engineer for Mutt Lange and working on the AC/DC albums “Highway to Hell” and “Back in Black”, Foreigner – “4”, Boomtown Rats – “Fine Art of Surfacing’ and Broken Home.

He produced and engineered the work of artists such as Samson (with Bruce Dickenson singing), Krokus, Motorhead, Gary Moore, Cheap Trick, Ronnie Dio, The Cult and Marillion and recorded two albums for Buddy Guy - the Grammy winning “Damn Right I Got the Blues” and the follow up “Feels Like Rain”. He developed a close involvement with the well-respected “boutique” Jazz label, Dune Records, working with all their artists including Mercury nominated Soweto Kinch, Denys Baptiste, and Abram Wilson.

Many other productions in the Jazz genre have followed and Tony still undertakes mixing projects in his own studio.

He is a member of the steering group for the education initiative J.A.M.E.S. (Joint Audio Media Education Support), whilst occasionally providing guest lectures, master-classes and workshops for several universities running music industry courses worldwide.

www.platinumtones.com
www.jamesonline.org.uk

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing.

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Music producer Ben Hillier reflects on his journey from orchestral percussionist to studio producer, from assisting on recordings to working with Elbow, Blur, Depeche Mode and Nadine Shah, sharing insights on feel, creativity and making records from his distinctive straw-built studio.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
02:36 - The Studio Design

03:56 - Recording Orchestras

08:51 - From College to Assisting

16:03 - Being A Good Engineer

20:08 - Recording Elbow

28:40 - Working With Blur

35:19 - Encouraging Creativity

40:35 - Engineering Depeche Mode

43:36 - Getting Feel Into Electronic Music

50:12 - Collaborating With Nadine Shah

57:46 - Being A Good Producer

59:20 - Creating A Good Studio Environment

1:01:13 - Choosing Which Projects To Work On

1:07:34 - Preferred Tools And Workflows

Ben Hillier Biog
Ben Hillier has been working in the recording industry for nearly 40 years. He spent the 90’s engineering and programming for various producers including Steve Osborne, Steven Street, Gil Norton and Nelly Hooper around London and internationally. In the 2000’s he moved into production making albums with bands like Elbow, Doves, Blur and three albums with Depeche Mode. In 2010’s he also began writing music, co-writing and producing five albums with Nadine Shah. In 2007 he set-up The Pool Studios with Nick Young at Miloco and was a partner in that studio for about 17 years. Ben continues to write and produce, most recently producing The Howling Bells, Sandhouse, Highschool and Dominie Hooper and writing with Shadowman, Storm Franklin and Nuha Ruby Ra. He currently lives near Brighton, UK, and has a studio (Agricultural Audio) made out of straw bales on working farm.
Instagram: @agriculturalaudio

Kevin Paul Biog
Kevin Paul started his career as a DJ but quickly found his passion was sound engineering. His first audio job was at Soho Studios in 1991, moving to Konk Studios six months later, where he worked alongside successful producers and engineers such as Bob Clearmountain, Adam Mosley, Pascal Gabriel and Gil Norton, as well as bands such as The Kinks, Galliano, Terrorvision, UFO and Elastica.

After working on archiving the Depeche Mode back catalogue in 1994, he was offered an engineering role at Mute Records’ in-house studio, which eventually lead to a position as Head Engineer, which gave him access to the entire Mute Records roster. Highlights include mixing Goldfrapp’s 'Felt Mountain', David Bowie’s 'Hours' and Nick Cave’s 'No More Shall We Part'. He also worked in 5:1, mixing Moby’s 'Hotel', Goldfrapp’s 'Black Cherry' and more for DVD.

In 2004 Kevin went freelance and re-mixed the entire Depeche Mode and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds back catalogues for SACD/DVD. Since 2008, Kevin Paul has been in charge of mixing and remixing performances at the iTunes Festivals in the UK and Germany. He has mixed over 100 artists to date, including Adele, Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The XX, Calvin Harris, Foo Fighters, Jack White, Linkin Park, Florence & The Machine, Deadmau5, David Guetta, Jessie J., Norah Jones, Oasis, Mumford & Sons, N.E.R.D., Lykke Li, James Blunt, KT Tunstall, Hot Chip, Paul Weller and many more.

He continues to record, engineer, produce and mix many projects in music and film, runs the mixing and surround mixing modules for the Masters Degree course at UK’s Westminster University and divides his time between London and Berlin. Recent works include the International selling new album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and mixing the latest album of Denmark’s “Dúné” with the first single premiering at the Danish Music Awards, plus the latest iTunes Music Festival.

http://www.kevin-paul.com/

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Bryce Young, founder and president of Warm Audio, joins Sam Inglis to discuss how the company began and how it quickly built a reputation for producing affordable studio gear inspired by classic vintage designs.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

00:24 - Warm Audio Origins and Growth

02:33 - Product Development

03:09 - Capturing The Vintage Sound

07:01 - Modernising And Adapting Designs

09:43 - Designing For Working Professionals

12:50 - Analogue Gear Used In A Live Setting

14:49 - Choosing Which Gear To Develop

16:25 - Popular And Unusual Products

19:22 - The Toughest Engineering Challenges

26:00 - Maintenance And Discontinued Parts

30:48 - Diversifying From Vintage Analogue

36:15 - Favourite Vintage Gear

#WA-47 #WA-44 #WA-8000

Warm Audio
Warm Audio is a Texas-based manufacturer of professional recording equipment founded in 2011 by Bryce Young. The company specialises in high-quality microphones, preamps, compressors and other studio hardware inspired by classic vintage designs. Known for combining premium components with accessible pricing, Warm Audio has built a reputation among musicians, producers and engineers for delivering analogue studio gear that brings iconic sounds within reach of modern creators.
https://warmaudio.com/
https://www.facebook.com/warmaudio/
https://x.com/WarmAudio
https://www.instagram.com/warmaudio/

Bryce Young Biog
Bryce Young is the founder and president of Warm Audio. A musician, recording enthusiast and vinyl collector, Young launched the company in 2011 from his garage with the goal of making high-quality vintage-style microphones, preamps, compressors and other studio tools accessible to musicians at affordable prices.

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts