Musical Accompaniment

We use Native Instruments Complete programme Kontakt which opens up many more possibilities. These include Vintage Electric Pianos and Organs, atmospheric Synth Pads and Triggered Synths as well as a great range of Grand and Upright Pianos.

We use Spitfire Albion Orchestral sounds which create convincing Strings, Woodwinds, Brass and Percussion sounds.

We also use the Classic Korg Legacy Collection which include the M1, Mono/Poly and the Wave synth sets as well as the impressive M20 monophonic synth.

The Arturia Minimoog emulates the original fat Moog sounds which have been used on classic dance tracks since the 70’s.

As well as using the tried and trusted Roland 808 and 909 drum samples, we use Logic to build our own custom sets for tracks based on the built in plugins that come with the programme.

On top of that we also utilise Native Instruments Battery set of Samples which cover most production needs.

Drum loops and a further huge array of drum samples are provided in Propellerhead's Reason programme which we have synced to Logic using rewire when required.

We also have built up many of our own drum samples and loops over the years and importantly, we can provide Drums using our own kit which is a hybrid of real and sampled sounds that can be played ‘live’ when required.

Sometimes the full arrangement of a tracks length can be improved greatly by editing after the full version of a composition is recorded. This way the customer can have the full unedited version as well as a radio version. 

In some cases it makes sense to cut an arrangement before recording so that no extra time is wasted recording parts that are not going to appear on the final version. Again, it all depends on the style of music. 

A Classical or Experimental track can be as long as you like but if a commercial track for radio is being produced, being too long can spoil the listening experience and not encourage the listener to hear the song again. 

And of course there are restrictions on track lengths for commercial radio too.

Studio engineering skills are crucial in blending sounds that need to work together on the same track. 

We have an array of top quality microphones including condensers, valve and tube and ribbon mics, each of which have to be chosen to match the characteristics of particular instruments.

Signal processing is employed at the recording stage too, so that the fundamental sounds that exist in the track are properly optimised. 

Noise Gates, Compression, Expansion, EQ and of course recording at the correct levels are all instrumental.

A good producer will work on a recording schedule with you, according to your budget, so that the sessions are conducted in a rational and logical way.

The project needs to be steered towards a final result which doesn’t waste time backtracking or doing the many recording tasks involved in the wrong order. 

An experienced producer knows these pitfalls and can actually save you money by reducing studio time and organising musicians properly.