Mixing / Production

Bob Rock has been responsible for some of the biggest rock and metal albums of the last 20 years, including nearly all of Metallica's output since 1991. Last year's St. Anger saw band and producer reinventing the genre with a savage, thrash-oriented sound that has divided fans and critics.

In 1983, New Order sold over three million copies of their 12-inch single 'Blue Monday' and it has remained a classic. SOS spoke to producer, musician and New Order fan Roger Lyons, to find out how he helped the band bring the track back to life.

Groundbreaking Southern rap duo Outkast head into 2004 with a fistful of Grammy nominations and a chart-topping double LP to their name. Their principal engineer and studio manager John Frye pulls back the curtain on one of the year's best records.

From hit solo albums to film soundtracks and remixes, Nitin Sawhney has turned his hand to almost every aspect of music production -- and his music is equally diverse, blending Indian and Western classical styles with rock, hip-hop and dance.

A heady blend of world music, dance and Irish folk, Afro Celts' music has been heard on film soundtracks and festival stages across the globe. Their latest album Seed was the first to be produced in their own studio, built in the Britannia Row premises that were once the home of Pink Floyd.

When label boss David Geffen teamed respected engineer 'Bones' Howe with an unknown and very strange songwriter called Tom Waits, he set in motion one of the great artist-producer partnerships.

Although many of the most famous music mixing engineers have been in the business for decades, we find out how a new generation of up-and-coming stars are combining traditional and cutting-edge recording techniques to make their mark on modern production.

Teenager Dylan Mills (aka Dizzee Rascal) captured the headlines in 2003 by winning the UK's Mercury Music Prize with one of the most uncompromising albums of recent times. Dizzee and engineer/manager Cage describe how they made Boy In Da Corner.

Last year's Love & Life album saw R&B superstar Mary J Blige reunited with Sean Combs (aka Puff Daddy, aka P Diddy) and his Bad Boy production stable. Mix specialist Tony Maserati spent two months at Miami's Circle House Studios working on the project, and recorded his experiences in this unique diary.