Recording

When Duran Duran began work on their third album in 1983, they were already one of the biggest bands in the world — and with eight months of studio time and half a million pounds spent, huge expectations surrounded Seven And The Ragged Tiger...

Kate Bush's 1978 smash hit debut single was also the first major project Jon Kelly had recorded. It proved to be a dream start for both artist and engineer, and a perfect illustration of the benefits of working with talented session musicians.

The story of a multi-miked location recording session, from pre-concert setup to the post-recording software-controlled mixdown.

In 1984, a dose of British soul resurrected Tina Turner's flagging career in spectacular style. For engineer John Hudson, the recording of 'What's Love Got To Do With It?' also provided a memorable example of the 'less is more' principle in action...

Another batch of lucky SOS readers' demos wait nervously for the Doctor's prognosis. What is the verdict? Listen while you read on...

In 1981, 'Start Me Up' became one of the Rolling Stones' biggest hit singles. Yet it was actually a reject from a previous session, and only saw the light of day because its infamous co-writers had fallen out...

The Police's final studio album was both a technical and artistic tour de force, and yielded one of their most memorable hit singles. Yet the three members were unable to play in the same room without a fight breaking out, so the recording sessions proved tough going for engineer and co-producer Hugh Padgham...

The intrepid SOS team travel to Nigel Helm-Nurney's London studio to help his band Pombokiwi do battle with unwanted spill, uninspiring guitar sounds, and masses of egg boxes!

An established studio in the USA is planning to rely on software that can be freely downloaded from the Internet. Are they crazy, or do Linux-based recording applications offer a real alternative to the established Windows and Mac packages?

Half a century in the business has seen recording engineer Al Schmitt reach the very top of his profession, but even a man of his experience can find himself faced with new challenges. So it was in 1991, when he was called upon to turn a classic Nat 'King' Cole recording into a duet with Cole's daughter Natalie...

Engineer and producer Bruce Botnick recorded some of the greatest artifacts of West Coast psychedelia, among them the first five albums by The Doors. Here he describes the making of their influential second album and its title track, which saw them develop their live sound through radical experimentation in the studio.

This month, Sound On Sound begins a major new series, looking back in detail at the engineering and production behind some of the most historically significant recordings ever made, with the story of the first and greatest British rock & roll record.

The Doc proffers diagnosis and suitable cures for another batch of reader-submitted meisterwerks.

Musicality isn't everything when you're trying to make a decent-sounding recording at home, even if you're as talented as the multi-instrumentalist Harding family. So the SOS team travelled north to help them get their engineering techniques up to scratch.

For the 2002 album Heathen, David Bowie and Tony Visconti revived one of the greatest artist/producer partnerships in pop history. Following the success of that project, the duo have again worked closely together on Bowie's new album, Reality.

Q How can I use VST instruments live?

I'm interested in using my VST instruments when...

If you want to incorporate live drumming into your sequencer-based productions, your drummer will almost certainly have to play along to some sort of click track. However, if you're not careful, it could easily end up being more a hindrance than a help.

It seems that almost everyone who's heard Goldfrapp's debut album Felt Mountain has fallen under their spell. Now the duo have returned with a second, Black Cherry, and a harder, synth-based sound.

We follow a location recording project from start to finish, showing you how to plan for and conduct the session, as well as how to avoid common pitfalls.

Most home studio owners now rely heavily on digital audio recording and processing, but you could be sacrificing the quality of your recordings if your system isn't clocked correctly.

Few project studio owners have the space to record a real drum kit to its best advantage. However, drum parts that are completely sample-based can lack a sense of organic authenticity, and can make an otherwise good recording sound like a demo. Fortunately, there are several ways you can tackle this problem for more lively results.