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A favourite technique is to employ subtle<br />
overdrive on synths or keyboards, using Mooger<br />
Fooger delay or Blue Tubes Analog Valve Driver<br />
ADR2S, to give them more presence in the mix.<br />
He explains, “…with digital, if you add a little bit of<br />
overdrive to a few things here and there, suddenly<br />
it just takes on a more analogue, 3D quality.”<br />
It’s his understanding of a mix’s analogue<br />
potential that in<strong>for</strong>ms his digital direction.<br />
It is this respect <strong>for</strong> the infinite permutations<br />
of tools at his disposal that ensures Aitkenhead<br />
never gets bored. There are sessions where<br />
he admits to not being particularly engaged<br />
musically, but often this distance can generate<br />
positive results. He values artistic objectivity very<br />
highly, and recognises the need to listen with the<br />
ears of a consumer – who doesn’t care how long<br />
it took to get the drums sounding crisp, exciting,<br />
and defined; or the guitar to sound bright and full.<br />
He expands: “You get emotionally tied to things<br />
you work on. You do some clever thing with a<br />
piece of bass delay that took you an hour and<br />
a half to set up… I think the secret is turning up<br />
the next morning, pressing ‘play’, and realising,<br />
‘it may be clever but actually it’s not enhancing<br />
the song.’”<br />
Being creative with equipment means<br />
Aitkenhead can maintain interest by focusing on<br />
the elements within a track that grab his attention.<br />
“It may well be that I don’t think the song is<br />
particularly special, but there will tend to be, in<br />
most bands, an element or thing that engages or<br />
excites you.” Working out how to squeeze the best<br />
from every element is the challenge, and each<br />
project contributes to the endless learning curve<br />
that makes the job so fulfilling.<br />
Band-In-A-Box<br />
Once the rockstar-dust has finally settled in the<br />
live room, the mixing/mastering process begins.<br />
He doesn’t own a console as such – all the mixing’s<br />
done in the box – and while he appreciates the<br />
psychological thrust the sight of a desk can inspire<br />
in clients, his question is whether or not this<br />
approach would give him options creatively that<br />
his current set-up can’t fulfill. Presently, he doesn’t<br />
see the need, “Control surfaces don’t change the<br />
audio, my obsession is with the sound of stuff,”<br />
he observes. It’s this obsession that drives his<br />
perspectives on the important interplay between<br />
different sonic elements that ultimately define<br />
the mix-down. A key aspect is early incorporation<br />
of vocals. After perfecting the rhythm and bass<br />
parts, he may bring the vocal in to ensure it gets<br />
the space it deserves right from the start. “I used<br />
to get to a point where I’d make the instrumental<br />
sound pretty good and then realise I hadn’t<br />
generated space or a place <strong>for</strong> the vocal.” Putting<br />
vocals in earlier solved this problem,<br />
and also instantly augmented the<br />
various counter-point melodies<br />
from accompanying instruments<br />
once they were introduced. He also<br />
appreciates the flexibility an early<br />
assessment of the mix can provide:<br />
“I’m quite a big fan of getting<br />
the mix to work early on so that<br />
you can then actually have fun<br />
with it, you can start playing with<br />
treatments, you can start looking<br />
at things that may or may not be<br />
exciting.” Influential ideas that could<br />
dramatically change the approach<br />
towards the total sound are there<strong>for</strong>e much easier<br />
to incorporate than if they were only realised at<br />
the end of the process.<br />
His current work involves mixes <strong>for</strong> an artist<br />
called Statik, an ex-DJ from the Grime music genre<br />
who is working on collaborations with Indie artists<br />
such as Pete Doherty, Coco Sumner, and Fyfe from<br />
milk studios music maker<br />
the Guillemots. A steady stream of clients, almost<br />
all from word of mouth (Aitkenhead has only<br />
advertised in NME about three times during his<br />
career), justifies his decision fourteen years ago<br />
to go pro. He attributes his success to changes in<br />
approaches towards recording artists. He explains,<br />
“I think I’m at the right end of a market that’s now<br />
radically changed. You can make a great sounding<br />
releasable album <strong>for</strong> ten grand now... Maybe less.”<br />
Aitkenhead still loves to go and see live bands<br />
and this ensures that, while he still receives work<br />
from record companies, he is also free to sound<br />
out new, unsigned talent that can benefit from<br />
his studio expertise. And he’s delighted that there<br />
is still a tangible thirst and passion <strong>for</strong> creating<br />
music that means there’ll always be a need <strong>for</strong><br />
recording studios like his. �<br />
....................................<br />
INFORMATION<br />
AdWarranty(<strong>Audio</strong>-<strong>Media</strong> 129x186mm).qxd:Mise en page 1 4/05/09 12:47 Page 1<br />
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AUDIO MEDIA MAY <strong>2009</strong> 45