One of our popular Longterm-let rooms at Hoxton Market will become available at the start of 2011. Here’s some exciting news for anyone looking to get their hands on their own private creative space, but don’t hang around – these rooms get snapped up faster than a sausage in a piranha pool!
Hoxton Suite 5 is a good-size daylit space, with shared use of an office/lounge area (which occasionally can be used for recording). The studio is situated on the first floor of our Hoxton Market premises and has 24-hour access and a red-care alarm system monitored around the clock.
The room is perfect for a writer / programmer / musician. To find out more call the office on 0207-232-0008 or email info@miloco.co.uk.
www.miloco.co.uk/longterm/hoxton_suite5.php
Posted in London Recording Studios, Long-term Let Recording Studios | Tagged Hoxton studio, Miloco Hoxton, Miloco longterm-lets, private studio hoxton |
Channel 4’s InputOutput show music show debuted on November 27 and featured exclusive performances from Egyptian Hip Hop and Slow Club. It was shot in Miloco’s Pool studio in London SE1. Presented by Rich Fulcher, the episode is being aired on the C4 website for a limited time. Click the link below to view…
It’s a pleasure to welcome guest blogger Mike Crossey, our partner at the Motor Museum Studio in Liverpool, to share his thoughts on the latest piece of gear at the studio, the Endless Analog CLASP – Tape to DAW synchronization hardware…
I have always been a big fan of recording to analogue tape, for me it adds another dimension to the recording that is impossible to get with digital. It emotionally has more impact on me. All of the records I have worked on that have stood the test of time with me personally have all had tape in the chain at the recording process.
As a huge fan of this way of recording I can list many advantages to recording this way!
Tape gives those slight differences in tone that provide cinematic width to your stereo sounds.
Tape thickens your transients providing a more meaty punch to your drums and percussion.
Tape smooths your dynamics in a much more musical way than any compressor can, leaving you with more power in your raw tracking.
Tape provides a sonic thumbprint to all your individual tracks that allows them to marry together perfectly in the mix.
Tape forces you to use good engineering practice with your gain structure and levels.
Tape laces your sounds with harmonic richness that makes your EQ feel more powerful in the mix.
Tape running at 15 ips gives a huge tight low end that has to be heard to be believed.
All that vintage gear everyone loves, U47s, Vintage Neve mic pre-amps etc, were all designed to hit tape and sonics of that process were allowed for in the design. Check it out!
In my view, the reasons that tape has been left behind to the pro tools generation have never been sonic reasons but financial reasons and convenience. Much of modern culture makes this sacrifice, quality for convenience/cost.
Imagine being able to work with the speed and editing possibilities of pro tools but still have all of the benefits of tape! I never thought this would be possible until now!
When I first heard about the Endless Analog CLASP system on youtube I was literally straight on the phone to the designer Chris Estes In Nashville to have him explain it to me more. The main challenge for Chris is to actually get across how seamlessly CLASP works and how this is achieved. I’ll have a go…
CLASP allows Pro Tools to take complete control of your tape machine. Once the tape is loaded on the machine, you never need to touch the tape machine again for the whole session. You can work in Pro Tools as you would normally! How amazing is that!
CLASP has a built in switching system that automatically controls how your performers can monitor what they are playing (with zero latency!) and what is routed to tape.
CLASP learns your tape machine and can take control of the pro tools delay compensation engine to automatically compensate for the delays between the record head and the repro head in real time.
CLASP is constantly sending information about the status of your tape machine to pro tools via MIDI and in vice versa, can control your tape machine through the cable that would normally run to your remote transport.
CLASP allows you to change tape speeds on the fly mid session. Would you like to record your bass and drums at 15ips and your vocals at 30ips? No problem. This was never possible before when working just with tape.
Lets say for example you have a singer with the vocal chain patched into multitrack input 3, you then arm track 3 in pro tools ready to record…
1. CLASP routes the live mic directly to channel 3 on the console from here the vocal can be sent to foldback, this allows the performer to monitor themselves with ZERO LATENCY.
True zero latency monitoring is not possible when monitoring post converter in pro tools. I have noticed a marked increase in the comfort and performance of a musician performing to a true analogue signal of themselves.
2. CLASP then also simultaneously routes this signal directly to the 3rd input of the tape machine, when you put Pro Tools into record, your tape machine automatically jumps into record also.
3. Whilst in record during the take, CLASP automatically transfers the take straight from the repro head into input 3 of Pro Tools.
All delays involved in this process are corrected in real time!
3. Once your take is finished and you press stop, as soon as you disarm track 3 in pro tools and CLASP automatically then routes Pro Tools output 3 to track 3 on your console in place of the original live mic ready for playback.
4. In summary, the recorded region in pro tools has hit tape, been played out off the repro head, transferred to pro tools and been placed in sample accurate time with your existing tracks. Seamlessly and instantly!
This process allows you to work with playlists, comp between takes, edit arrangements and everything else you would normally in a pro tools session but with every track recorded to tape with that sound 🙂
As you are working with the tape machine in a non linear way, there is no need to rewind the tape between takes. My preference is to work at 15ips on our studer A80, this allows for 30 minutes solid record time before a 45 second break is needed to let the tape rewind again, CLASP warns you when you are about to run out of tape and you can of course rewind the machine directly from pro tools without having to leave your workflow.
Because of the way CLASP integrates Tape with Pro Tools, you also see less tape wear and wear on the machine itself. This allows reels of precious tape to go a lot further and minimum maintenance required!
Anyway as I’m sure you can tell from this blog, I am blown away by this system and it has allowed recent sessions to run smoothly and quickly without any compromise to the sound quality, suddenly I am able to use tape on the single sessions where only a few days are booked for tracking!
Here at the motor museum, we have also been having fun experimenting with different lineups on the Studer. Adding a slight high lift at 10Khz on the record lineup at 15ips and setting the bias by ear on a 40Hz sub tone Steve Albini style being my favourites!
Producers and Engineers, Come and check it out!
www.milocostudios.com/studios/the-motor-museum/
Posted in Mixing Studios, Neve Recording Studios, Recording Studio Equipment, Tracking Studios, UK Recording Studios | Tagged Endless Analog CLASP, Miloco Motor Museum Studio, producer Mike Crossey |
Slaves To Gravity and Pitchshifter drummer Jason Bowld went down to Lightship95 with his very tasty Mapex Meridian to thrash it out in front of a camera to basically testify to the brilliance of this kit. The promotional video is now wowing viewers on YouTube – you can check it out here too.
The BBC’s ‘Sound of…’ poll is out, meaning we can rest easy knowing which new artists we’ll all be shacking up with in an arranged musical matrimony for 2011 – thank you Zane, Grimmy and associates for yet another annual list of your enlightened prophecies.
This time around there are 4 up-and-comers set for big things over the next 12 months which we are proud to have welcomed through the Miloco studio doors this year…
Anna Calvi‘s pale and haunting electric folk was being mixed at The Garden in Spring by Craig Silvey. This year she toured with Grinderman, and earned the praises of Brian Eno who dubbed Calvi “the biggest thing since Patti Smith”. Her debut will be released in January by Domino.
Clare Maguire‘s debut album has been three years in the making. During that time not only has she popped in and out of various Miloco studios, but has also been courted by a handful of movers and shakers including Rick Rubin and Jay-Z before eventually signing with Universal. The Birmingham-born songstress has toured with Plan B and Hurts this year. 2011 expects…
Jamie Woon is described by the Beeb as one of the key figures within the vanguard of post-dubstep. His mum sang for Michael Jackson, he went to the BRIT School to become a troubadour, before finally finding his sound within electronic soul at the Barcelona Red Bull Music Academy. He’s had some friendly support along the way from the likes of Burial, Mary Anne Hobbs and of course Miloco (!), whose Yard studio he has used in 2010.
The Vaccines‘ singer Justin Young was momentarily bubbling under the surface of the same folk scene which spawned Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons and Noah and The Whale. Back then he was known as Jay Jay Pistolet, but now he fronts one of the most hyped new indie bands in the country, described by Clash Music as, “game changers…that will launch a hundred wannabees”, and Radio One DJ Zane Lowe as a band that would “kickstart a new era”. The Vaccines recorded their debut album in Miloco’s Square studio in October/November.
The Top 15 Sound of 2011 tips are:
Anna Calvi, Clare Maguire, Daley, Esben and the Witch, Jai Paul, James Blake, Jamie Woon, Jessie J, Mona, Nero, The Naked & Famous, The Vaccines, Warpaint, Wretch 32, Yuck.
www.bbc.co.uk/music/soundof/2011/
Posted in London Recording Studios, Miloco Clients, Mixing Studios, Neve Recording Studios, New Albums, Record Producers, Recording Studio Engineers, SSL Recording Studios, Tracking Studios, UK Recording Studios | Tagged Anna Calvi, BBC Sound of 2011, Clare Maguire, Jamie Woon, Miloco clients, The Vaccines |
Ellie’s beautiful cover of the Elton John classic has become one of the unofficial theme tunes to Christmas 2010, thanks to the air time
given to it by John Lewis’ TV advertising wing. It has remained lodged at the top end of the singles charts since release, so far peaking at Number 2
‘Your Song’ was recorded and mixed in The Pool by Interface engineer Matt Lawrence in October 2010.
Posted in London Recording Studios, Mixing Studios, New Albums, Record Producers, Recording Studio Engineers, Tracking Studios, UK Recording Studios | Tagged Ellie Goulding Your Song, Matt Lawrence engineer, Miloco The Pool Studio |
It’s December, therefore exorbitant numbers of journalists, bloggers and pub philosophers are separating this year’s worthwhile records from the woeful ones. Here is one list which will rightly spark a fruitful debate or two, the NME Track of the Year. So it comes with much glee to announce that a 100% Miloco-made track has scaled higher than any other up the taste-making walls of Britain’s favourite music weekly to grab the title for 2010.
Foals’ ‘Spanish Sahara’, from the Mercury-nominated album Total Life Forever, was recorded in Assault & Battery 2 by Daniel Rejmer, and mixed in Assault & Battery 1 by Alan Moulder. It saw off stiff competition from Grinderman’s ‘Heathen Child’ (also recorded in Assault & Battery 2), Arcade Fire’s ‘We Used To Wait’ and Gorillaz’s ‘Stylo’.
The NME’s Luke Lewis describes his admiration for the song: “‘Spanish Sahara’ is subtle, mysterious, cryptic – it creates a filmic world of its own that you want to crawl inside.”
The Top 10 tracks of 2010 as voted by the NME are:
1. Foals – Spanish Sahara
2. MIA – XXXO
3. Janelle Monae – Tightrope
4. Kanye West – Power
5. Arcade Fire – We Used To Wait
6. Gorillaz – Stylo
7. Surfer Blood – Swim (To Reach The End)
8. Grinderman – Heathen Child
9. Zola Jesus – Night
10. The Fall – Bury Pts 2+4
The nominees for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, to be held in Los Angeles on 13th February 2011 have been announced, and Miloco are thrilled to reveal that 5 of our clients are in amongst the shortlisted few for some of the top awards on the night.
With a staggering 109 different award categories, it is safe to say that the world’s most famous Music Awards Ceremony is certainly one of the longest too. It also contains some of the lengthiest and most mouth-filling categories you could think of; alas, Miloco representatives in the ‘Best Zydeco Or Cajun Music Album‘ there are not. However, here’s what we can boast about this time around…
Our friend and business partner at The Garden Studios in Shoreditch, Craig Silvey, heads the list of Miloco Grammy Nominees, for his work mixing the Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs. The Canadian band’s magnificent third album is gunning for three of the big gongs in February: ‘Album of the Year’, ‘Best Alternative Music Album’ and ‘Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals’ for track ‘Ready To Start’.
Miloco have two clients nominated for the ‘Best New Artist’ award. The first is Florence and the Machine, whose Miloco-made debut album Lungs stormed both sides of the Atlantic throughout 2009/2010. Mumford & Sons, whose debut album Sigh No More was partly-recorded with us, will be going head-to-head with Florence & co.
The Recording Academy have paid tribute to the exceptional return of Sade, whose album Soldier of Love, which was recorded at Miloco’s El Cortijo, is shortlisted for the ‘Best R&B Performance By A Duo or Group With Vocals’. Lastly, past winners The Chemical Brothers will be looking to expand on their collection of Golden Gramophones having been voted for ‘Best Electronic/Dance Album’ for 2010’s Further, which was mixed in Miloco’s Engine Room by Steve ‘Dub’ Jones.
We wish all nominees the best of luck on the night!!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Arcade Fire, Chemical Brothers, Craig Silvey, Florence and the Machine, Grammy Awards 2011, Miloco nominees, Mumford & Sons, Sade |
Prince Fatty is one of the monikers of Miloco’s good friend and business partner Mike Pelanconi. The second Prince Fatty album features 11 tracks of collaborations with the likes of Winston Francis, Little Roy and Horseman. Features the track ‘Dry Your Tears’, which was made iTunes Single of The Week in early December.
Mike Pelaconi recorded and mixed Super Size in The Ironworks Studios in Brighton.
Posted in Miloco Clients, Mixing Studios, New Albums, Record Producers, Recording Studio Engineers, Tracking Studios, UK Recording Studios | Tagged Dry Your Tears, iTunes Single of the Week, Mike Pelanconi, Prince Fatty, Super Size |
Comedian, Actor and performance poet Tim Key, who was the 2009 winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award, has been spending some time down at Lightship95 Studios in the London Docks. Tim has been making an album of poetry called ‘Tim Key. With A String Quartet. On A Boat’. Here is a video recording of his performance of track ‘Waterloo’. Stay tuned on the Miloco blog for more information about the new album of poetry from Tim Key.
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