People & Music Industry

Producer, mixer and engineer Cameron Craig joins Kevin Paul to discuss his traditional path into the music industry, share advice for newcomers looking to break in today and to shed light on the work of the Music Producers Guild and its positive impact on the industry.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:40 - Route Into The Industry
04:22 - Career Progression At Flagstaff Studios
06:56 - Learning As An Assistant
09:52 - The Blurring Of Engineer And Producer Roles
14:06 - Moving To The UK
17:52 - Setting Up As A Freelancer
19:42 - Technology Changing The Industry
25:01 - Working With Inspiring Artists
26:58 - The Music Producers Guild
30:09 - Lobbying For AI Consent
33:54 - Benefits Of Membership
35:46 - The Future Of The MPG
37:44 - Tips For Getting Into The Industry

We’d like to thank Neil Pickles and the management at Pierce Entertainment for letting us record this episode at their studio.
https://www.pierce-entertainment.com/

Music Producers Guild
The Music Producers Guild is a not for profit organisation that was started by producers, mixers, recording engineers, re-mixers and programmers and is run by volunteers from within the industry. Their aim is to support members in their careers, campaign for the rights of music industry workers, promote diversity within the industry and to celebrate the achievements of members via the annual MPG Awards.

https://mpg.org.uk/

Cameron Craig Biog

Cameron is a two time Grammy award-winning Producer-Mixer-Engineer. A hugely impressive credit list notably also includes several albums with U.N.K.L.E., along with names like Adele, Annie Lennox, Bjork, Tina Turner, Baxter Dury, Grace Jones, Joe Strummer, Duffy, Amy Winehouse and many more.

His work has encompasses an enormous spectrum of musical styles including indie, dance, film soundtrack and orchestral recording, picking up a Grammy award for "Album of the Year" for his part in recording Adele's 25 and collecting another Grammy award for "Best Engineered - Non classical” in 2008 for his contribution to the Suzanne Vega album Beauty and Crime also recording the orchestra on Duffy's Grammy and Brit award-winning Rockferry album.

Other notable accolades are Grammy nominations for Annie Lennox’s Nostalgia album that he mixed, Bjork’s Biophilia album that he recorded a track on, a nomination for MPG’s Recording Engineer of the Year 2015.

Having started out in his native Australia he achieved great success with many multi-platinum albums and a nomination for ARIA Engineer of the year in 1995 to his name. It is then Cameron decided to move to the UK to further his career.

Cameron is an Executive Director of the MPG and sits on the board of UK music representing the MPG to the wider music community.

https://www.cameroncraig.info

Kevin Paul Biog
Kevin Paul started his career as a DJ but quickly found his passion was sound engineering. His first audio job was at Soho Studios in 1991, moving to Konk Studios six months later, where he worked alongside successful producers and engineers such as Bob Clearmountain, Adam Mosley, Pascal Gabriel and Gil Norton, as well as bands such as The Kinks, Galliano, Terrorvision, UFO and Elastica.
After working on archiving the Depeche Mode back catalogue in 1994, he was offered an engineering role at Mute Records’ in-house studio, which eventually lead to a position as Head Engineer, which gave him access to the entire Mute Records roster. Highlights include mixing Goldfrapp’s “Felt Mountain”, David Bowie’s “Hours” and Nick Cave’s “No More Shall We Part”. He also worked in 5:1, mixing Moby’s “Hotel”, Goldfrapp’s “Black Cherry“ and more for DVD.

In 2004 Kevin went freelance and re-mixed the entire Depeche Mode and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds back catalogues for SACD/DVD. Since 2008, Kevin Paul has been in charge of mixing and remixing performances at the iTunes Festivals in the UK and Germany. He has mixed over 100 artists to date, including Adele, Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The XX, Calvin Harris, Foo Fighters, Jack White, Linkin Park, Florence & The Machine, Deadmau5, David Guetta, Jessie J., Norah Jones, Oasis, Mumford & Sons, N.E.R.D., Lykke Li, James Blunt, KT Tunstall, Hot Chip, Paul Weller and many more.

He continues to record, engineer, produce and mix many projects in music and film, runs the mixing and surround mixing modules for the Masters Degree course at UK’s Westminster University and divides his time between London and Berlin. Recent works include the International selling new album by N...

Introducing the Sound On Sound Podcasts. Yes, that’s podcasts, because we’re launching three dedicated channels each with their own series of episodes to keep you entertained throughout each month.

You’ll hear interviews, features, discussion, opinion and occasional demos of the gear we’re reviewing from many of the SOS magazine staff and our expert Freelance team.

The People & Music Industry channel will feature the great and good in engineering, production and manufacturing.

You should also hop over to our other channels and subscribe there for even more shows.

The Recording & Mixing channel takes the practical approach and will keep you inspired with expert hints and tips.

The Electronic Music channel is for everyone interested in synths, samplers and the world of electronic music.

We launch our first two shows on May 21st so subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

All shows are mastered to the highest quality the podcast channel will support and are in stereo.

Check out our website page for further details www.soundonsound.com/podcasts

Siamäk Naghian and Andy Bensley of Genelec chat to Sam Inglis about the 43 year history of the company, the development of new technology and future sustainability.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:21 - Company History
02:57 - Focusing On The Pro Audio Market
04:15 - Technology As The Foundation
05:00 - In-House Design And Production
09:44 - Exploring Different Technologies
12:52 - Coaxial (MDCTM) Drivers
14:22 - Directivity Control Waveguide (DCWTM)
20:31 - Consistency Across The Range
22:36 - DSP And Calibration
26:34 - Aural ID And Immersive Audio
32:00 - Tech In Development
33:25 - Sustainability In Music Tech
38:25 - Equipment Built To Last
39:53 - The Right To Repair

Genelec Biog
For over 40 years, Genelec active studio monitors and subwoofers have delivered truthful, neutral sound reproduction — enabling engineers and creatives to make accurate and reliable mix decisions, even in challenging rooms.

Founded in Finland by childhood friends Ilpo Martikainen and Topi Partanen, the company’s first monitor, the S30, instantly became the blueprint for Genelec’s future direction. Its active design delivered consistent performance, total reliability, and the ability to adapt to the acoustic environment it was operating in.

The following decades have seen a string of technically innovative Genelec releases, from the now-legendary 1031A nearfield model to the latest coaxial point source models from The Ones family. Genelec’s growing range of Smart Active Monitors work closely with GLM calibration software, allowing each monitor to be completely optimised for the room, producing mixes that translate consistently to the outside world.

Siamäk Naghian travelled from his native Iran to settle in Finland in the 1980s and continue his studies. After graduating, he went on to hold senior positions at telecommunications giant Nokia before joining Genelec in 2005 as R&D Director. Siamäk has been Genelec’s Managing Director since 2011.

Andy Bensley joined Genelec as Regional Business Development Manager in 2019. Based in the UK, Andy has huge experience in analysing and tuning the in-room performance of loudspeaker systems in a wide range of studios – from the smallest bedroom to the largest post production studio.

https://www.genelec.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).
https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Dean James Barratt is a sought-after Mix Engineer based out of The Dairy Studios in London. His recent credits include Shy FX, Joy Crookes, Ray Black, James Vickery, Rag n Bone Man, Craig David, Jess Glynne, and lots more. Dean talks to Sam Inglis about his personal road to becoming a freelance Mix Engineer, what he thinks defines that role, tips on making it, and what he thinks keeps clients coming back for more.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:31 - Career Beginnings
07:24 - Going Freelance
11:15 - Personality
12:17 - Working In A Team
13:39 - Challenges Of Being Freelance
15:39 - Not Limiting Yourself
17:43 - Make Yourself Employable

Dean James Barratt Biog
Dean James Barratt is a Grammy nominated mix engineer based in London, UK who has worked with numerous artists and on film and television soundtracks. He has credits on tracks by Jess Glynne, Nina Nesbitt, Craig David, Ray BLK, Shy FX (including Jorja Smith and Rag N Bone Man remixes) and Meridian Dan.

Dean has a strong love of reggae and dub breaks and has been a part of the club and bass music scene, mixing for the likes of Skream, Benga, MistaJam and Ministry of Sound.

Film & TV credits include work on Human Planet, Midnights Children, Blindsight and The Namesake.
He’s also recorded and mixed the soundtracks for the Games Enslaved and Heavenly Sword.
https://www.deanjamesbarratt.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Bernt Malmqvist is one of the last remaining links to the golden age of microphone design. Having joined the Swedish manufacturer Pearl as a precision mechanic in 1954, he rose to become Production Manager, product designer and eventually the owner of the company. He talks to Sam Inglis about his extraordinary career and the unique design approach he learned from founder Rune Rosander.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:39 - Joining Pearl
01:58 - Rune Rosander
06:05 - The Microphone Market In The 1950s
07:19 - How Mics Were Made And Tested
08:26 - The Rectangular Capsule
11:18 - The ELM Microphone Range
14:10 - Valve To Solid State And Back Again
17:19 - The Milab VIP-50
18:36 - Why Design Matters
19:34 - Manufacturing Today
20:55 - The Importance Of Good Components
22:20 - Why Pearl Mics Are Never Obsolete!
Pearl Milab Biog
Founded in 1941, Pearl Microphones is one of the oldest continuously operating microphone manufacturers in the world. To this day, every Pearl microphone is built entirely by hand in Sweden and delivered with its own individual frequency chart.

Pearl is perhaps best known for its unique rectangular microphone capsules, originally developed by the company’s founder Rune Rosander in the 1950s. Today, the brand offers a wide selection of condenser microphones based on rectangular capsules and also a range of MS-stereo and surround microphones. Pearl’s microphones have been particularly embraced by the world of classical music and can be found in opera houses and with symphony orchestras all over the world.

In 2017, Pearl was acquired by its previous sister company Milab Microphones and today both Pearl and Milab microphones are built side-by-side in the same workshop in Åstorp in southern Sweden.

https://www.milabmic.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

https://www.soundonsound.com

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts