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| 2009 | Possibly the quietest year we will all face. Good luck everyone! |
| July | New Tuition page added. Now I will be teaching how to use the new package supplied by Propellerhead called Record. If you need to know more go here. |
| June | London International Music Show at Excel. Not as big as last year - the recession hits everything. However an enjoyable day out, finding out about new equipment and software. The thing I am looking forward to most is trying out Record when it comes out later this year. |
| May | Spent a couple of days working at the BBC in Sheperd's Bush. Teaching 2 of their BBC Worldwide technicians how to use Pro Tools 8 with their new PT003. This was my first job for Audio Support. |
| April | Recording and mixing 3 tracks for a local band called Sketch. |
| March | Working on some videos for my band, as a side project just simple rehearsal stuff to give people a view of what we do. Also I am thinking of putting up some training videos. One is in progress. Not easy working to camera with no script but we'll see how it goes. Keep your eyes peeled for when I put it on YouTube. I will have a link on this site. I have to say it is really good getting to do some work in Final Cut. There is so much you can do in FC Express. |
| March | One good thing about this year so far....Kristelle Graff's EP "The Girl from Nowhere" has just been loaded into Tunecore.com and will be available on iTunes UK/Europe, US and Australia/NZ in about 4 to 6 weeks time. She has had some CDs printed, I shall be getting a couple from her next week when I go to see her. You can listen to these tracks on MySpace. Follow the link on my links page. |
| January | Working on some songs for a local songwriter. Very talented. Let's see how this progresses. |
| January | Mixed songs for a Mauritian band. Sounds great but work getting in their way. Which has slowed down them getting new tracks finished. |
| 2008 | |
| November - December 2008 | Working for Sound Architect doing some IT teaching for the elderly in Kent. Will be there in January. A nice way to start Mondays. |
| November 2008 | Went out on a location shoot with a cameraman to record sound for the day. Very interesting day with a radio mic and 416 on a boom trying to stay within 3 metres of the cameraman. I am used to location recording but this was interesting to work with a new company. |
| November 2008 | Worked on a couple of conferences this month which was interesting. Setting up and then running sound for a few days. Also getting to see a bit more of the Visual side of things as well. All good experience. |
| October 2008 | Added a couple of extra pages to my Services section. Mobile recording and Video Post Production. Also I am starting to work in partnership with AE Productions on video/audio recordings of bands. If you need anything go to my Services page or just follow the links. Also because I now have a mobile set up, if you want to see Logic, Pro Tools, Reason or DP before you go out and buy it and you want an impartial piece of advice please call me. |
| September 2008 | Discovered that Max Shire put his first album on CDBaby so you can buy his tracks there. Also some recordings of Carmen that I was involved in about 4 years ago are now on iTunes as well. I think I should go hunting iTunes for all the albums I have ever mixed and see how many are on there.... |
| September 2008 | There are now 6 tunes on iTunes for Silvertown Girl. Apparently we are changing aggregator in the next couple of weeks so the initial three tracks will be down for a while but back again soon. |
| August 2008 | It's all over now. Did the last Derek Acorah dates for Rainbow in Scotland. Three packed houses. I have always enjoyed my trips to Scotland. |
| July 2008 | Max Shire has had loads of great reviews. He even had "Love Lost Again" reviewed in Sound on Sound in July 2008. "There are lots of positive qualities to Max's album, crisp recording, enthusiastic performances...". |
| July 2008 | Got a call asking me if I would engineer at an outside event in Sussex. Approx. 800 people attended the Proms in the Park. Sorted out the kit list for the PA and all the gear with a local PA company and then did the sound on the day. Very lucky with the weather. Really busy day, non-stop for 13 hours, setting up, sound checking and then mixing. Good day. |
| June 2008 | What I thought were going to be my last dates working on the Derek Acorah tour. Apparently there are a handful more at the end of August. |
| June 2008 | Had a trip to SRT in Docklands. Along with the Guitar show and Drummer Live. Good fun day out and some interesting stuff going on. |
| May 2008 | Just starting up a MySpace page to show some of the stuff I have recorded or produced with some of my clients. |
| May 2008 | Working with a DJ to produce some tracks. Round for the first time today with the major parts of a track, which we spent all day rearranging and putting together. More in June... |
| May 2008 | Had a trip to France to help an ex-pat songwriter with some mixing and make sure his set up was working as well as it could. Also to help a local inexperienced sound engineer with the set up for live gigs using an 01V. |
| April 2008 | Spent some more time at the Trinity, 3 gigs to do the sound, a couple as technician and one to do the lights.... Yes, operate the lights, a new experience for me, but once you get used to the desk it's quite straightforward to do the basics. |
| February to April 2008 | Working with Martin and Brenda on some more songs, 7 recorded now and mixing the last 4 in May, getting them ready to go on sale on iTunes. |
| January 2008 | Finished 3 songs with Martin and Brenda, now see where they go... iTunes here we come... |
| January 2008 | Updated the site to include 2 new pages for Sonar, Live and Garageband. Also added new links for www.soundengineer.co.uk , Sonar and Live. |
| January 2008 | Spent 7 days working at the Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells as a Sound Technician. Got a call just before Christmas asking for help on their Medieval Baebes gig. Then they asked me to help out with their Christmas show. Good experience of seeing theatre life from the venue's perspective. |
| 2007 | |
| December 2007 | Another great review for Max at Room 13. They just keep coming in. How long before somebody picks this up and puts it out? |
| December 2007 | The tour is over for another year. Very hard work, a lot of miles but some good new venues and made some new friends. |
| November 2007 | The album that I have been working on with Max Shire is now circulating and getting good reviews from Independent sources. See Max's MySpace page for details. |
| November 2007 | Started work on a 5 day project involving taking Soundbeam to some adults with profound learning disabilities in Kent. |
| October 2007 | Derek Acorah shows start again. I went off to Ireland for the first time. The tour continues through to December. |
| September 6, 2007 | Tomorrow, Friday 7th at 7.15 on BBC Southern Counties Radio a song that was wholly recorded and produced at my studio should be played. Sue Cope came in a few weeks ago and we rearranged "Thinking of You" that was originally recorded here nearly 3 years ago. We're not sure which version is going to be played. If you miss it you should be able to play it again (for a week) from the SCR website. |
| August 2007 | Starting a project this week with a client in Tonbridge, Martin. He's written some songs and found a singer, Brenda, now we start recording. He's had a couple of false starts but he is now ready to go. |
| July 2007 | Now have a copy of the masters from Max, he has a MySpace account with 4 of the tracks on. Follow the link above to have a listen. |
| April/May 2007 | Working on a project mixing tracks that a client (Max Shire) has been working on for a couple of years now, Indie rock with really cutting lyrics and a great voice. |
| April 2007 | Busy, busy, busy... Mixing 14 tracks for a songwriter in South London, some really memorable hooks and some heartfelt lyrics. Should be finished in early May. |
| March 2007 | Still mad out there. Just had a really good night at the Hastings World Music Night at St Mary's in the Castle on Hastings sea front. Apparently had up to 600 people in. I was there to Stage Manage the whole event, a new experience and great fun as well as getting the whole thing to work like clock work. The bands were great and made everything very easy to manage. The headliners were Gabbidon and Celloman. The support acts included Sambalanco and Meli Melo. My favourite of the night was Celloman and his band. It's also great to meet such nice people. Had a nice long chat to Ivan and his percussionist Joelle (I hope I spelt that right...). |
| February 2007 | Got a late call from an agency in London who wanted me to do the sound for an Elvis at a private party. He was brilliant and they were very loud, but a good time had by all. The Elvis was Jim Devereaux from Brighton. I can recommend him as a very good entertainer. He sounds like Elvis, looks like him and puts in a lot of effort to providing an excellent show. See his website at www.this-is-elvis.com . |
| February 2007 | It's completely mad, no time to stop and think. Alongside the Derek stuff and fitting in lessons, I'm mixing an album's worth of material for a songwriter in South London and doing some work for Sound Architect down in Hastings again, some IT as well as music. |
| January 2007 | Here starts the New Year, straight back into Derek Acorah shows from the 18th in Skegness. I doing 23 more dates on this tour. |
| 2006 | |
| December 2006 | DA tour ends and the year comes to a close. It's been pretty busy, but I'm always on the look out for that really interesting project.. |
| November 2006 | Delivered the 500 copies of the Stoke Brunswick CD to the school prior to a big Christmas concert. |
| October 2006 | Plenty of teaching and starting up a project with a client with some new songs and a fantastic singer. |
| September 2006 | Finished mixing and editing the choral album for Stoke Brunswick School. Nearly ready to go to the printers now all we need is a cover.. |
| August 2006 | You can now access my site via the following web addresses: www.digitalperformer.co.uk www.logicpro7.co.uk www.logicprotuition.co.uk www.cubasetuition.co.uk www.protoolstuition.co.uk www.cubasehelp.co.uk www.cubasesx.co.uk www.logicprotutor.co.uk www.cubasetutor.co.uk www.logicprohelp.co.uk |
| August 2006 | I just re-mixed 4 tracks for Rainbow Productions which are going onto a dance/fitness album which is just to be released in the US. This is under the name of Alien Dance Machine with me as joint arranger. |
| July 2006 | Just added a couple of pictures of one of the new control rooms at LMU. See my Studio Set Up and Sound Engineering page. Pictures provided by Ross Rayner-Brown and Pro Music International Ltd. |
| June/July 2006 | A couple of recording sessions of a local school choir. Which will be for a CD for later in the year. Sessions went really well, all the kit worked very nicely. Especially the UltraLite. |
| June 2006 | Splashed out on a new UltraLite from MOTU to replace my Delta 1010LT which was not compatible with my G5. Already showing its worth very simple to use. The monitoring facilities are great. |
| May 2006 | A mad month, loads of Derek Acorah shows... and some really spooky goings on at one of the shows. Well, even more spooky than usual... |
| April 2006 | Pro Tools help now offered. Go to the Tuition page for help. |
| March 2006 | First gig as sound (and lights) man for Pop Fiction. A 3 hour gig in Central London. |
| March 2006 | LMU studios complete. Spent a day last week configuring 2 of the Yamaha DM2000s for 5.1 Surround. Running out into the Genelec speaker system. It's looking and sounding really cool. |
| January 2006 | The Derek Acorah tour starts again. Including a stop at the largest theatre in Europe. The Edinburgh Playhouse. |
| 2005 back to 2002 | Highlights |
| December 2005 | A new music
shop opens in West London. Pro Music International in Ickenham, currently
supplying mainly guitars and percussion but also wind instruments
such clarinets and saxophones as well as all your bits and pieces such as
cables and strings.
They are already building studios for the London Metropolitan University, and are a one stop provider of studio build, equipment and fitting. The shop is due to expand into studio equipment in the new year. It has a much healthier attitude to customer support than its London based competition. |
| November 12th, 2005 | Spent all of yesterday recording a steel band up at the Jubal studios. |
| September 2005 | Some recording for Rainbow Publishing. |
| August 15th 2005 | Pro Music International started work on the London Metropolitan University site. We are building 3 video suites a live room and 3 studio control rooms and kitting them out with all the necessary studio equipment. I am helping on the build and installation. If you need a studio to be built and fitted out contact me and I will put you in contact with Pro Music. |
| June 5th 2005 | I was on TV today apparently. Meridian news showed there footage of the Sound Architect film premiere from last week and I have even managed to be on screen for a couple of seconds... Ah fame... I didn't see it. Oh well. If anybody taped it please tell me... |
| June 3rd 2005 | Finished mixing the Dr Ekei album for Noel at Jubal. All being well it's being mastered next week. |
| May 27th 2005 | Sound Architect had a film premiere for 2 films that they had helped the children at St Mary's school in Bexhill produce. I had to come in at the last minute and provide the PA and be the sound engineer for the show. This was at the White Rock in Hastings, Meridian TV in attendance. |
| April 2nd 2005 | Wow! What a week this was...
I have spent a couple of hours this week in the company of Dames Judi Dench and Vera Lynn recording some poetry and an introduction to a charity CD. Also spent all day on Wednesday with Anna Krantz helping her mix a demo track that her publisher wants to send to a couple of very big names in the States. The publisher likes the mix now so all we have to do is wait... |
| March 5th 2005 | Spent a few days at Rainbow studios editing some vocal takes for an album project with some more recording over the next month for the next project. |
| March 5th 2005 | Loads more to come... I have
now got a copy of the the album I mixed at Jubal just before Christmas for
World Wide Mission.
I have just spent nearly two weeks mixing an album for Sandy Hooks at Jubal as well. She is taking this to the States this month. |
| December 31st 2004 | A very busy year is over. I have recorded, mixed, taught all sorts of students of all sorts of ages in all sorts of places. I have been around the country in some great theatres and been in front of some very large audiences. It has been a fantastic year, and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. I am looking forward to another great year and I hope that everybody enjoys their 2005 as well. |
| October 1st 2004 | I launch my tuition service for Digital Performer 4 on Mac. |
| February 9th 2004 | Today was my first day as sound engineer on a national tour. I am covering for another engineer on some of the dates on this sold out tour. |
| January 30th 2004 | From today this web-site can be found at www.swsounds.co.uk |
| November 2003 | Launched Sound Architect's site last month. |
| August 10, 2003 | Spent a few hours at a mastering suite on Thursday, finalising the CD for Carmen, sounding good. To be launched next week. |
| July 23, 2003 | Apparently the tracks I helped mix for Darren are now in NYC and going down well. Here's hoping.. |
| June 26, 2003 | Boy have I been busy, not only am I helping Darren record his album, I have been mixing for him for another artist who has just taken his tracks off to Miami. On top of this I am in the middle of mixing an album for an artist called Carmen, at a studio in South London, this is soul/gospel. And on top of this I am writing tracks for a singer in Northampton and am in contact with a group who need songs for a forthcoming project. So I am sorry that I haven't had much time to update my site recently. ....And there's more to come as well in the next couple of weeks I hope. Please everybody keep in touch. |
| April 16, 2003 | New page added with my anti war stance. If you listen to my song you will realise it's all of our so called leaders who are the problem, not the people that end up doing the dirty work. |
| February 10, 2003 | New version of "Call to Arms" premiered at Breakout gig and now a solo version recorded. |
| January 10, 2003 | A big day... I found this site in Google, when searching for Cubase and Tuition, I was in the top three on the first page. Some of my searches bought me to the top. |
| January 4, 2003 | Engineered for "Dutch Uncle" at their Marden gig. |
| November 28, 2002 | Website launched Today |
Avid takeover of M-Audio announced. Will there now be Pro Tools for M-Audio soundcards?
Steinberg acquired by Yamaha. Yamaha have bought Steinberg from Pinnacle systems. More changes afoot regarding MLAN and hardware and software compatibility for Yamaha and Steinberg products, such as the 01X and Cubase.
M-Audio for Pro-Tools. I asked the question (see above) and M-Audio answered. You can now get a version of Pro-Tools that will work only with specific M-Audio interfaces... Starting with Firewire devices but building up. RRP is £239. There is a demo on the M-Audio web-site, if you have a relevant audio interface.
New audio interface from MOTU. The UltraLite which is a Firewire 10 in 10 out. Basically an 828MkII without ADAT. RRP is £499 watch the street price. The 828 is £699 RRP but most places you can get it for £540. Also the launch of their first PCI Express soundcard. The new 424 card for their 2408 interface.
Apple with Intel hits the Market. So far new PowerBook, IMac and Mac mini replacements have hit the market. Much faster than their G4 predecessors. I look forward to seeing how good they are.
Apple MacBook hits the Market. Now 3 different models to replace the iBook. Lots of companies now have drivers and Universal Binary versions of their software available to make them Intel compatible. See my advice page for further info.
Reason 4 out now. The popular package has been updated again and is out now for around £300 in the UK. They have changed the look as well as added new instruments. Upgrades are also available.
Apple Mac Pro hits the Market. Now 3 different models to replace the G5. Now the top of the range has 8 core processors.... How much more do they need?
SRT 2008. In June next year there will be a Sound Recording and Technology show at Excel in London alongside the Guitar show and Drummer Live. This is going to be sponsored by Sound on Sound, and will have their seminars as they have had them at Sounds Expo in the past. Apparently these seminars won't be at Sounds Expo next year.
If this is the case how will Sounds Expo fare? Not having SOS as a main contributor cannot be good for the show.
Apple's Logic Studio hits the Market. This is Apple's attempt to blitz the market. Logic Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Waveburner, Main Stage and 5 Jam Packs all in one bundle for £320.... This is an unbelievable package for an unbelievable price. If you think a Mac is expensive think again... Cubase is nearly twice the price and only has Cubase and a few instruments, Logic is loaded with all their standard instruments, Garageband instruments and is bundled with Jam Packs that cost nearly £300 when bought on their own and comes with a new Live software package and Soundtrack as well.
This is Apple saying that you have now have the choice to buy a Mac because the software you need is so much better in value.
Cubase prices start to come down. No doubt forced by the above, you can get Cubase 4 for around £300 to £350 if you look hard enough, other versions cheaper too. They have also put out a version that is similar to the old SE version for 4. Additionally, Steinberg have put out Sequel which is similar in spec to Garageband.
Digital Performer 6 shown at NAMM. A new version of DP was shown off for the first time. I don't think they have set a release date yet, or a price. Also, MOTU have started selling the 828 Mk3. Looks fairly similar but now has DSP processing built in as well. So you can use MOTU's EQ, Reverb and Vintage Compression. The Mk3 is Firewire only, they are still selling the Mk2 USB.
Turnkey and Sound Control in Administration. Just heard that Sound Control group has gone into administration. It has closed a number of it's shops though some including the London shops in Charing Cross Road and Oxford Street are still currently open. You can no longer order of Turnkey's or Sound Control's website. Go to either of their websites for details. This could have a major effect on the entire market if they go under... Watch this space. 4/6/2008
Well no longer apparently. Sound Control in Oxford Street gone and Turnkey too... August 2008
Cubase 5 Launched. Some new features and instruments but still more expensive than Logic. It is getting really impressive reviews, I would say great if you are committed to PC but Logic still looks better value if you are MAC based.
Apple launch new machines. A new MacBook and MacBook Pro as well as new iMacs and Minis all hit the shops in the last couple of months. I can't understand putting out a MacBook without Firewire, but all the others do have it. Prices are hiking though because of the exchange rates drifting against us. The cheapest Mini is now £499 not £399.
Propellerhead to launch Record. This new programme will hit the streets on 9/9/2009. It will be for PC and Intel Macs only.
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Send email to (Please use either of these links below) swsounds@hotmail.com this will generate a blank email for you to ask your questions. swsounds@tiscali.co.uk this will generate an email with some questions in, just fill in what you want. These links sends to 2 addresses as a precautionary measure against emails getting lost in the system. If you'd like a faster response please ring me and if I don't answer send me a text, I will always get back to you as quickly as I can. For my number click here. Copyright ©
2005 to 2009 SW Sounds
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