The studio
Precision tools with natural tone
Housed in an old stone miner’s cottage on the outskirts of Bristol, my studio is packed with a curated selection of analogue and digital tools I know like the back of my hand.
Every single piece meets the highest standards of precision – even when oozing colour. Between them, I have a full palette that ranges from clean and elegant all the way to filthy. I’m proud to be on first-name terms with the guys who made half of my analogue gear. And that it’s all housed in a beautiful bespoke desk, handmade from reclaimed Somerset wood.
Mastering equipment
Full-range, mastering-grade monitoring in a GIK Acoustics-treated environment. My flexible analogue chain covers most masters, but cutting edge digital tools are on hand for complex cases.
Monitoring
Perfectly accurate playback
Klein & Hummel 0300s
Full-range monitors
Neumann KH750 DSP
Digitally calibrated subwoofer
Neumann KH120s
Mid-range monitors
Avantone Mixcube
Mono ‘grotbox’
Prism Sound Lyra 2
Mastering-grade audio interface
SPL 2Control
Monitor controller
Sennheiser HD650s
Reference headphones
Analogue
Each piece carefully chosen for its character
API 2500
Classic VCA compressor dripping with API op-amp tone
Crane Song HEDD 192
Legendary AD/DA converters with tape/tube saturation
Custom Audio Germany HDE-250
Boutique reboot of the original centrepiece mastering EQ – with switchable transformers
DAV Electronics BG3
Customised 1970s Decca Records heritage mastering EQ
Gyraf Gyratec XIV
Buttery parallel passive tube EQ, hand-built in Denmark
Manley Vari-Mu
The quintessential stereo tube compressor. ‘Like pouring sweet cream on the mix’
Rupert Neve Designs Master Buss Processor
Thick, clean compression with adjustable transformer saturation and stereo width control
Software
For colourless processing and precision
EQ
DMG Audio Equilibrium
Compression
DMG Audio Multiplicity
Tone Projects Unisum
Limiting
DMG Audio Limitless
Izotope Ozone 9 Advanced
Dithering
Goodhertz Good Dither
Maat LinPro
DAW
Pro Tools Studio
Wavelab Pro 11
Mixing tools
I like to stick to a handful of plugins I know really well, and that I trust to sound as natural as possible. Every now and then I break out a plugin that isn’t on this list when I need a particular character. But I’ve been careful to choose flexible tools that cover me for most mixes.
EQ
DMG Equilibrium
UAD API Vision channel strip
UAD Manley Massive Passive
UAD SSL E Channel
Compression
DMG Trackcomp 2
UAD API 2500
UAD 1176 Collection
UAD Empirical Labs Distressor
UAD LA2A Collection
Reverb/delay
Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven Professional
SoundToys EchoBoy
Valhalla VintageVerb
Saturation
SoundToys Decapitator
Tone Projects Kelvin
UAD Neve 1073
UAD Studer A800
Like most engineers, I mainly use digital for individual parts. But I do tend to mix into an analogue master bus. It helps create a living, breathing space in which to place every part.