In this week’s podcast Russ Hughes is joined by Olga Fitzroy and Dom Morley asks for a discussion on approaches to recording and mixing.

The Guests

Olga Fitzroy

Olga Fitzroy was born in Berlin but grew up in Germany and Scotland, before moving to the South of England to complete a Tonmeister degree at Surrey University. An internship led to 10 years at AIR Studios, London, where she trained with some of the finest talents in engineering and production, working on records for Coldplay, The Foo Fighters and Muse, as well as film scores for top composers including  Hans Zimmer. A particular highlight was assisting Sir George Martin on the last ever Beatles recording for the 2006 album, Love. In 2013  she joined the roster at AIR Management. 

Dom Morley

Dom Morley is a Grammy Award winning producer and mixer based in his own Oxfordshire (UK) studio. Dom engineered on Amy Winehouse's number 1 "Back To Black" album, Mark Ronson's "Version" and "Record Collection", Richard Ashcroft's 'These People' and "Keys To The World', the Grinderman (Nick Cave) debut album and singles for Adele, Morrissey, JP Cooper & Estelle amongst others.

Dom has also engineered or mixed for Rag'n'Bone Man, The Staves, Rumer, Keane, Birdy, Lemon Jelly, Jeff Beck, Sting, I Am Kloot, The Verve, Live8 (DVD) and Underworld, as well as working with The Police on the pre-production for their world tour and recording and mixing the audio for the 5 "Intros" and "Input/Output" series for Channel 4 and Island Records (including Mumford & Sons, Florence + The Machine, Bombay Bicycle Club and many others).

Talking Point

• Why recording and mixing, rather than on the other side of the glass?

• What makes for a good recording session?

• When you track an album how much of the end game, in other words the mix, is in your mind at that point?

• How do you balance the commercial interest with the integrity of an idea? Not that they are always mutually exclusive, but I’m sure there are times when labels want to push a project in a direction that may take it away from the genuine essence of the original idea?

• How hard is it as an engineer/mixer to bite your lip if you think something in a session is going wrong

  Questions From Facebook

• Dave Minjard - What is the trick to getting vocals to sit in the mix like they belong? I feel like I have a good ear for the music mastering, but my vocals always seem jarring.

• Joel Evans - Do you also gauge the time it will take to “fix” a sucky performance or song while your still recording that song?

• Greg Casper - Looking back, what question should YOU have asked a top recording or mixing engineer when you were getting started?

• Keith Walker - How are you holding up? Manage life work balance.. that’s always my problem