News from HL Studios

15-11-2007
Roachford recording at HL Studios.
Andrew Roachford, who hit the UK charts with Family Man and the smash “Cuddly Toy” has been in writing and recording for the forthcoming Mark Hill album.

14-11-2007
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 upgrade arrives.
The latest incarnation of the highly applauded Guitar Rig amp simulator has arrived and been installed on our system. Tasty. Very Tasty.

13-11-2007
Michelle Escoffery (award winning writer of Liberty X hit “Just A Little”) at HL Studios.
Singer/songwriter Michelle Escoffery, (vocalist on UK top 20 hit “Think About Me” has been in at HL Studios writing and recording for the forthcoming Mark Hill album.

09-11-2007
iPhone installed
Ok, so it’s not really studio news exactly but I got an Apple iPhone and I’m rather over excited about it! My dad bought it for my birthday. It’s awesome.
Cheers Dad!!

26-10-2007
Waves GTR3 installed
Waves, manufacturers of some of the world’s most respected audio plug ins had recently announced the third incarnation of the GTR plug in, a guitar amp package they designed in comjunction with Paul Reed Smith, the legendary guitar maker. We have installed the new GTR 3 and taken delivery of three of the PRS guitar interface boxes to allow multiple guitarists to use the system at once.

26-10-2007
Recreating “The Only Way Is Up”
After a frantic multi-national search to find an original backing track for the Yazz classic “The Only Way Is Up”, failed to find a suitable version, we rushed to create a new one from a half complete DAT version  that was all that could be found. After editing to the original’s structure, we added the missing parts before guitarist John “J.D” D’Arcy worked with Yazz to create a unique Jazz/soul/acoustic introduction to the song. Yazz used the resulting track for her first live performance of the track in many years, on Sunday 30th Oct, where the audience reaction to both her new album and the unique reworking of this classic track were incredible.

03-10-2007
Ken Russell working on film soundtrack
Legendary film director Ken Russell (The Who’s rock opera “Tommy”) has been in with his wife Elise, working on music for a film project currently in development. Their thoughts on HL Studios can be found in our reviews section.

14-09-2007
Apple Logic Pro 8 arrives.
After 3 years and many rumours, the wait for a major upgrade to Apple’s fantastic Logic Pro audio software is over. Logic Studio, which includes Logic Pro 8 is fully up and running in HL Studios. It’s a significant upgrade with a host of new features we expect to benefit our clients.

01-08-2007
Kelly-Marie Smith (Shapeshifters) at HL Studios
Kelly-Marie Smith, featured vocalist of hot dance act “Shapeshifters” has been in writing and recording a track for the forthcoming Mark Hill (Artful Dodger/Craig David) album. The track “Over” is on audio examples page.

20-07-2007
Waves L3-16 Multiband Mastering Limiter installed.
We have now installed the new Waves L3-16 Multiband limiter. This unique plug in is a first in mastering limiters as it splits the audio into not 3, 4 or even the 5 bands found on current high end mastering limiters, but into 16 bands. This means it can control level changes in one frequency area of a mix, without damaging the natural dynamics of another frequency area.
Short version. It helps makes mastered mixes sound better. J

16-06-2007
Yazz completes new studio album at HL Studios.
International super star “Yazz” who spent six weeks at number one with the classic “The Only Way Is Up” has now completed the recording of her first studio album in many years. She began the album here at HL Studios back in March 2007 and has been commuting back and forth from her home in Spain since then to record what she has described as her most complete recording to date. You can read more about her time here on our reviews page and see more about the album on her webpage (www.yazzmusic.co.uk) or myspace page (www.myspace.com/yazzmusic)