MUDDYLOOP IN SOUND ON SOUND!!!

Not really….but this is what it would be like (cue wavy dream sequence and twinkly music)….

“Sorry Ben, Blonde P should be here any second, he’s just…errr…been delayed in road works on the A406. He should be here any minute. Can I make you another tea?”
“No I’m cool Metro.”
My mobile rand. It was Blonde.
“Speak of the devil”
I went in the other room and answered
“You’re late”
“Shut up and open up these stupid gates you dickhead so I can put my car in”
I hung up the phone and pressed the button to open up the gates for Blonde.
“So Ben, do you wanna get your stuff and we can go through to the MUDPOD?”
“Mudpod…is that what you call your studio. Cool name”
Ben, the journalist from Sound On Sound magazine, grabbed his bag and followed me out the house where we met Blonde, who was climbing out of his car, holding a venti Starbucks and his little green box.
“Ben this Blonde P. Blonde this is Ben from Sound on Sound”
“Wassup Ben. Sorry I’m late. Road works are a nightmare”
“No problem.”
Blonde reeked of skunk as he shook hands with the journalist.
All three of us then walked round the side of the house to the eco-pod that I set my studio up in.
“Wow. The studio’s in there?”
“Yep”
“Who built this?
“It’s by a company called office in garden. This is one of their eco habs.”
“And you got the studio in there?”
“Yep. Hence the name MUDPOD”
I punched in the code on the lock, opened the door to the MUDPOD and the three of us walked in. The smell of cinnamon incense sticks hit us as soon as we walked in. I spent the morning tidying the studio and making it look extra sexy for the photos. I mean my baby was going to be in a magazine. Have to make her look top notch.

Ben couldn’t stop looking around, examining the colours, textures and decor and the way that the studio equipment all fitted so organically with its quirky surroundings.

“Wow. This place is so cool. You guys have done a really good job with this.”
“Thanks”
Ben got out his pen and pad and iPhone.
“Do you guys mind if i stick the Dictaphone on?”
“No man. Go ahead”
“Seriously, it’s really awesome in here. This must be such a creative environment to make music”
“That was the intention from the beginning. That’s always been our vision – to create the perfect environment to make music. Where ourselves and other artists can get lost in another world…Away from the real world. Innit Blonde?”
“Yep. For us, it’s less about the equipment and more about the environment”
“So we focused a lot on colours and textures.”
“And smell. Smell is such an important factor in the creative process”
“And of course lights. We spent a hell of a lot of money on the lights in here. I’ll show you that at the end.”

Ben was taking notes as we spoke, letting the Dictaphone on his iPhone roll.

“So do you guys wanna run through the equipment you use to produce?”
“Sure. Well, the centre piece of our studio is ProTools and Maschine. We use both of these pieces of software to write, arrange and mix. Sometimes I use Maschine standalone and sometimes i use it within ProTools. Blonde also has a garden studio that he writes in and he just uses Maschine, so we are constantly sending projects back and forth”
“So, no more MPCs?”
“Nah man, sold our trusty MPCs about 5 years and haven’t looked back since. But I know Metro still secretly yearns for one. Ha ha”
“Yeah, secretly I do. But Maschine is now our main weapon of choice”
“So do you also use ProTools Blonde?”
“No, it’s installed on my computer, but my brain can’t work with DAWs for some reason. I guess it’s because I’m so used to pattern and scene based sequencers.”
“So what plug-ins and soft synths do you guys use”
“Wow. So many. NI Komplete 10 gets heavily used. Arturia stuff, Sylenth is really cool. The Korg soft synths. Erm, what else is there Blonde?”
“I’m addicted to collecting them! Currently digging Dune, Nexus, Tone2ElectraX, oohh lovin’ the new Arturia Oberheim….and let’s not forget all those lovely free VSTs – Synth1, the TAL stuff…lots of goodies…That’s why I stuck with PC!”
“Okay. So what about plug-ins?”
“I got some real high end plug-ins in ProTools that I love to use. I love the Waves stuff, Soundtoys plug-ins and I’ve also got the UAD-2 Satellite Quad Omni – which is unbelievable!!!”
“Yeah man. That’s the crazy shit.”
“Yep. It enables us to partly mix our tracks before sending them off to be mixed by a professional mix down engineer”
“So you guys don’t mix in here, yourselves?”
“We do and we don’t. Even though we got the Yamaha HS80Ms and the HS10W sub woofer which is an excellent set up, we tend to partly mix as part of production and then send the stems or ProTools session to mix down engineers. Who just take what we have done to the next level as they have much more expensive toys than us”
“I see. So what kind of engineers are you currently getting your stuff mixed by?”
“Well, “Maybes” was mixed by my favourite engineer ever – Dylan 3D Dresdow. So we are planning on using him more for future stuff”
“Yes. The guy who mixed the Black Eyed Peas albums?”
“Yep”

“So tell me about some of your outboard gear and your microphone set up”
“Well, our audio interface is the RME Fireface 800. Pretty much everything goes into that. But the rule in the studio is capturing everything as sexualised as possible. So before anything goes into the box it passes through a signal chain of the Avalon U5, the Crane Song Flamingo Pre-amp and the Kush Audio UBK Fatso.”
“Wow, that’s quite a signal chain”
“Each one of these little babies adds an extra layer of thickness, brightness and fatness, so when we are recording vocals, guitars, synths or even samples from the DJ set up, we are getting a super recording.”
“So for microphones?”
“For vocalists I got the SE Electronics Gemini II with the reflection filter pro”
“I notice you don’t have a vocal booth”
“Nah, we like to be up close and personal with our artists…innit Metro?”
“Yeah, especially Yasmin XY…ha ha”

The joke kind of fell flat. Ben was more interested in the studio equipment, rather than the fitness of Yasmin XY.

“So what about these boxes the mic passes through?”
“We love our voice processing boxes. We got the TC-Helicon range, the Roland VP-7 – which sounds so amazing on Blonde’s voice for some reason”
“Also, I got my mic that is on the desk stand that also passes through an array of voice processing boxes. Its just a standard Shure SM58 but that’s all I need as most of the time my vocals are getting heavily effected”
“Yeah, some nights, me and Metro stick the headphones on, let the track run in ProTools, take one mic each and really go out there, creating new effects on the fly and doing some cool stuff with our own vocals. We might be recording for an hour”
“And then it’s me that has to go in and edit it all in ProTools the next day. But it is great being able to dim the lights and let yourself be free to create. Almost go to another world for while. Its crazy. And then capture it all perfectly into ProTools. One track for me and one for Blonde”
“That’s how we got the hook to “Spilling My Drink” – by just jamming for ages on these toys and coming out with that one wicked hook.”
“To be honest, that’s when we have the most fun”

Blonde got out the little green box and started to prepare Jamaican brunch.
“You don’t mind, do you Ben?” asked Blonde, thinking that this guy is in the music business. This must be normal to him.
Ben’s face actually lit up. The potent smell of high grade, got in his nostrils and suddenly his serious face loosened up.
“No, cool. That smells good”
“Yep. From Dam. You gonna join me for a little toke”
“Sure, why not”

So much for keeping this professional.

“So do you record all your vocalists in here?”
“Not all. I mean, Yasmin XY was recorded in here. Sony sent her to us to work with and after one track she wanted to do her whole album in here. She said she’d never been in a more creative studio. But the Jason DeRulo track we wrote. He cut the vocals in New York. We recorded the guide vocal in here with a demo vocalist. It really depends on the artist.”
“But we have the equipment to record professional sounding vocals in here, with the mic we use and the pre-amps. “
“So, because there’s no vocal, you monitor through headphones?”
“Yep, there’s three pairs with our names on them – Metro, Blonde and Guest. Having the vocalist in here with us just worked really well for now. Maybe in the future we might get a booth built, but for now, we are happy like this”
“Metro is it alright to smoke this in here, its just cold out there bwoyeee!”
“I don’t really allow smoking in the studio Ben, but he can be so persuasive sometimes. Cool, cool. Just this time though. I’m going to go make some hot drinks. Anyone want one?”
“Special coffee for me please”
“I’ll have another tea please, Metro”

10 minutes later and I walked into the MUDPOD, the thick smell of church-smelling skunky-ness filled the air. Ben was red eyed to rass clart, headphones on his ears, singing strangely into the mic while Blonde messed around with the knobs on the TC-Helicon Voicesynth. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. Blonde got the motherf***er mash up! The rest of this interview was going to be interesting….

“Sorry about that guys, just really needed to eat something. Thanks for the sandwich Metro” said Ben, wiping the crumbs off of his Bob Moog t-shirt.
“No worries. Blonde made the sandwich though. I’m banned from making sandwiches” Metro replied, opening the mini Red Bull fridge and pulling out 2 cold diet Red Bulls, throwing one to Blonde. “You wanna Red Bull, Ben?”
“No thanks, still drinking my tea. Anyway, back to the interview” Ben said taking a slurp from his mug.
“So we’ve covered the mics and vocal processors. Lets move onto the toys you guys have. These are some choice synths boys”
Blonde turned on the Moog Little Phatty.
“This is my favourite of the batch. I love this one. The sound is so full and round. So cool for leads and bass lines. But basically we wanted a selection of small, classic synths, each with a characteristic sound. Something that would distinguish them from the soft synths we use. I mean soft synths sound so good these days so for us to have a hardware synth, it’s gotta be worth it. So we got the Moog Little Phatty here, a couple of Dave Smith true analogue cuties – the Mopho and the Tetra and of course the Dave Smith Prophet ‘08. These give us all the analogue juice we need.”
“Yeah, sometimes Blonde wants to just stop looking at a computer screen and just play a real keyboard. And in those moments, he might come with a bad ass riff. All the keyboards are fully midi’d up, so I can easily record what he does as midi or audio in ProTools or Maschine.”
“But there’s also times when we can write a track entirely with soft synths and then at some point replace some of the parts with sounds from these real analogue beasts”
“I see you’ve also got 2 Microkorgs”
“Yep, we got the Microkorg XL and the original Microkorg. I think having both is overkill but Metro refuses to sell the original Microkorg”
“I’m never selling that man. That’s a classic”
“Yeah, but the XL is exactly the same but even better”
“Don’t care”
“Dick”
“We wrote Love Rider, Flight Night, some of Out of the Dark on it, there’s no way”
“I told you not to be sentimental about equipment”
“Anyway, I also see you have the Waldorf Blofeld and the Access Virus TI2. These are also some classic pieces, but not true analogue”
“No they’re not, but again, they have a character of their own and blend real nice with the Dave Smiths and the Moog.”
Blonde was now fully playing on the Prophet 08. Stumbling on a wicked chord progression melody.
“And for our main keyboard controller, I got the Studiologic VMK-161 Plus 61. That’s the one Blonde wanted me to get for the studio. It’s the same one he has in his own studio. My main controller however is the ipad2”
“The ipad2. Nice. What keyboard app do you use?”
“I don’t. I can’t really play keys so I mainly use Soundprism on iPad. For me, it’s fantastic. It controllers all my soft synths and hardware synths. Its my favourite tool in the whole studio”
The chords Blonde was playing were sounding even better now that he switched patches.
“Metro, get these down man”
“Cool. Let me just fire up Maschine. One sec Ben, gotta capture inspiration.”
“No man. Go ahead”
Metro recorded the chords into Maschine as midi, capturing Blonde’s secret art, giving them another potential killer hit to work on.

“So is this where you guys practice your DJ sets?” Asked Ben, pointing to the Technics SLDZ1200 CD Player, the Technics 1210 and the Urei mixer.
“No, this is the sampling station. Where I sample from vinyl and CD. I still love that old school hip hop art of crate digging. Every now and again I’ll go to a second hand record shop and buy some CDs and vinyls for samples”
“Which vinyl shops do you go to?”
“Alan’s Records in East Finchley is a regular one for me. And Flashback in Crouch End and there’s also a small one I go to sometimes in Winchmore Hill. Now and again I go into Charity shops but they usually only have really naff stuff like Cliff Richard or 90s indie shite. Plus when me and Blonde are abroad working on music, I tend to try and visit local record spots.”
“Cool. So where’s your vinyl and CD collection? I can’t see it in the studio”
“To be honest I’ve stopped being a collector. Once I’ve either sampled it or digitized it, I’ll then resell it. You can see my modest CD collection. I only keep classic CD albums. The ones that mean a lot to me. My proper collection is in iTunes. 320kbps mp3s”
“Metro don’t play keys so sampling is what he enjoys the most really. This side of the studio is where his toys are and that side is where my toys are” said Blonde flipping open the green box once again, lighting up Ben’s eyes.
“Yeah, I mean “In The Morning” was created by basically sampling an 80s groove record at 33 instead of 45. We created the track around a sped up 8 bar sample. We recreated it all in the end, but the inspiration came from sampling vinyl at the wrong speed”
“Cool”
“Also I love the Technics SLDZ because it has the loop function. I love putting in CDs and looping bits. 2 bar loops. 1 bar loops. Half bar loops. It’s so much fun for me. The Urei DJ mixer makes sure that the sound from the vinyl or CD is nice and warm before going into the RME.”
“And what is the iPad sitting in?”
“That’s the Alexis iDock. It’s a great piece of kit that allows me to get the sounds out of the iPad and into the computer more professionally. It’s such a cool piece of gear. With all the apps nowadays I create so many little ideas and sketches on the iPad. So its useful to be able to record the audio into the RME without going through the iPad’s standard headphone output.”
“And you also said that you use the iPad as your controller for your soft synths?”
“Yep. With Soundprism I can wirelessly control the soft synths in ProTools or Maschine. Or I can use it to control any of the hardware synths. All without knowing how to play keyboards. Ha ha”
“Cheat” mumbled Blonde while grinding the crystalline herb his little contraption.
“Well guys that’s everything covered I think. It’s a really cool studio and I think our readers are going to enjoy reading the article. I’m just going to take some pictures of the studio. Also it would be cool to have a few photos with your guys working in the studio.”
“Cool, but before that I just want to show you my favourite thing in the Mudpod – the lights”
“Oh yeah, you did tell me about that when I got here. Sure”
Metro signalled to Blonde.
Blonde pulled the blinds down over the little round windows on the Mudpod walls, while Metro walked over to a panel on the wall with a number of little switches.
“You ready?” Metro asked
“Yep” answered Ben
Metro flipped a switch and the lights above came on. A deep purple glow covered the Mudpod giving everything a deep nightlife, ethereal feel. Then Metro flipped another switch and hundreds of bright white led lights that adorned the panels of the studio lit up the keyboards, turntables and units. Right about now, it felt like you were in the trendiest of discotheques rather than a recording studio. Then Metro flipped one last switch and the MUDDYLOOP logo appeared on the wall, lit up bright white with a hint of fuscha, burning the image in your mind.
“Wow, this is the f***in’ bollocks!”
“That’s what all the girls say – hee hee” said Blonde lighting his doobie
“We are light”