Allan Smyth - Sound Engineer and Producer
UK, Sheffield
Artic Monkeys, Pulp, Little Man Tate, Milburn, Long Blondes, Monkey Swallows the Universe, 65 daysofstatic, Smokers Die Younger, Harrisons, Richard Hawley
What do you work on presently?
Recently produced Milburn's second album, finished the vocals on Reverend and the Makers album and currently producing Little Ze.
Give us a little backround on your career: How did you get involved with music?
I've always written songs and loved music from being a small child, I started messing around with tape recorders when I was ten years old and was hooked! By the time I was thirteen I was making tape loops and driving myself mad.
Which interest came first—music, or sound in general?
Music, according to my mum! they had to drag me kicking and screaming away from the piano when I was three. I used to play my 'thunder and lightning' symphony which basically involved me thumping the piano keys at the low end then running to the high notes to stab out the lightning.
What made you choose a career in sound engineering?
It chose me! I was working on my own songs and people were asking me where I was recording them and then asking me to record theirs.
Suddenly I found myself travelling around Europe with various acts such as Pulp doing live sound.
What has been your breakthrough in the business if one can say so?
Setting up my own little studio probably, I decided to make sure that the sound that came out of the studio was the same as the sound you'd hear inside it!! It didn't take long for the word to get around that the demos I produced were exciting and vibrant and when the Arctic Monkeys came through the doors I realised I had a class act on my hands. The recordings were done 3 songs a day, recorded live with the occasional overdub and uploaded onto the internet. The rest, as they say, is history!
Do you still make your own music?
Yes. I'm trying to finish an album at the moment but finding the time is impossible! I'm using an Omnichord as the main instrument and it's turning out surprisingly well! Whether people will like it is another story!
When you work on a project, how do you usually develop the idea of a sound or the idea of what an artist should sound like?What is your idea of sound? What inspires you?
I often feel that a band/artist has already defined their sound pretty well but doesn't know how to capture it. In these cases I try to record the essence by taking live takes and splicing the best bits together. I like to avoid click tracks (if I can) and also if possible, no headphones, just a band in a room playing together.
When the Arctic Monkeys came in, the amps they had were rubbish, so I di'd the guitars and used software to get the right sound. It always seems obvious to me how things should sound, it goes with the attitude of the music.
In the case of Reverend and the Makers, Jon (Reverend) would describe the video first (before a note was played) and I found that quite inspirational when it came to assembling the tracks.
My idea of sound is that the sound should match the band and the band personality, I want to be embraced by the sound as it comes out the speakers and I try to achieve that.
Enthusiasm in musicians inspires me, hearing a great voice and feeling the hairs go up on the back of my neck , having a laugh with music is one of the greatest joys.
When you think back on all your projects and artists you worked with is there any occurence, which you remember particularly gladly?
There are so many:- Jarvis Cocker swinging a microphone around his head to get the feedback at the beginning of 'Legendary Girlfriend', hearing all the Alex sing all the Arctic Monkey songs for the first time, writing tunes and creating new sounds for the Reverend.
Which was your favorite project/artist?
I'm very proud of the work I've done with Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Reverend and the Makers, The Long Blondes, Milburn, 65 daysofstatic, Monkey Swallows the Universe and many others but what makes the whole thing special is shared experience and the people involved.
What is your experience with RND Plug-ins? Do you have any favourite features?
Dynamizer is an excellent tool in the way you can treat different levels of sound, very useful for those LOUD, soft, LOUD vocals. I used to use three or four different plugs to get the same result. Uniquelizer allows you to create as many eq points as you need, brilliant, this one plug alone rescued one session for me.
Any special hints or techniques you want to share with the readers?
One session I ran involved a partially deaf guitarist and the sounds that came from his amp. It was all top end fizz, and screechy distortion. It was when I came to mixing that I realised I had a problem, too much fizz not enough note! Uniquelizer rescued me. By exaggerating the high end frequencies (must do this at lowish volumes!!!!!) with very tight Q peaks you can find the really ugly parts of the distortion (they'll really start to ring as you sweep over them) then you can reverse the peak and take them out. The ability to create as many eq points as you want allowed me to regain control over this guys sound.