In part four of Meet The Talent award winning engineer Miles Showell, one the world’s foremost specialists in half speed mastering, takes us through some of the highlights of a 30+ year career. Over to Miles:
The Beatles - Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (50th anniversary remix)
The first album I ever owned. It was a supreme privilege to master the 2017 remixes from Giles Martin and Sam Okell. They went back to the original non-consolidated multitrack tapes and painstakingly synchronised everything. By peeling away the layers of tape bounces they revealed how sensationally well recorded it was. What was always a good sounding record is now truly stunning. I did not need to do much to it. Knowing when to leave well alone is as much a part of mastering as throwing every tool I have to salvage a mess.
Dido - Life For Rent
An absolute monster of an album from 2003 for one of the nicest people I have ever made a cup of tea for. She even organised a commemorative disc for me along with a hand written thank-you note when worldwide sales exceeded 10 million.
Elton John - Are You Ready For Love
This was my first commercial half-speed mastered cut, and it was a number one hit. Nothing like starting something new with a bang!
Portishead - Dummy
A huge album for me, and a revelation upon its release. I remember sitting with the band mastering it and thinking to myself “wow, this music is amazingly inventive, such a shame that no-one is going to get it”. I thought it was so ‘out-there’ that it would be largely ignored. So happy to have been proved utterly wrong.
Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up
I just moved up from the tape copy rooms at my first job when I mastered this single by a then unknown artist (probably why the booking department gave me the job). It was my first ever number one single reaching the summit on my 21st birthday. Pop is not a dirty word in my world and this is an example of perfect pop.
Doves – The Last Broadcast
Doves have claimed that they have not split up, but it has been a long time since we heard anything new from them. If and when they do release some new music, if it is a quarter as good as this album, we will be doing alright.
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (Super deluxe half-speed mastered vinyl box set)
This has to be my absolute favourite album of all time. Just completely sublime music. To actually get paid to spend several days listening to it has to be as good as it gets.
Iggy Azalea – The New Classic
Iggy was at the peak of her powers when I mastered this album (which contains Fancy and Trouble). I remember she had been awake for 36 hours straight when she arrived for the session, apologising in advance for possibly not being in the best of moods. She needn’t have bothered as she was great fun to work with and very professional.
Gallant – Ology
Not heard of Gallant? Well you need to check him out. I have worked on his material for a while now and he is an exceptional and apparently fearless vocalist. He will certainly be a star.
Aqua - Barbie Girl / Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe / Glenn Mederios - Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You
Bring on the cheese! I told you pop is not a dirty word. These were all big sellers in their day so just because you might not be the next Gallant, Doves, Portishead, Disclosure or Dido I will still do my best to make your song a poptastic smash!
Read more about Miles here.
