From the turn of the New Year the studio has been in almost constant use. We have been working on a major new album with the Christian Singer and Songwriter Trish Morgan. The sessions were engineered by Russ Dawson-Butterworth.

Many of the backings had been pre-programmed by Howard Williams, so the first stage was transferring the files into Pro Tools from the original. Then the live room was used for bass, acoustic guitars, vocals, backing vocals, mandolin and a tin whistle.

The album was mixed down in the studio before the end of the month.

This is the first time Trish has worked at B&H and she has enjoyed the atmosphere, commenting “B&H have been a pleasure to work with. Their attention and focus on the project has impressed me. Producing good music is always going to be team work and I heartily recommend Russ & the staff to help you achieve your goals.”

The album is to be released in February 2003, and includes the songs I belong to you, Healing oil and Where can I go?

Trish and her band will be leading worship at the Big Top at Spring Harvest in Skegness during Easter Week.

Following the devastating fire at Peterborough Cathedral in November 2001, the building has been undergoing extensive restoration work. During January 2003 both the Nave and Choir areas were closed off for cleaning and most of the Services took place in the North Transept. B&H Sound provided a temporary sound system for this part of the building.

The new Panaray speaker system from Bose was chosen as it utilises discreet speakers which blend in with the architecture. A separate bass speaker handles the lower frequencies allowing a full frequency response. This makes the speakers ideal for reproducing high-quality music as well as speech. The speakers use a line array technology which focuses the sound, allowing a relatively large area to be covered by just the two main column speakers.

Commenting on the system, head verger Nick Drewitt said the congregation are most impressed by the clarity and intelligibility in such a difficult acoustic.

The winner of Radio 2’s Choirboy of the Year was James Eager, who is a chorister at Llandaff Cathedral. Following this success, James, who is also a junior member of the Salvation Army, had “A Song of Peace” written for him by Salvationist composer Darren Barlett. It is featured along with Harold Darke’s In the bleak mid-winter on a Christmas single recorded by B&H last November.

Within 48 hours of the news breaking, SP&S had commissioned the song and following consultation with James’s parents and his Choirmaster, plans were put in place for a fast turnaround for the recording to be released before Christmas.

The project utilised most of the recording department’s facilities since there was both a studio and an on-location element. The on-location recording was produced by Brian Hillson, engineered by Russ Dawson-Butterworth.

The backing was tracked in the Old School Studio along with bass, drums, guitar and violins. The timecoded mix was transferred to our Radar system which proved a reliable multitrack system when the equipment was taken to Llandaff. During our three days in the Cathedral, we recorded James’s solo parts for the two pieces, the strings of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Llandaff Cathedral Choir. We were also able to use the Cathedral’s splendid Steinway grand piano.

Back at The Old School Studio, the audio was immediately imported for editing and mixing. Following a late night’s session the material was mastered the following morning and transferred onto a master for CD duplication.

Quite a turnaround.

This CD is available from SP&S on Tel: (020) 7367 6580 or email: mail_order@sp-s.co.uk priced £3.99. CDs are also available from all Cancer Research UK shops.

Links connected with this report:

• Radio 2
• The Boy Choir & Soloist Directory
• The Salvation Army

It’s not every day that our Managing Director entertains a member of a Royal Family, but when the granddaughter of the last Crown Prince of Kerala arrived at our office, Brian offered to put the kettle on.

The truth is he didn’t even know he was in the presence of royalty, because Mala S Nair had called on routine business to arrange for B&H to make a recording in the Royal Albert Hall.

The event was to feature one of India’s most famous musicians K. J. Yesudas, and other special guests from around the world playing some of India’s all-time film classics.

The recording was amazingly successful and has now been released by the Times Music label throughout the entire Indian subcontinent; who knows? - it might go gold!

Very appropriate for royalty, but then we’re very well connected at B&H.

How is it possible? Well, in Tenerife, it was a comfortable 22 Celsius in the shade and the crew were all wearing Polo shirts and shorts.

It is an annual event for B&H to provide the Sound Engineering for the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife at their Christmas Day concert in Santa Cruz. The 2002 concert featured soprano María José Moreno and was directed by Víctor Pablo Pérez, playing music by Puccini, Mozart, Rachmaninov and Verdi.

The free concert draws over 20,000 people and we were responsible for both the FOH and the broadcast mix for television.

Our regular team on the event is led by Martin Stansfield, Tim Handley and Chris Jones - you’ll recognise them as the only guys to have a tan on New Year’s day!

Magazine Article

The Old School Studio was recently featured in the local magazine (ESP) . To view the article please use the links below:

Page 1 | Page 2

"Article reproduced from ESP Magazine, February 2003, Issue 42, with the kind permission of Sarah Field and the ESP editors"