The MOST Successful Mix Engineer Of ALL TIME? Dr Phil Harding
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- Опубліковано 22 тра 2024
- We were honoured to have the chance to dive deep into conversation with British pop music production legend, Dr Phil Harding, famed for his work with legendary songwriting and production team Stock, Aitken & Waterman. With more charted credits to his name than anyone else in the industry we researched, Phil is now supporting the education of future generations as co-vice-chairman of J.A.M.E.S. and is the author of two of the most entertaining, educational, and inspirational books on music production we've ever read - PWL From The Factory Floor, and Pop Music Production - Manufactured Pop And BoyBands of the 1990s, both ESSENTIAL reads, and available directly from Phil via his website:
www.philhardingmusic.com
And find out more about his current work with J.A.M.E.S.
www.jamesonline.org.uk
Here are just a few of the artists Phil has worked with in his forty-plus year career:
Berni Flint, Gerry Rafferty, The Clash, Amii Stewart, Killing Joke, Toyah, Tygers Of Pan Tang, Tracey Ullman, Twisted Sister, The Belle Stars, The Sapphires, Nik Kershaw, Matt Bianco, Gary Moore, Windjammer, Divine, Girl Talk, Hazel Dean, Dead Or Alive, Strawberry Switchblade, Pet Shop Boys, Princess, Elton John, Erasure, Bananarama, Five Star, Mondo Kane, Depeche Mode, Mel & Kim, Red Box, Billy Ocean, Pepsi & Shirlie, Belouis Some, ABC, Chic, Rick Astley, Imagination, Climie Fisher, Jermaine Stewart, Michael Jackson & The Jackson Five, Dollar, The Four Tops, Diana Ross, Kylie Minogue, Samantha Fox, Jason Donovan, Brother Beyond, Holly Johnson, Sonia, Cliff Richard, Big Fun, Sinitta, Basia, Jesus Jones, Dusty Springfield, Jimmy Somerville, Paul Varney, Mark Almond, Curiosity, East 17, Take That, Lisa B, Bjorn Again, Let Loose, Nick Howard, Deuce, J.Pac, Gemini, Boyzone, OTT, The Carter Twins, Kavana, 911, as well as his own solo projects and his band of over 40 years, 24 Club.
So grab a cuppa, sit back, and enjoy our conversation with pop production legend, Dr Phil Harding!
00:00:00 Intro
0:01:38 Phil's Career Kicks Off At 16
0:05:15 Starting At The Marquee Studios
0:09:50 Gus Dudgeon
0:12:36 Music Production Is Relatively New
0:17:28 J.A.M.E.S.
0:26:15 Strongroom Studios & Ian Curnow
0:27:40 Meeting Pete Waterman - Woolworths Ears!
0:35:50 Moving to PWL Studios
0:40:30 Pete Burns & Dead Or Alive
0:42:03 Mike Stock and Matt Aitken
0:44:10 The Famed Calrec Soundfield Microphone
0:48:10 The Problem with SSL
0:49:15 SAW Fight Off The Critics
0:53:20 Production To Suit The Song
0:55:47 The Kylie Scandal!
0:57:20 Quality Songs With Key-change Challenges
0:58:39 12" Mixes - A Window Into Production
1:08:40 The PWL Working Day
1:15:10 She Should Be So Lucky!
1:17:55 Rick Astley, The Superstar TeaBoy
1:25:00 End Of An Era
1:28:34 Phil's FANTASTIC Books
1:31:34 12 Step Mixing
1:37:40 Manufactured Pop And BoyBands Of The 1990s
1:47:32 Preparing For Vocal Sessions
1:49:46 Psychology and Dealing With Tension In The Studio
1:53:35 Service Industry & Leadership
2:02:10 Advice For Those Starting Out
2:07:45 Education
2:15:20 Dolby Atmos
2:29:56 Some Elton Anecdotes
2:32:36 Thank You, Phil!
What a treat. Thanks guys 🙂
Doctor Phil Harding could have a 2 hour podcast of every track he remixed, produced, engineered and we all would feel like a short 5 minute talk
It's been 43 minutes and I'm barely ten minutes into the interview, because I keep goggling everything you talk about
Being a 'snobby muso', I wasn't really going to bother watching this, after all, what could possibly be interesting about manufactured pop production? Having nothing else to watch, I put it on in the background whilst doing some admin on the other screen. As it turns out, I've done bugger all admin!
What a fascinating, informative and educational interview - one of the best - and such a nice bloke too - Thanks!
Thank you for watching, and glad to provide you with content you surprisingly enjoyed!
Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! Entries are now closed and the winners have been notified. Be sure to check out Phil's two INCREDIBLE books! Link to his website in the description! Essential reading, no matter what genre you are working in ✊
I love this kind of in depth long form interview format! Keep them coming
FLOP INVADER : Very informative interview. Many thanks to the PDP Team❤
Name’s in the hat!
Thanks for this,big Phil Harding fan and his music 👍
Thanks for watching! And what a lovely chap he is to boot 😎
Great interview. I worked in the industry in the early 1990s and was lucky enough to work with Phil and Ian on three different remixes (that went out under the name Primax and the Power Syndicate - I was Primax, they were The Power Syndicate) before falling out with their manager Tom Watkins and walking away. Phil and Ian were two of the nicest people in the business. Very humble and no egos. Really enjoyed working with them and very talented. Shame about their manager (asshole!) Happy memories nevertheless!
"The Glue" is definitely available in ATMOS.... it's just not as simple as chucking all the groups through master buss comp. For a start, we can attend to more detail on the source and then having the ability to use sends as side chains, which can then trigger group enabled comps/lims etc... the options are endless.... Then snapping your monitoring between 7.1.4 to 2.0 and binaural in theH/Ps for example is pure confirmation you are getting in right.
Great Interview thanks for share...big hello from London..
This is gold. Thank you.
You’re welcome! We hope you enjoyed!
Awesome..just gave up on working this afternoon and spent over 2 hours listening to you guys.. Thanks
Thanks Vic, glad you enjoyed it!
Its a craft....no one should feel exiled if they are prepared to live it.
FLOP INVADER, Great Interview with an Engineering legend
Converted my studio to Atmos a few months ago, and I can confirm it’s a very emotional experience. Especially for clients, watching them cry.
It is isn’t it? I thought it was just us, but we hear this response time and time again. I can’t wait until the consumer playback experience is as good as the speaker one! Glad you’re enjoying it, and thanks for watching the video!
@@PresentDayProduction there are many reasons why Atmos is more intuitive. Object based audio is how audio should be, moving a sound in 3D space. And the immersive experience is more like real life. If you have ever played in a band you know the feeling of the instruments surrounding you. Or the feeling of a concert with the reflections bouncing all around you. Which I think adds to the emotional experience.
Great interview Mark! Well done James also, as I know you must have done all the filming and editing. Really interesting interview, which was informal and very relaxed; like two mates just having a chat😀!! I love hearing all the stories, that gave the back drop to how some of those great pop records were made. All in all -a good job guys👍. This channel just goes from strength to strength. Looking forward to what is coming next!
This was a great interview
Love this! Thank you ❤
Fab interview BTW!! Love it. Crazy as, I got to do a track for Pete Waterman in the 90s (Tina Cousins).. Was fun.
Awesome!
This was FANTASTIC!
Thank you for watching!
Such an excellent and insightful interview
I love these UA-cam shorts..
🤣
This was great guys!
The Alison Moyet song that Phil referred to at 37:21 with Lamont Dozier was "Invisible" and not "Superstition."
Excellent, thank you!
@@PresentDayProduction - This was an excellent interview with Mr. Harding! He is also one of my favorite mixer/producers of all time. I am now a subscriber to your channel.👍... My channel has a few interesting posts as well.
Alright, almost finished watching the interview. Now I would really, really love to see his reaction to a great Atmos mix through your speakers
Well he loves the MUMs, so when we’re fully up and running with Atmos we’ll be more than happy to share that with you!
We need a "You know" counter
But then we would know
A lot of people say it, you know.
James, in the dark corner, reminds me of those films where the hero arrives home to find the baddie-assassin sitting secluded and unobserved in an armchair.
FLOP INVADER.
As always love you guys, stunning.
FlopInvader.
Very curious to what these books bring to the (mixing-)table ;-)
FLOP INVADER! love your cat (that's the most interesting thing on screen :D)
Cheek 😻 but with the live streams you’re often right! I’ll pass the compliment on to flop 😀
big like from ISRAEL !!
Have to say this has been an amazing interview and Phil Harding :) Great talent and fab to hear his stories :) Mark so glad to hear your reaction to Atmos is so positive :) I am now mixing 9.1.6 and its unreal and a life changing experince :)
That’s great to hear! We are aiming for 9.1.4 as well, it’s just taking a while to get there! Glad you’re enjoying it and thanks for watching the interview ❤️
Always watch the channel content you guys are very intertaining and have some of the best content online.. Just about to watch the MUM8 video with Ed Thorne.. I look forward to some day hearing the Mum8 in person :) But think i will have to come to London to hear them as you don't have anyone over hear in Europe with them that I know off :) But if you ever need someone to sell or demo them in Europe give me a Shout :) @@PresentDayProduction
FLOP INVADER Nice 💙
What did he say about your Dolby speakers? :D
He heard details he had never heard in forty years of listening to his mixes. And we have it on video for future!
Flopinvader! Flopin vader! : D
Name’s in the hat! Only once though 🤣
Never liked SSL EQ, coming from the live world and being used to high end Soundcraft and Midas I was simply flabbergasted, most sessions I used outboard EQ a well known studio I worked in had on permanent standby two racks with 32 channels of Klark Technic graphic EQ‘s……
I missed the initial stream but FLOP INVADER!
flopinvader
Yes! Your name is in the hat!!
@@PresentDayProduction Better be a new era hat/cap. Snapback at least, fitted went out of fashion with Fred Durst in the early 2000's
Flop Invader, the FlopCat rules.
FLOPINVADER
Yes! It’s in the hat!
no disrespect, but Serban Ghenea? 184 #1 singles and albums, including 51 Billboard Hot 100 #1s, 19 Grammy Awards and 1032 plat records. I absolutely love Phil, but Serban's my goat
Same here
Yeah that’s not a bad track record either!
Flopinvader
Can you win twice in one year? Are you having a lucky streak? We’ll find out on Sunday!!
@@PresentDayProduction You won’t believe it but I also won an Antelope mic at the GearFest! Haha! We will see on Sunday what the future brings…
Flop Invader!
Flop Invader
🤣Well, your name’s in the hat!
Almost got 3/4 through this amazing interview but had to quit because I couldn’t stand the so many terrible long housewife orientated commercials 😢
Oh that REALLY is annoying isn’t it? Although I would question why you’re getting housewife oriented commercials 🤣 Mid-roll ads disabled, so you may continue watching ad free!
Now everybody trying to do the rick beato interview thing?..british version??
I’m fairly sure Rick didn’t invent the interview format 😉
FLOP INVADER
Flop invader :D
Flop invader
And… your name is in the hat!
the hitmaker? lol....i have a tremendous amount of respect for mixing engineers. but the actual hitmakers are the producers and writers.
Oh he’s far more than just a mix engineer! But, as he says in the interview, the actual hit makers are the team. Not just the producers or the writers. It took Mike and Matt’s musical skills, Phil and Ian’s engineering skills, and Pete Waterman’s ruthless promotional skills to find the artists and make it work. And when one moved on it quickly fell to pieces.
@@PresentDayProduction i mean it takes a team to put together records. we agree there. But Glen Ballard is Glen ballard, independent of the engineer in the room.
@@FromTheHippthe mixing engineer is responsible for the emotional impact a record has (even subconsciously). Also he's responsible for translation on a big range of different sound systems. So i would say he definitley plays a role in what becomes a hit.
@@mirkomarkovic3438 we'll disagree.
A turd is a turd no matter how highly polished, but that only matters to some people.
I worked with Pete at a later incarnation of PWL.
He was the first person to admit that a lot of what they put out he thought was a waste of electricity.
“Sel- no place for artistic integrity here” he would say chomping on his big cigar.
Loved Pete. Legend.
Might have done a lot, but that doesn't make him good. All the music he works on is characterless chuff. Not having a go at him, someone needs to do that stuff, it's just lots of people would rather never listen to it.
And 150 million people would choose to listen to just 8 years worth of it… and BUY it?! I suggest you read his first book and find out just how ground breaking and embracing of new technology his 80s work was…
Very entertaining and informative. Who would have thought, that living through the Stock, Aitken and Waterman era would ever have a benefit, even if much later.
It may have been cheesy pop at the time, but looking back now there were same damn good songs in there! And great artists too!
@@PresentDayProduction I'm not judging, but S.A.W., Farian, Cretu and others were the most disliked people in the music industry, where I come from.
As it was mentioned in the video, these people and countless others later, made music a product and this never went away.
Still something I don't like, but this is simply my opinion, nothing more.
P.S. He's still a great guy!
@@PresentDayProduction No such thing as cheesy pop.
1:28:54 I read the hell outta that book back in 2011. As thick as that book was and with small text, I think I read through it pretty fast. Time to get that Pop music book, that mixing sections sounds very interesting.
I’ve read the first one four times front to back now, and still regularly keep dipping in and out of various sections. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving! The second one follows on chronologically in a lot of aspects, but is packed with technical info and some enlightening interview content, and really delves deep into the ‘manufacturing’ aspect of some of the bands. An equally incredible read, and you can get a signed copy directly from Phil, of course. Thanks for watching the interview! ❤️
Flop Invader
Flop invader
Flop Invader