Burnley, UK (April 2, 2021)—Producer and songwriter Gareth Nuttall recently changed the workflow at his studio in Greater Manchester, England, replacing a mixing console with a Neve 1073OPX Octal preamplifier.
“The changes I have made have given me a much easier workflow, and key to this is the 1073OPX, which is now my workhorse because everything goes through it and I almost treat it like I’m running a mini Neve console,” Nuttall explains. “I used to track and partially mix on a console, but when I started to do more producing and had to do some sessions in different environments, I found that style of working to be quite restrictive because it didn’t allow me to do what I wanted straight away.
“I’m now running some outboard on the way into Pro Tools as I like to try and capture high quality source audio on the way in and then leave it there. Apart from bits of re-amping, I’m now mixing completely in-the-box — I even swapped over to a MacBook so that I can do my mix prep and editing at home.”
A graduate of Manchester’s School of Sound Recording, Nuttall began playing guitar at a young age but soon realized his passion lay in music production, so he started buying recording equipment and setting up a home studio in his parent’s conservatory. After university he turned the disappointment of not being able to find a full-time studio job into a positive by establishing his own facility, The Lounge Recording Studio, which opened its doors in 2011.
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“I built a portfolio by recording local bands and friends’ bands for free and it all took off from there,” he says. Since then the studio has attracted a huge range of artists including The Lottery Winners, The K’s, Frank Turner, Stanleys, The AV Club, Ravellas, Pink Shirts For Pale People, Shallow Water, Gary Quinn and The Jade Assembly, as well as undertaking countless projects that have gone on to achieve Top Ten places in various industry charts.
“When I’m in the studio I like to dive right into the creative aspects and not kill the mood by having to spend a couple of hours tuning vocals or editing drums,” he says. “I’m now currently running eight channels of Neve front-end with the 1073 OPX, an Audient asp800 for an extra chunk of inputs and a couple of extra pre-amps, all plumbed into an Antelope Orion, which I use for my conversion and monitor control.
“I also have a few outboard compressors and a couple of hardware EQs and FX racks so that I can mold the source on the way in, when needed. The only time anything goes through any pre other than the 1073OPX is when I run out of Neve channels, so I’m probably going to need another OPX at some point.”
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