Nimrod Productions’ Rich Aitken
Rich Aitken (pictured) and Marc Canham of Nimrod Productions in Oxfordshire, UK, a company that has created scores for videogames that have sold in excess of 50 million units, use sE Electronics ribbon mics for their projects. The company’s scoring credits include the Getaway, Driver and Race Driver series, Super Mario Pinball, Gran Turismo, Act Of War, Reservoir Dogs and 24, The Game, the music from which is now used on the television series, as well.
For Nimrod, Canham serves as a traditional composer while Aitken is a rock ’n’ roll songwriter. They record bands in their studio and also created the Nimrod Studio Orchestra, which Aitken describes as “a 70- or 80-piece orchestra based in London using the best players in the world.”
“We decided to venture into recording for videogames just as the [Sony] PlayStation 2 was taking off,” Aitken says. “The first thing we did was Driver 2, which was a massive hit, and we kept on having hits.”
In addition to scoring videogames, Aitken and Canham were asked to troubleshoot a recording of the Liverpool Philharmonic for a 2008 European Capital of Culture event. Aitken assembled a mobile recording package that included sE ribbon mics.
“I thought that I’d give them a run for their money with a quality orchestra; it would be a great opportunity for the mics to prove themselves,” Aitken says of the sE mics. “I gave them a try on the strings in what’s called the front-five setup. Basically, they came out absolutely fantastically. I used seven ribbon mics and two sE Titan condensers. They exceeded all of my expectations and reminded me of the close miking sessions that I do at Abbey Road. They made the strings really smooth, but bright enough to really make a difference to the whole mix.”
Aitken is currently recording an album with new band the Debretts, finishing off his own band’s album and working on several games for the next generation of videogame consoles. He says that his sE ribbon mics will figure into much of this work.
“I love them and think they’re really brilliant. They have low self-noise characteristics, they were silky smooth on the strings and I can’t wait to get some to use as overheads on cymbals and drums, I’m really looking forward to it as they are absolutely fantastic. Everywhere I go I will take them with me.”
For more information, visit www.seelectronics.com and www.nimrodproductions.com.
