Gorbachov – People Skills
It was great fun to have the Irish lads known as Gorbachov over in Liverpool to record and mix their debut album.
Now it’s the turn of Waterford fivepiece Gorbachov, who are trying something a little different, as they’ve announced an official pairing with Wexican Motorsport Continue reading… »
Mixing Nate James – High Times
High Times is a song on Nate James’ second record Kingdom Falls. After releasing the record Set the Tone as well as the EP Funkdefining, Kingdon Falls was a surprise to many with a very different sound and musical direction. Hildebrand was asked to mix the track High Times and give it brash and dirty, yet still popular sonic quality.
“The brief was particular interesting as it was also about pulling the sounds closer together and introduce additional drive. Often the feel for the tempo is changed when mixing a song and obviously the aim in this track is to make it feel faster. So first I introduced a lot of ‘natural’ distortion into the sounds and worked the EQs out so that the drums become a gel between programmed and natural and a unit in the mix. In comes the Manley Vari-Mu and its great bounce together with the bass. Getting that right lays the ground for the whole track and forms the basis for the rest of the sounds”, comments Hildebrand.
Recording a Boesendorfer 9ft Grand Piano at the Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Liverpool
After setting up various microphone techniques to record the pop ballad ‘Justify Me’
the final setup can be seen above. The main body of the sound was recorded using
the stereo Schoeps CMT-S 501. In order to add the highest notes
to the stereo image a Neumann KM-84 was added.
Organ Recording at the Anglican Cathedral Liverpool in 5.1 Surround Sound
Pulling a construction of six AKG – C 414 up to a height of about 25 feet to record the large organ in 5.1 Surround Sound
Orchestral Recording at Whitworth Hall
Using a fine selection of Neumann, Earthworks, DPA and other microphones the orchestra was recorded in the sizable and beautiful Whitworth Hall, being part of Manchester University.
Nokia Ad Campaign
Hildebrand produced the soundtrack for one of the Nokia ad campaigns surrounding the Nokia E61 Smartphone, to be seen and heard at www.office-dummy.com .
The German multimedia agency Denkwerk was asked to create an interactive viral marketing campaign for the new phone, which would communicate the slogan “You don’t have to be there, to be there”.
Nokia’s E61 – the first of the Nokia E series – was designed to allow businesses to mobilize their workforce, allowing employees to access all communication through the mobile phone safely and easily. Given the reasonable price of the phone with appropriate provider bundles, this was now made much more attractive to small businesses as well.
What is the Office Dummy?
Denkwerk came up with the idea that if “you don’t have to be there to be there” (in the office…) you may as well create a copy of yourself and place it at your office desk – being most likely a boring place to be for real.
In order to illustrate the idea of building a ‘dummy’ of yourself four comedic viral spots were created by German film producers BigFish and presented throughout the period of the campaign.
The music to the viral spots
Aiming at a market of small and young businesses, including younger generation phone users, the brief for the music was to create an upbeat, rocky feel that would imply having a laid back and leisurely time.
Hildebrand (drums) asked Robert ‘Scanny’ Scanlon (guitar), Christian Badzura (Keys, Liverpool Session Orchestra), Rory Koehler (programming) and Richard O’Flynn (guitar) to come together and jam out ideas live over the video.
Many version were recorded, cut and rearranged. “It was a challenge to realise the ideas and descriptions given by the clients,” comments Hildebrand, “but they chose a great version in the end.”
