Whenever I have the opportunity to work with a professional I find myself asking lots of questions, and writing down the suggestions that they give. I just came across my notes from when I was in the studio with Niel Kernon. Here are some of them

1 Michael Bolton starts just under pitch for certain parts of the song. This give a nice strained feeling when needed.

2 Rhode Mics are great – they were used on the Pamela Moor album.

3 when mixing “Queen’s albums” they would mix at very low volumes to make sure they could hear all of the harmonies.

4 Even out the vocal with automation before sending it to the compressor.

4 Paul Buckmaster – excellent arranger

6 Mike Gibbs Orchestration – mahavishnu orchestra

7 James Newton Howard – Early arrangements were good.

8 Orchestra’s in Britain get paid in 3 hours increments. In the last 5 minutes of a session an upright bassist purposely coughed so that the last take would not work. This in turn bought everyone in the entire orchestra an extra 3 hours of payment for 10 more minutes of work.

9 Steve Coleman – Favorite living sax player

10 check out Trouble’s album – Manic Frustration

11 the vocal level is right if you get goosebumps (this is how we decided on the level especially when it came to the end of “Loon”)