We have received lots of feedback about Music Club. The question which has been raised most frequently is how the Little Axe album was recorded and mastered. In response we thought it would be interesting to see what Real World Studios had to say about how they handled the process. They have kindly taken the time to give us an insight into how the finished album was accomplished, and even asked producer Adrian Sherwood to add his own take. I am sure you will agree it makes for fascinating, and at times controversial reading.

“B&W and Real World Studios take each album as an individual project, both at the mixing stage and, if we do it, the mastering. The artist is closely involved in all aspects of the production. The Little Axe album was delivered to the Music Club direct from the mixing console. There was no post-mixing treatment of the record. The artist, in this case Little Axe, chose for the compression to happen in the mix to produce the sound they and the producer wanted. All final versions sent from our studio to B&W are sent with the approval of the artist and producer.

Adrian Sherwood who mixed the record has asked us to add:

The way we recorded was live using a digital format. It was mixed digitally and the compression was minimal. Normally I would mix manually using analogue. On this project the whole thing was recorded live and the nature of the way it was recorded meant it had to be mixed digitally. This required slight compression rather than using unnecessary rides up and down. I’m not the biggest fan of compression but I’m prepared to use it when necessary.”

Adrian Sherwood