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Neumann U87AiSE Electronics: Andy Bradfield Uses SE Microphones
Breeze through the pages of Andy Bradfield's musical CV and you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd accidentally stumbled upon a Who's Who of the pop world. Names like David Bowie, Elbow, David Gray, Salt n Pepa, Pet Shop Boys, Tom Jones, Kylie, Eternal, Spice Girls and Boyzone leap out at you through the reams and reams of acts that didn't quite make the 'superstar' list.
Away from the pop charts Andy's also notched up a similarly large canon of work, mixing tracks for the likes of Future Sound Of London, Beth Orton, Eric Clapton, Marc Almond, Rufus Wainwright. In a career that's thrived over two decades, Andy's scored a handful of Number One records and even a Grammy nomination.
Maybe it's the distinctly traditional approach of coming through the ranks that's given Andy such a good grounding in the fundamentals of mixing great music. Starting off as a tea boy, Andy quickly moved to London's legendary Townhouse and before long was assisting some of the greatest names in the business.
"I worked with many amazing engineers and producers during that time, going freelance as an engineer in the early 90s. That's when I moved into mixing and production."
Andy's studio centres on a Digidesign Icon and Pro Tools set up with lots of outboard. But when it comes to recording, he reaches for his Neve preamps and sE microphones.
"I've been using sE's Gemini in the studio for a couple of years now and I really like it, mainly for vocals and acoustic guitar. It's a really 'big' sounding mic with a great sound. And then recently I picked up the sE RNR1 [Rupert Neve-designed Ribbon mic], which is just amazing. A while back I was recording with an artist who insisted on using an authentic ribbon mic. and it sounded awful. I think the mic was defective. So I put up the RNR1 and it just sounded amazing. It still fitted the 'sound' that was on the other songs, but had a nice presence to it too. I've used it on trumpet, lead vocals and electric guitar. it's very smooth and warm, but also with some great top end presence."
"The reason I bought the sE mics, well. there are a few reasons. They are very good mics, they're also extremely well made, and do precisely what they say they will. These mics just work!"
"It's nice to know that I have great mics on hand whenever I want to record, and the Reflexion Filter makes a lot of difference in small recording spaces that are more and more the norm these days."
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