Studio Archives - CRAIG WESTWOOD

In Progress

Craig — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 12:44:00 +0000

People who know me well, know that the music never stops really. There’s always something that I’m pursuing towards the next song or the next instrumental, whether that’s learning a new plugin, getting to grips with a new piece of recording equipment, just practicing a tricky new piece of music ready to record or play live, or simply just all of the above.

On the recording front, I’ve been putting together the next new release, which is a compilation of four songs from the partnership with my friend, the late John Ward Helliwell. These are very near finished now, just some sleeve notes and visuals to sign off with John’s family, and to release them out into the world as an EP.

John wrote the words in the late 80s, when we both worked in Huddersfield, and we used to commute to town on the same bus from our digs near Denby Dale. Here our discussions began about music and my songs in progress, and it was here that he offered to take on some of my more ‘difficult’ pieces.

The saddest part of this though, is that I can’t talk to John and include his version of events on the sleeve notes, and perhaps gain more insight into the deeper meanings behind each of the songs he wrote. I have interpreted them, of course, when I came up with the music, and so they stand up for themselves, to some extent, but it would have been good to hear his back-story also.

Coming very very soon…

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Building a New Studio – Part 2

Craig — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 14:34:00 +0000

It’s been a busy few weeks. The first issue with the new space was removing some rotten carpet that was falling apart.

On taking this up, I found a tensioning bar for the roof which had pushed its way up through the screed in the floor. Thanks to my friend Steve, we got this sorted pretty quickly, and I could think about what I wanted on the floor.

Screeded by Steve – Great job!

Studio – Grade Flooring

Acoustic-grade carpet was my first choice, but finding a fitter who was prepared to come out during covid restrictions was difficult. Firstly – carpets aren’t very popular in France, they prefer tiled flooring, due to the warmer conditions here and the need for cool floors in Summer.

I found an English-speaking carpet fitter about 3 hours away, but his quotation was ridiculously high. He was still trying to get his carpets from the UK. Problems with UK suppliers now they’ve left the EU means there are hold ups at the ports, and a hefty tax is now put on imports. Thank you again Brexit. This will ultimately kill UK exports into Europe.

The lead time he was giving me was also 3 months until he could fit the carpet, which was way too long, and mostly I think due to the supply problems I’d already mentioned.

In the end, I decided to order some acoustic grade carpet tiles from a French supplier online, and opted to fit them myself. This was going to be far quicker. the tiles arrived in a few days, and I could get started.

In the meantime, I’d already removed curtains and fittings and painted the walls.

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Building a New Studio – Part 1

Craig — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 14:44:00 +0000

Buying a house in France that has been vacant for four years has had its issues. Happily most of them are superficial, and involve mostly decorating and some minor refurbishment to get the house to what we we’d like.

The first issue is that I’m here on my own. Problems with Claire’s Dad’s failing health has meant that she has wanted to be with her parents in the UK. Though originally she talked about coming out of teaching by December, she has now decided she wants to stay on for another year and a half until she is 55.

So – I’m working on the things I can… especially the studio. The space I’ve got is interesting, but not everything is practical…

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Mixing

Craig — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 13:12:00 +0000

Since getting my files back from Matthew I find myself back to the solo act of mixing my own music.

This is versus the frustration of trying to communicate to an engineer what I want from a mix, which just proved to be less productive than I thought it was going to be. Everyone has their own version of what they want to achieve musically, and Matthew’s was obviously very different from mine. As I’ve said before, I’m very much a hands-on kind of guy, and now the responsibility comes back on me. This, I have to say, I very much prefer, despite the extra work involved.

The 360 AD experience, despite it’s obvious disappointments (see previous blogs), has taught me a few things: one of which is how to get a better mix, and how to better prepare my music for mastering, which is the part that I was less aware of before beginning this journey 2 years back.

This last weekend I’ve spent some time on getting Wry Smile and Only the Good Ones Go First to a good level where they can be mastered. I’m still thinking about whether to add some backing vocals to the bridge of Wry Smile, and whether to re-do the main vocal on Good Ones, to add the tiny tweaks to the verse that I now sing in the live set. I was so happy with the performance of the Guide vocal on Good Ones that I’m reluctant to bin it just yet. The beauty of digital recording is that it can be cloned, so we may have two versions to contend with eventually.

Anyway, I left this decision until Sunday where I started coming down with cold/flu shivers and a chesty cough (again… thought I’d got rid of that a fortnight ago!), which put paid to the whole session. For the moment, I’ll have to stick with the old vocal.

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Progress at Last

Craig — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 13:59:00 +0000

I finally am beginning to make progress with the album, after a long stall.

Basically, and I guess because my contract with 360 Artist Development had come to an end, and he’d lost interest in progressing my tracks, I wasn’t getting anywhere fast with Matthew and was waiting for months to get studio time to mix the tracks that I had.

In the end, I’ve come away with very little: five tracks, none that I’m completely happy with, and none of them ready to master (as was promised) in the contract.

I arranged one final session in Matthew’s now finished full studio, originally to finalise the five tracks, but instead, I took along an SSD drive and just asked him to give me all of the stems from the Cubase files, and then after this the Cubase files themselves. So the rest of the two-hour session was Matthew exporting tracks for me to take away.

Many of these stems are painfully quiet, so I’m unsure how much of them I can use. I’m left with the decision to get hold of a copy of Cubase to re-export the tracks again. I’m happier though that the tracks are under my control, and I believe that I’ll make better progress with them than under the control of someone who didn’t really have my interests at heart.

As I write this, it’s 2 years since I began seeking help in developing my songs into product. And a frustrating road it has been.

I was due back in the studio yesterday with Andrew, which has been postponed, as his daughter is ill.

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Studio Session

Craig — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 20:55:00 +0000

Had a longer than usual session in Matthew’s studio today… In particular, I wanted to tackle the horns section in Nonsense Song which, once the instrumentation had been swapped in favour of Matthew’s superb horns set, the dynamics had altered, and I needed to tweak nearly every phrase. Although Matthew had done a stirling job of trying to interpret my crude instructions, it was more efficient to give me hands-on and let me tweak the piano roll, as I just knew the ‘feel’ of the track, and it was something I just couldn’t articulate, much as I tried. Anyway, he took this photo (above) of me getting my hands on Cubase, for the first time in many years.

We also went through this, and the other four tracks, and Matthew made notes as we played them through and commented on overall sound, and corrections to be made to the mix. They are all coming together I feel, and the changes needed now are fairly minor.

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Daytime – Studio Session

Craig — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 10:14:00 +0000

Another really good session at Matthew’s yesterday. Hampered a little by the traffic getting across, and it was an interesting detour getting there and avoiding the tailbacks on the M62. Anyway, we got two takes of guitar (pictured) and two vocal takes also in the time that remained. There’s nothing like a bit of time pressure to bring out a tight performance!

We’re doing a new version of Daytime, almost 30 years old (for me), but a murder story, quite dark really. I’m looking forward to hearing it come together, with some real drums (360’s guy in Nashville again), and bass.

Keep watching this space…

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Recording Session

Craig — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 18:22:00 +0000

Went across to Matthew’s today for the first time since early December, being ill for most of December, and since my recovery he’s been away most of January on holiday.

We played and reviewed all the tracks so far: Watching the Rain, Nonsense Song, Get Out of This and a bit of Audacity.

First was Nonsense Song. In general I thought the vocals were too harsh, and I had to tell Matthew how unhappy I was with my performance of it. I think it was at the beginnings of my throat virus, and it showed in the performance. Hard to put my finger on it, but anyway, we’ve re-recorded the main vocal again, and I think it is sounding a bit ‘sweeter’, and doesn’t detract from the light-heartedness of the song.

I sat with Matthew while he mixed Watching the Rain. There were certain parts that were clashing for me, and these I’ve just made sure that he was aware of these parts in the production. Not huge changes, but a couple of subtle things that weren’t sitting right. He didn’t go on to complete the mix, but just saved the changes, so I’ve yet to hear the completed mix with those changes in place.

Lastly, we recorded the vocal and backing vocal for Get Out of This. We’ve recorded three ‘takes’ of the main vocal, so that Matthew has three performances he can select to get the best out of the performance. Then we did a couple of overdubs, recording short phrases that allowed me to experiment and vary the phrasing on these, and then the little backing vocal phrase to finish. It’s now up to Matthew to come up with his ‘best cuts’.

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Adding ‘live’ drums to your tracks…

Craig — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 17:53:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I last posted. Many things going off in my life at the moment, and the music being just a part of it. Anyway, the story so far…

We’ve recorded Watching the Rain. The mix is progressing, but it’s not quite there yet. There’s a couple of little bits that I’d like to improve, so Matthew’s letting me sit with him in the studio to go through the parts I’m not happy with.

We’ve recorded Nonsense Song. The vocal is too harsh on it, this is because I recorded it at a point in time when I was coming down with a throat virus, that ended up taking me out for 4 weeks or more (and right over Christmas too…). The throaty vocals have made it sound to me like it’s an attempt at a punk record. I’m not sure at this point what we can do with it.

We’ve begun recording Get Out of This, and one of two new songs: Audacity.

For both of these we’ve recorded guitar at Andrew’s place this time, while Matthew was away, and then afterwards Andrew has commissioned a drummer who’s got a drum-studio setup in Nashville. He’s put a number of tracks down now for Get Out of This. We’ve had to go to 3 takes over this one, and that’s more due to my having a 30 year old song. When you’ve had 30 years to think about it, it kind of goes a certain way in your head, and it’s difficult to imagine a different drum pattern. I wanted real drums on the track, but the ‘virtual drums’ I had were pretty much what I wanted to be played; I just wanted the ‘robotic’ element (that all drum machines have) to be removed.

There is no doubt to me that, despite the repeats and the re-work, having a real drummer really adds something to the mix. I can’t wait to hear the track completed. We still have vocals and keyboard instrumentation to do yet.

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Half-way point review

Craig — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 22:53:00 +0000

Actually, it’s a little more than half-way now on the Artist Development Course, but I felt as if Matthew, Andrew and I needed to get our heads together and plan the next period and be a bit more productive. Anyway, I called a meeting…

Where we are right now: Recording Course complete; Watching the Rain in progress; The Nonsense Song in progress; Mixing course is now underway on week one after some delays.

General feedback from my close friends on hearing the new version of Watching the Rain has meant that we need to take some practical steps to improve the song. Last week I’d sent across a list of changes, which, I understand, Matthew’s worked on.

The coaching so far has been an enjoyable and liberating process. Who would have thought that I would even be able to get up on a stage and perform my work six months ago? Certainly not me. Big praise for Andrew particularly here, but also for Matthew, who has equipped me with vocal warm-ups and a way of pulling a bit more out of the vocal chords than I ever expected. Credit also for Matthew, who has shown me tips and tracks in recording and mixing during the recording sessions we’ve had, and some tips as to which plugins he uses in his DAW.

I thought it was necessary for the meeting to re-focus on my goals and aims here, and so I mentioned that although we are looking to produce five songs to mastered level here, my aim is beyond that…. to an album. I’ve chosen to put more into performance coaching now, moving forward, as it’s the live side of things that needs to improve and grow.

I also wanted to discuss which five tracks to record… The fact is, since beginning this process my songwriting has become more frequent, to the point now where I’d say I’m writing at least one song a week. My enthusiasm is always for the newer stuff, but, as Matthew rightly pointed out as we spoke, to everyone else, ALL of my songs are new! That is, except perhaps for my ‘inner circle’ of friends who have been good enough to listen to the older stuff and give me feedback and encouragement.

Anyway – I’m tasked this week with providing a third song for Matthew to begin work on. I’ve chosen Get Out of This, perhaps one of my favourite of the ‘old set’. Lastly, we’ve still to decide on the remainder, but there are a couple of songs I’d like to explore which maybe weren’t on the list of five to begin with.

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Recording Course

Craig — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 20:36:00 +0000

I haven’t really written anything about this yet, but I’ve just completed the final week 8 of the Songwriting School’s Recording Course. Now, I already have a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) in Apple’s Logic Pro, and I have a few key pieces of recording gear to go with this, but in light of previous feedback from Matthew and other music producers, there were real gaps in my knowledge and this needed addressing. Matthew thus recommended the course that he runs on the Songwriting School website.

Now I have to say, that the first three weeks of the course were very familiar to me, simply because they covered the basics: how to set up your studio for recording; speakers and microphones; and recording MIDI in particular. Anyway, I dutifully went through these weeks, and where there were testing questions, I answered them confidently…. and got a couple wrong, I admit. This is the disadvantage of being self-taught. So by the end of this I feel it filled in the gaps nicely. The real eye-opening part of the course for me was the guitar recording part, and this really got me thinking again about the way I’ve been recording my guitars up until now. The great advantage of having an acoustic guitar with transducing pick-ups is it’s immediacy in being able to just plug it in and record away; the disadvantage of this is the quality of sound it produces is limited to the quality of the pick-up, and this can never match the quality of a good high-end condenser microphone, placed correctly to get the whole spectrum of sound of the guitar, not just the electronic signal from the pick-up.

Week 7 was really the key part of the project: the practical. It was my chance to show what I’d learned and put my new skills and knowledge into practice. I decided it was worth doing a new piece, as there was no point in going over old ground and making it too easy for myself; these needed to be real problems and not things I’d faced before. This posed me a new set of challenges for every instrument I recorded. In the end I picked new song Waiting on the World to try and give it some of the new guitar recording techniques I’d been studying.

Here’s Matthew’s comments:

Final Project:

Craig, this is an outstanding effort and you should be very proud of what you have achieved.

You have a lovely use of stereo in the guitar recording and the guitars are full sounding and shows that your mic placement was well thought out and successful. There are no phase issues that I can hear. The drums come in musically and the use of cymbal is well placed. It is difficult to hear the drums generally and you may wish to consider whether the kick drum sound would benefit from layering, or some more compression to make it ‘kick’ better. You have followed the instructions of setting up the virtual instruments well.

The recording is clean and your fades are perfect.

The use of compression and reverb is appropriate for the musical style. Perhaps not for this track but generally speaking don’t be afraid to experiment with effects – sometimes you can do something crazy and get a really excellent effect from it and the more you use your plugins the more you will gain confidence at knowing exactly how to get the sound you have in your head each time.

Your backing vocals really lift the track at the right point and nicely compliment the main vocal.

This is the best final project I have had the pleasure of marking. Because I know how you have recorded in the past, I can hear that you have really taken on board everything from this course and put it into practise in a way that has vastly improved your recording skill. I thoroughly look forward to your work on the mixing course.

Anyway – I’m really encouraged by the feedback. It’s given me a real positive look forward to the mixing course coming next. Again, I think some of the knowledge will already be there, but again I’m feeling confident that the gaps in my knowledge and some of my inherited ‘bad habits’ will hopefully be addressed.

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Studio Session 2

Craig — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 19:19:00 +0000

I have to say how much I am beginning to enjoy these sessions in the studio with Matthew. It’s great to be able to bounce ideas off him and get feedback when I ask the odd technical question. Last week was the guitar session. This went very well indeed, and we had good time for Matthew to demonstrate some of the layered vocal work he was doing on another couple of tracks.

Today’s hour-long session was to add my vocal track to Watching the Rain, and we did several ‘takes’ to allow Matthew to choose the best bits. Once little thing that wasn’t comfortable was Matthew’s insistence on me pronouncing all the words with what, by the end of the session, I was calling my “best BBC” accent. To me it felt a bit forced, and didn’t come natural to me at all. I’m the product of my upbringing, and my accent is somewhat a ‘hybrid’ of Midlands, Sussex and Yorkshire, and though I’ve never had to analyse it before, I tailor the sounds of my voice – including the accent – to fit the song. However, again, as it’s the first song I’ve done with 360, I’m letting Matthew run with this and wait to hear the result. It’s a strange feeling though, not being in control of the arrangement.

We used up the entire hour today, and so I need to be called back to do the backing vocal, so there’s at least one more session to do on this song. So far I haven’t heard any strings on the backing track, so this is either something Matthew is dropping, or is yet to introduce.

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