SOS Magazine Audio Examples

Tony Platt talks with Paul White about his career highlights, developing his recording techniques and memorable sessions with Bob Marley, AC-DC, Gary Moore and Uriah Heep. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction 00:27 - Contacting Studios 06:23 - Learning By Watching 08:59 - Tape Operator At Trident 11:19 - Moving To Island Studios 12:57 - Becoming An Engineer 14:56 - A Different Recording Era 15:58 - Recording Bob Marley 17:25 - Using Spill As An Advantage 20:26 - Recording Techniques 23:04 - Memorable Sessions 26:13 - Taking Time To Develop Bands 28:42 - From Analogue To Digital 33:54 - Incorporating Analogue 35:51 - Analogue Emulations 39:05 - Expanding Into Different Genres 41:56 - Current Music Projects 42:37 - AI In Music Tony Platt Biog Tony started as a “tea-boy” at Trident Studios in London before landing a job as tape operator at the now legendary Island Record's Basing Street Studios where he worked as an assistant on sessions with the likes of Traffic, The Who, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. He engineered on sessions with John Martin, Free and many more, leading to him mixing the “Catch A Fire” album for a hitherto unknown Jamaican artist, Bob Marley and then recording and mixing the “Burnin” album, both of which arguably would launch reggae music into the mainstream. As a freelance he recorded demos that prefaced deals for Thin Lizzy and the Stranglers before becoming engineer for Mutt Lange and working on the AC/DC albums “Highway to Hell” and “Back in Black”, Foreigner – “4”, Boomtown Rats – “Fine Art of Surfacing’ and Broken Home. He produced and engineered the work of artists such as Samson (with Bruce Dickenson singing), Krokus, Motorhead, Gary Moore, Cheap Trick, Ronnie Dio, The Cult and Marillion and recorded two albums for Buddy Guy - the Grammy winning “Damn Right I Got the Blues” and the follow up “Feels Like Rain”. He developed a close involvement with the well-respected “boutique” Jazz label, Dune Records, working with all their artists including Mercury nominated Soweto Kinch, Denys Baptiste, and Abram Wilson. Many other productions in the Jazz genre have followed and Tony still undertakes mixing projects in his own studio. He is a member of the steering group for the education initiative J.A.M.E.S. (Joint Audio Media Education Support), whilst occasionally providing guest lectures, master-classes and workshops for several universities running music industry courses worldwide. www.platinumtones.com www.jamesonline.org.uk Paul White Biog Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing. He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual. Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too! http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/ Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Audio example to accompany the May 2025 Sound On Sound magazine article.