Uwe Schmidt

"I mostly used the Sony Oxford EQ and Dynamics for processing and the version of Amplitube that comes free with Pro Tools for effects," explains Uwe. "I didn't really use any delays other than for the odd little dub-style effect parts, but if there are any they will also be from Amplitube. Sometimes I used very cheap reverbs, like the D-Verb, which comes free with Pro Tools, and I used a lot of reverbs from Amplitube. Then there is also a bit of Waves Renaissance Reverb. I usually put two reverbs on each song; one small, close one and a distant one. I wanted the quieter instruments like the saxophone section to sound close and strong, and the loud instruments, like the trumpet and trombone, to be far away at the back of the room as if there was one mic standing there listening to them all. Having said that, I based the sound mainly on records from the '70s where some instruments were recorded together, some separately, then the reverbs were added afterwards to create a particular space. I didn't want to overdo the reverb so it's all relatively dry, and there are also a lot of unprocessed sounds in the mix."

"By listening to all the tracks in a row I can hear the mistakes, so I balance all the songs using a touch of EQ and Waves' C4 multi-band compressor to make it a bit more even."