Artist, producer and songwriter Mike Smith — who has more than a billion streams and over five million units sold to his credit, not to mention numerous numer 1 albums and several top 10 singles — recently overhauled his studio and installed a Neve 8424 console to suit his current hybrid workflow, which revolves around Neve 1073 microphone preamp coloring.
“I never used the preamps on my old desk and as time went on, I realized I was barely using the console at all because I was working more and more in the box, with a few outboard pieces for tracking and mixing,” he explains. “The 8424 has given me the ability to come back to the analog world in a huge way by really streamlining the process between ‘in the box’ and outside the box’.”
Smith is perhaps best known as executive producer (along with his wife Erika Smith) and main judge on BET’s One Shot, a hip-hop TV competition series. As well as releasing his own chart-topping music, he’s also worked with several internationally noted artists as a musician, songwriter, producer and singer.
Smith’s studio in Charlotte, NC is a commercial facility but is primarily used for his own projects. It houses his collection of more than 60 classic guitars, as well as a grand piano, numerous keyboards, drum sets and microphones and plenty of high-end outboard equipment including two vintage Neve 1073 preamps and eight 2254R and 2264ALB compressor/limiters. Alongside his 8424 purchase, Smith has also recently acquired a Neve 1073OPX, which he’s using in conjunction with the desk.
“The 8424 was installed at the end of last year and it has opened up a whole new world of creativity for me,” he says. “It is a world class console in a small footprint and with a workflow that is perfect for someone like me – a singer songwriter and producer who predominantly tracks themselves or a few other artists.
“The two 1073 preamps included on the console, along with the 8 channel 1073OPX expansion and seamless integration to the console are ideally suited to how I work,” he continues. “I now have 48 channels that are easily integrated with my DAW, and instant recall of my settings. However, the biggest surprise is the master section of the console, which is incredible. The inclusion of two 500 series slots, the shelving EQs, width controls, and beautiful sounding Marinair transformers makes this console a one stop shop for all of my recording needs.”
Since installing the console, Smith says he is doing a lot more outside the box because the 8424 simplifies the process. “I typically track through the board sitting in front of the desk, or remotely with the 1073OPX audio interface if I’m downstairs in my house recording my grand piano or traveling. After I track, my mixing workflow uses basic ITB surgical EQs before routing all of the tracks out to the board so that I can use my outboard compressors on the track level. I love having the ability to send the tracks to either the group busses or the mix bus directly so I can do a lot of parallel compression. Finally, I pull everything together into the mix buss, utilizing the on board width control, the 500 series compressors I added to the slots in the board, and shelving EQs before sending it out to my mix buss EQs and compressors/limiters/analog tape machine and back into my DAW. For me, this is a dream set-up because I have instant recall and I can pre-patch my entire outboard setup into the board thanks to the simplicity of routing and all the insertion points on the back for each track.”
Since installing the Neve 8424 and 1073OPX, mith has been working on a variety of projects including six new albums that were originally slated for release in 2020 but were held up by the pandemic. They will now be released this year.
