Tim Debney - Fluid South
Tim began his interest in sound engineering when messing about with samplers, synthesisers, recording and mixing as a teenager, which has led to his releasing many tracks for various labels to this day. Soon after finishing University in 1994 Tim started training as a sound engineer at the legendary rehearsal and recording complex, Nomis Studios. Here Tim engineered for many of the top selling acts of the 1990’s and also many classic bands from previous decades in all musical genres from Rock, Pop, R&B, Soul and Dance to Classical and Jazz. This, Tim believes, gave a good base for understanding how differing genres of music should be mixed and balanced and would prove invaluable to his future mastering career.
Tim’s mastering career began only a few years later in 1997, when his sound engineering skills and expertise in the field of computers and music technology resulted in his being asked to run Nomis’ new mastering facility, Sonix. It was not long before Tim was mastering albums and singles for the likes of The Orb, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, James Taylor Quartet and Lauryn Hill to name a few.
It was also during this period that Tim acquired his skills in the fields of sound restoration and re-mastering, working on many albums on ASV’s Living Era label and Sanctuary Records’ vast back catalogue.
Having always had a love of vinyl, Tim seized the opportunity to train as a cutting engineer when he moved to the world famous Townhouse Studios in 2002, and before long was mastering and cutting records for some of the world’s most prominent artists.
Tim believes that the discipline of vinyl cutting took his mastering skills to a whole new level, thanks to the demanding challenge of transferring music successfully on to this unforgiving and much-loved medium.
It was at the ‘Townhouse’ that Tim’s mastering career really took off and he was soon mastering for Major labels such as Mercury, EMI, Parlophone, Sony-BMG, Island Records, including recent albums and singles by artists such as Lily Allen, The Charlatans, Kasabian, The Fratellis, Keane, Orson and Sandi Thom.
Vukovi | Iris | Moyka | Blossoms | Aurora | The Vamps | The Strypes | Razorlight | Pixie Lott | Lily Allen | Noah And The Whale | Thom Yorke | Frankmusik | Mumford and Sons | Keane | Killing Joke | Alison Moyet | Blancmange | UB40 | Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry | Bob Marley | Amy Macdonald | The Lumineers | Melody Gardot | Primal Rock Rebellion | Palaye Royale | Biffy Clyro | Eric Lau | Petula Clark | Kenny Thomas | Girli | Encore | L Marshall | Hayley Westenra | Bo Saris | Alfie Boe | Rhys Lewis | Anthony And The Johnsons | Sufjan Stevens | Shed Seven | Imelda May | The Treatment | Turbogeist | Honey Ryder | Sea Fever | Mika | McFly | Sugababes | Jarvis Cocker | Red Moon | Marc Bolan | Elvis Presley | Arcade Fire | The Orb | Dirty Pretty Things | The Charlatans | Fixers | Jake Bugg | Iggy Azelea | Fluke | Maverick Sabre | Niki And The Dove | Noisettes | One Night Only | Lunar And The Deception | Seye | Peter Murphy | Gregory Porter | Dean Blunt | Simple Minds | Sophie Ellis Bextor | The Decemberists | Dylan LeBlanc | Esben And The Witch | Vampire Weekend | The Libertines | Warpaint | Therapy | Look Mum No Computer | The Damned | Motorhead | Iron Maiden | Buzzcocks | Ash | The Enemy | The Young Knives | Desmond Dekker | Dennis Brown | Horace Andy | Jimmy Cliff | Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott | Gabrielle Aplin | Melt Yourself Down | Ronan Keating | Thin Lizzy | Children Of Bodom | Dru Blu | Krept And Konan | The Teskey Brothers | Sneakbo | Andrea Bocelli | The Specials | The Christians | The Fratellis | Hans Zimmer | Matt Cardle | Sam Henshaw | Forgotten Pharaohs | Rumer | Altered Images | Kioko | Young Culture | Iris | The Beat | Youth | Mad Professor | The Wandering Hearts | The Shires | Stefan Redtenbacher’s Funkestra | The Little Unsaid | Tiggi Hawke | Elles Bailey | Elliott Jack Sansom | Music Lab Collective
Fluid South
Tim’s studio, Fluid South, is located in the forests of the Surrey Hills A far cry from the bustle of Fluid West’s Bristol location, but perfect if you fancy coming out to the sticks for a chilled out attended session.
Some great country pubs very close by.
Core Equipment:
Monitoring: PMC BB5 XBD-A With Bryston Amplification, Spendor SA500, B&W CDM1
A/D/A Conversion: Prism Sound “Dream” ADA-8, Apogee Rosetta 200
Mastering Console and Routing: SPL DMC & SPL Hermes
Outboard:
Prism Maselec MEA-2 Stereo EQ
Manley Massive Passive Stereo EQ
Rupert Neve Designs – Portico II Master Buss Processor
Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
Cartec Audio Tone Harmonics Compressor
SPL PQ Stereo EQ
Weiss DS-1 De-Esser
DAW:
SADiE 6 with Cedar Re-Touch and De-Click
Playback:
Studer A80 ½” Tape Machine
Sony DAT Machine
Secondary Monitoring: Spendor SA500
Weiss DS-1 De-Esser
Even with the best analogue tools money can buy on hand, certain processes are best handled in the digital domain.
The Weiss DS-1 is a very flexible and transparent de-esser, something of a classic in fact, which can be used not only to tame the more obvious sibilant sounds but also to provide control over gnarly frequencies where a straight EQ cut would be too extreme, or to smooth out the top end by warming up spiky hi-hats and the like
Shadow Hills Compressor
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Cartec Audio Tone Harmonics Compressor
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