Writer, producer and arranger Richard Evans uses the award-winning gadget of the year as an ‘audio camera’ and on a movie soundtrack with Peter Gabriel.
Richard Evans has worked at the famous Real World Studios ever since graduating from the Guildhall School Of Music. He has worked alongside many of the biggest names in music including Real World owner Peter Gabriel, top producers Trevor Horn and Stephen Hague and pioneering artist and producer Brian Eno. Evans has also worked on countless albums and co-wrote and co-produced the Golden Globe-nominated score to Rabbit-Proof Fence. He even manages to find time to play as a multi-instrumentalist in Peter Gabriel’s touring band.
After spending so many years at one of the best studio facilities in the world, Richard has leant it all when it comes to recording and has some wise advice to newcomers…
“Performance is everything,” he says. “Equipment wise, keep signal paths and options to a minimum. Learn to use two bits of gear really well and stick with what you know will work, so that the technology is transparent to the artist.”
One piece of recording equipment that Richard is currently enamored with is EDIROL’s award-winning R-09 field recorder, the must have gadget of the year which is designed to quickly and easily record high quality audio at any time and in any place. And Richard has taken this description perhaps a bit too literally…!
“I’m using it as an audio camera,” he says. “It’s useful for letting people sing ideas for orchestral arrangements in the studio. It means I have more time to spend sifting through singing ideas. And now there’s no need to carry too much equipment around, just in case I wanted to record some Turkish goat herders!”
The quality of the R-09 has also meant that it has played a key role in a soundtrack recording with Peter Gabriel…
“It has a great sounding mic and a surprisingly uncoloured sound,” confirms Evans. “And the multiple formats are useful. I used it to write and record songs for some movie credits with Peter Gabriel. I recorded drum overheads, piano, and vocals. It sounds great on the finished film.”
Richard is currently working on a new album for Michael Brook and Djivan Gasparian as well as mixing a soundtrack album for a new IMax film called Sea Monsters. And if there are any Turkish goat herders at Real World, he’ll be recording them with the R09 too…!