Skip to main content
MusicRadar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Drums Week 25
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Guitar Amps
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Artist news
  • Drums
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • Santana on Beck
  • Friday, I'm in Love
  • Knopfler's 4-note secret
  • 95k+ free music samples
Don't miss these
Drum recording
Music Production Tutorials 10 tips for recording perfect drums
mixing desk
Music Production Tutorials “Learning how to mix is almost as important as hitting on your original musical idea”: New to the mixing process? Start here
Plugins Future owns
Plugins Our resident platinum award-winning mixer and producer shares 10 of his go-to plugins
Eight producers
Artists "Turn a few seconds into a four minute, finished piece of music”: 8 producers show how they finish tracks
Drums The easy guide to recording drums: kit tips, mic placement and setting up your DAW
Joe Armon-Jones
Artists Ezra Collective’s Joe Armon-Jones on the imagined musical apocalypse that inspired All The Quiet
Lawrence Hart
Artists Lawrence Hart on the mixed blessings of classical training and being ‘scrappy’ in the studio
Drum Recording Techniques
Drums How the rules of drum recording were shaped over decades of trial and error
View from behind a drum kit on stage
Drummers 11 live mistakes every drummer makes
Brent Smith [left] performs in a blazer and white T-shirt as flames from pyro light the stage behind him. On the right, Rick Beato is photographed in a denim overshirt at NAMM 2022.
Artists Shinedown frontman Brent Smith on what makes Rick Beato a great producer
ARMNHMR
Djs ARMNHMR on their tools of the trade
Sleep Token
Drums “We tried it as a laugh and now it’s our standard setup”: The secret sauce behind Sleep Token’s live drum sound
Silva Bumpa
Tech Breakout producer Silva Bumpa on the secret to creating sub bass and UKG rhythms
Bob Dylan
Artists How to avoid letting technical problems with the music-making process slow you down
10 people drummers will encounter at gigs
Drummers The 10 people drummers will inevitably encounter when playing a gig
  1. Tech
  2. Recording
  3. Studios

John Mitchell: 5 things every band needs to know before they go in the studio

News
By Michael Astley-Brown published 29 September 2015

Enter Shikari and You Me At Six producer's studio survival guide

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Introduction

Introduction

John Mitchell's CV is as varied as it is impressive. As a producer and engineer at Reading's Outhouse Studios, he's worked with the likes of Enter Shikari, You Me At Six, Lower Than Atlantis, Funeral For A Friend and My Passion, while for some, he's best known for playing stints with the resurfaced It Bites, Frost*, Martin Barre and A.

John's current diversion is his solo project, dubbed Lonely Robot, which he describes as “ambient progressive pop”. His debut album, Please Come Home, is awash with guests, including Nik Kershaw, Marillion's Steve Hogarth and Go West's Peter Cox, with a story narrated by actor Lee Ingleby. It's a bold concept, especially for a first solo album.

“The idea is to convey my love of film soundtracks through the medium of slightly progressive ambient rock music,” John explains. “It’s also my first actual solo album, so I guess that came as part and parcel of the idea. The intention is to do a series of albums under the moniker, so the actual subject matter will be wide and varied.”

Now readying the project's first live gig at London's Scala on December 20, John has put together an all-star band, including Steven Wilson drummer Craig Blundell. And in line with the album's grand scope, he has big ideas.

“I have quite an ambitious plan for the live shows; I’m thinking Pink Floyd on a Blue Peter budget!” he laughs. “Audiences can expect to hear the entire record and some new songs, plus, hopefully, some enticing visual experiences.”

Onstage visuals, concept album narratives, special guests… it's all a long way from John's humble recording and playing origins.

“I started out by messing about in my bedroom at my parents’ house with a four-track tape recorder, desperately trying to recreate Iron Maiden with a cinematic quality,” he recalls. “It’s taken many years, but I finally feel I am recapturing that initial wonderment.”

With such a formidable clientele list, we're inclined to agree. On the following pages, John shares his top five tips for bands recording in a studio.

Page 1 of 6
Page 1 of 6
1. Get it right at the source

1. Get it right at the source

“Never settle for a half-baked sound and figure that you can live with it and tweak it later. Imagine how bad Bohemian Rhapsody would have sounded if Queen had approached it with that ethos! The great thing about that particular song is that you can literally throw the faders up and it sounds great off the bat.

“Particular attention needs to be paid to drums. Don’t even put a mic near a drum until the kit has been decently tuned. Do not think Mr Steven Slate is going to save your life further down the line.”

Page 2 of 6
Page 2 of 6
2. Keep your signal path minimal

2. Keep your signal path minimal

“Every effects pedal that you have in a chain degrades the signal and, indeed, tone. Only plug in what you need. In an ideal world, guitar to lead, lead to amp, amp to mic, mic to preamp and so on.”

Page 3 of 6
Page 3 of 6
3. Don't over-mic

3. Don't over-mic

“Stop with the crazy amount of mics! I’ve mixed sessions with four mics on a guitar cab. Why?! More often than not, no two mics are in phase with each other and all compromise the others' positions.

“In my world, it starts with a single SM57 near the centre of the cone, which gets shifted around until I find the sweet spot.”

Page 4 of 6
Page 4 of 6
4. Don't give in to loudness

4. Don't give in to loudness

“What's this obsession with loud? If you’re in a band and you’re happy with the way a mix sounds, don’t then ruin it by telling the mix/mastering engineer to smash it into the limiter so hard that the cymbals sound like crisp packets, just so it’s as ear piercing as the last [insert band name here] album.

“No-one cared about that nonsense until the 1990s and it’s a silly habit to get out of right now.”

Page 5 of 6
Page 5 of 6
5. Keep it achievable

5. Keep it achievable

“If you can’t play or sing it in the studio, then chances are you definitely won’t be able to do it live, so let’s stop with the myth creation.

“If you’re a baritone, stop trying to sing a top C, and if you really can’t play 16 notes on the kick drum at 180bpm then definitely don’t ask the engineer to MIDI program them in so you seem like Johnny Clever Clogs. You’re only going to come unstuck further down the line. It’s not big and it’s not clever!”

Page 6 of 6
Page 6 of 6
Michael Astley-Brown
Michael Astley-Brown
Social Links Navigation

Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.

Read more
Drum recording
10 tips for recording perfect drums
mixing desk
“Learning how to mix is almost as important as hitting on your original musical idea”: New to the mixing process? Start here
Plugins Future owns
Our resident platinum award-winning mixer and producer shares 10 of his go-to plugins
Eight producers
"Turn a few seconds into a four minute, finished piece of music”: 8 producers show how they finish tracks
The easy guide to recording drums: kit tips, mic placement and setting up your DAW
Joe Armon-Jones
Ezra Collective’s Joe Armon-Jones on the imagined musical apocalypse that inspired All The Quiet
Latest in Studios
Adam Audio H200
“A good all round headphone suited to recording, mixing and mastering”: Adam Audio H200 Headphones review
An Arturia KeyLab 88 MkII synthesizer on a blue background
I’ve looked through all 372 deals in the Thomann Easter Sale - these are the 5 deals I’d grab right now
Universal Audio Standard SD-1
“A versatile and durable dynamic microphone suitable for a range of applications”: Universal Audio SD-1 review
Universal Audio Standard SC-1
“Its robust construction, low self-noise, and ability to emulate a range of classic microphones make it a valuable asset”: Universal Audio SC-1 review
Abbey Road Studio One
Refurbished Abbey Road Studio One reopens with evening of "boundary-pushing expressive dance"
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish’s mix engineers reveal the star's “favourite part” of her smash hit, Birds Of A Feather
Latest in News
Sebastian Bach performs on Day 1 of the Heavy Montreal festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau on August 6, 2016 in Montreal, Canada
“I could kick 'em right in the balls”: Ex-Skid Row man goes on a rant about Youtube armchair critics
Composer John Williams
“I never liked film music very much”: World famous film composer makes startling admission
Deals of the week
MusicRadar deals of the week: Here are the best Labor Day sales for musicians from across the internet
Josh Freese performs onstage with The Vandals during day 1 of Warped Tour at Shoreline Waterfront on July 26, 2025
“It wasn’t music that I really resonated with”: Josh Freese lifts the lid on his exit from the Foo Fighters
Boss PX-1 Plugout FX: the white compact series pedal has blue knobs, digital display, and is a platform for 16 digitally modelled Boss effects, one of which is available at a time.
A compact series stompbox you can turn into any one of 16 classic Boss effects? Meet the Plugout FX
Zak Starkey and Axl Rose composite
“C’mon bro... It could generate $2M for teen cancer”: Zak Starkey pleads with Axl Rose to give the go-ahead for charity cover of Bolan classic

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...