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Fri, Mar 29, 2024

New interview with former Rush engineer Paul Northfield

Thu, Oct 29, 2009@10:10PM | comments removed/disabled

[RecordingHacks.com: Interview with Paul Northfield]

Paul Northfield is a prolific sound engineer and record producer who has worked on a number of Rush albums from Permanent Waves on through Vapor Trails. Matthew McGlynn recently interviewed Paul for RecordingHacks.com and spoke at length with him about his experiences recording with Rush. Here's an excerpt:

... In the case of Rush, their own experimental eccentricity was that they always wanted to record things differently each time. It drove me nuts. We’d get a drum sound and then, after we’d recorded a song, they’d say, “Ok, well, that sounded great, so what mic shall we use on this next song?” It took a while to convince them — a couple of albums, actually! — to convince them that a lot more sound change would come from performance and the way something sits in an arrangement, than changing mics for change’s sake. ...

It's a very well-done interview which covers not only his work with Rush, but also with Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater and many other bands. You can check out the entire interview at this link.

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