Concert Buddie | Behind the Music: Cicely Balston of AIR Studios

New treat for you Buddies on this latest 'sode of Vinyl Community Podcasts. On our 100th episode of VCP, we feature a conversation taking us behind the music: specifically, I'm speaking with Cicely Balston of AIR Studios in London. Earlier this year Cicely was awarded the 2023 Music Producer's Guild "Mastering Engineer of The Year" honor - and for good reason! With over a decade in the field, she began to develop her trade back in 2013 at Gearbox Records, an all-analog shop known for cutting on a vintage Skully lathe. She moved on to AIR Studios in 2016, with a detour at Alchemy Mastering (later acquired by AIR) in between her return to Sir George Martin's enterprise in 2020. She's been involved in some terrific releases of late courtesy of Vinyl Me Please, including the exciting recent release of Chalino Sanchez' "15 Exitos 15". She's been part of working on projects from artists like David Bowie, to Young MC, Busta Rhymes, Witch Fever, Sun Ra and a litany of artists across many genres and styles. We touch on that, as well as navigating mastering from digital files and analog both for today's hungry vinyl consumers. As the "vinyl resurgence" continues to go full speed ahead, the mastering side of things is in great hands with Cicely and other mastering engineers taking the baton from their predecessors. This episode has it all: science, music, laughs, and some name dropping (mostly by me). Let's jump into this terrific conversation now on Vinyl Community Podcasts!

 

For more information on host Concert Buddie:

https://www.youtube.com/@ConcertBuddie

 

For more information on guest Cicely Balston c/o AIR Mastering (London):

https://www.airstudios.com/cicely-balston/

 

For more information on Vinyl Community Podcasts:

https://vinylcommunitypodcasts.com/