Hedging his bets on Sony Oxford

Ray Hedges has worked extensively with some of the world’s top boy-bands, and most illustrious music industry icons. From Westlife to Boyzone, Ronan Keating to Bryan Adams, B*Witched to ex-Spice Girls’ Emma Bunton, he’s produced some mighty players and scooped myriad awards for his efforts. Ray’s productions are crisp and self-assured, and his taste for the right kind of gear is essential when it comes to attaining his hallmark sound. And that’s why the most recent addition to his music-making arsenal is a bundle of the world’s best plug-ins.

“I use all of the Sony Oxford plug-ins,’ he says. ‘Most recently, I used the Reverb on Ronan Keating’s voice and it sounds great. ‘For me the best thing about the Sony Oxford Reverb is it’s presets. Sony have recreated the Lexicon 224 perfectly, and you can access this classic sound quickly and easily. I also love the fact that you can create great big dry spaces, which is ideal when you want to sync the reverb to the mix without committing it to the final mix. That doesn’t mean that I don’t use the reverb on final mixes though. On Keating’s Greatest Hits album I used it on ‘Word’ and I was blown away by the results.”

While the reverb is adding the sizzle to the dulcet tones of the ex-Boyzone star, Ray also uses the Oxford Inflator to give his final mixes that special edge. ”I really don’t know how the Inflator does it,”  he confesses. “It gives that extra bit of level without changing the dynamics of the track. You have to be gentle with it though, you can’t overcook it. But used in the right way you get extra volume without increasing the level output. It also does something very sweet to the harmonics – a bit like the ‘warmth’ setting on the Dynamics plug-in – and that’s perfect for a lot of my productions.’

Another useful tool that Ray uses, particularly when he wants to tease individual nuances from certain sounds, is the Sony Oxford Trans Modulator – or ‘Trans Mod’ as he affectionately calls it.

“The Trans Mod is a clever little tool. I recently used it on a rock band called Tower of London, to push certain aspects of the drum tracks back into the mix. Basically I’ve found two main uses for the Trans Mod, firstly for adding peaks and secondly for taking peaks off, but I mainly use it to take peaks off. On Tower of London I used it to effectively cut the tail end from the overheads, by adding attack and punch which enabled me to back off the faders a little.”

Interestingly, Ray has also found another imaginative way to bring certain weaker aspects of a mix to life with the Trans Modulator, and with a surprising outcome. “I used it on a female vocal that wasn’t particularly dynamic,” he adds. “Her performance was lacking, in the sense that you couldn’t properly hear the S’s and T’s. The Trans Mod brought them out of the mix beautifully. When you have a performance that isn’t quite dynamic enough, or is legato, it’s a fantastic tool for enhancing the impact of the consonants.’

The true ace up Ray’s sleeve for achieving the platinum sound for which he is famous, is the Oxford EQ. “This is simply a fantastic piece of kit,” he adds. “It’s great when you want to achieve a classy outboard sound without breaking the bank to do it. And it’s the only piece of software that I can think of that performs as well as some of the best high-end outboard gear!”

So what is the man’s final verdict of the Sony Oxford plug-in range then?

“Overall the Sony Oxford plug-ins are extremely stable and well-designed,” he enthuses. ”I know it’s a bit of a music industry cliché, but these bits of software really do what they say on the tin! I’d recommend them to anybody who wants to make music with that quality edge to it.”

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