Ron Harris keeps it real.

Ron Harris has come a long way since the early eighties, when his studio consisted of little more than a Tascam four track, a Juno 106, an MC 500 sequencer. Now he has a plush setup in sun-drenched LA that includes a dual 2Ghz G5, Pro Tools HD 5 system with 64-bit expansion chassis and Logic Pro 7.1, as well as a handsome line up of software synths, plus some tasty plug-ins to boot.

But Ron insists that despite his impressive gear list, and the fact that he gets to work alongside the likes of Christina Aguilera, his approach to music remains simple.

'I like the subtle imperfections in things, especially vocal performances,' he says. 'I think that, in an era of microwave hits, it's essential to hold on to that human element and that's what I try to achieve with singers like Christina. I prefer to roll with complete takes rather than stop and start and lose the flow all of the time.'

And with this mission in mind, Ron delights in the fact that Sony Oxford plug-ins have become indispensable tools in his box helping him along the way.

Plug-ins made more equal than others

'First of all, the Oxford EQ is so amazing,' Ron enthuses. 'It's unreal. It's so smooth. I'd go as far as to say that it's the best EQ I've heard. Other EQ plug-ins sound digital to me, so when this came out and I got my hands on it, I was so happy.

'It helps you to deliver that professionally recorded sound straightaway. Back in the day you could never get your own productions to sound as good as the records you bought, but now you can get a million dollar sound for just a few hundred dollars.

'On Christina's vocal I used the EQ along with a little compression and limiting from the Dynamics plug-in. I've got them perfectly set to bring out her particular vocal frequency and, I've got to say, it makes her voice sound like silk.'

Also helping Ron to achieve his particular sound is the Oxford Reverb - the shining jewel in his crown of plug-ins.

'I don't know where I would be without it,' he says. 'I've got special templates set up so that I can call it up at any time, and quickly. It's become my bread and butter tool. I use it on all my vocals to get that "record" sound.

'The fact that you can control the reverb tail and tweak the sound with the 5-band EQ section is great. The Reverb offers you so much control, and it's got a lot of impressive of features. I'm not even saying that you need to access those features all of the time, but they are right there if and when you do need them.'

It doesn't all end with the Reverb for Ron though. When he's finished laying down his vocals, he swiftly turns to another bastion in his bag of Oxford plug-ins, to give his cuts that final stamp of quality.

'Perception in the music industry is everything,' he adds, 'so when I'm ready to put a mix down, I push it through the Sony Oxford Inflator, and I push it pretty hard. That way I know that the mix is going to end up nice and loud.'

For the man who recently wrote and produced the fourteen-million-selling So Emotional with Christina Aguilera then, what is his final word on the matter?

'For me there's nothing more satisfying than seeing an engineer using one of my mixes as a reference point,' he says, 'and that's what happens when I take the Sony Oxford plug-ins out of the box and use them.'

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