Andy Bradfield

Andy Bradfield

PRODUCER/MIXER

NUGEN Audio's Visualizer provides accurate metering for Grammy-nominated producer/mixer

Connecting people to the music

Andy Bradfield started his career at Olympic & Townhouse Studios in London before becoming a freelance engineer, mixing and producing film scores including Snowden, The Great Gatsby, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Moulin Rouge. He has also earned two GRAMMY nominations as well as four Latin GRAMMY nominations for his work with pop Latin superstar and actor Miguel Bosé. Bradfield was intrigued by NUGEN Audio's reputation for providing trusted and accurate metering solutions, which take advantage of Avid's HDX hardware, keeping the latency down - all of which led to his decision to use NUGEN Audio's Visualizer audio analysis suite for projects.

"Once I purchased Visualizer, I wondered how I ever worked without it."

"It's very important for me to understand from the composer and director what they are trying to convey within the film as a whole, but also what they are trying to reinforce with specific musical elements," says Bradfield. "Each mix offers me a hugely creative and enjoyable challenge. It's incredibly rewarding when someone trusts you with a difficult project and you're able to crack into the issues and deliver a great mix that connects people to the music. Once I purchased Visualizer, I wondered how I ever worked without it. Visualizer offers me a solution that I've always wanted to incorporate into my workflow. It's easy to use and adapts to each project."

NUGEN Audio's Visualizer provides Bradfield with powerful, flexible audio analysis capabilities for identifying imperfections in his mix. He finds the user configurable presets that allow for instantaneous switching between setups and interface sizes to be useful as well as the unique window function to select multiple view combinations without having to switch between plug-ins.

"I started to work with a couple of different software solutions and found NUGEN's Visualizer - which seemed to tick off all of the boxes," says Bradfield. "I liked how it worked and looked, but also that it had a DSP version as well that meant I could use it on the output of my Avid Pro Tools HDX2 system without adding a lot of delay to the mixer that a native plug-in would have caused."

"Visualizer offers me a solution that I've always wanted to incorporate into my workflow. It's easy to use and adapts to each project."

Retaining dynamics

Bradfield also uses MasterCheck Pro for optimizing mixes and balancing loudness and dynamics, as well as its A|B Assist plug-in for essential A/B and X/Y testing. He finds this software pair particularly useful when he's working remotely or on his laptop and doesn't have his Visualizer desk monitor available.

Bradfield recently used his NUGEN software while working on Sheridan, a musical special on ITV from award-winning English actress and performer, Sheridan Smith. The special was a diverse production, with Smith speaking about her life and career as well as singing with a live orchestra. MasterCheck Pro helped Bradfield guarantee flawless audio as he mixed the music from the show. Bradfield was able to effortlessly monitor audio levels and frequencies, allowing him to produce a consistent, balanced mix that retained the dynamics of Smith's performances.

Useful and adaptable

On another recent project, Bradfield used Visualizer and MasterCheck Pro on a filmed live acoustic band recording for Brothers Osborne at RAK studios for the bands upcoming new video. Bradfield found that the ability to see as well as hear what is going on in a dense live performance when he got into the mix back at the studio, with a lot of multi mic'd sources was extremely useful.

"NUGEN doesn't get it wrong!"

"NUGEN Audio solutions are easy to use and adaptable," says Bradfield. "They do their own thing and the less I have to think about the tech the more creative I can be in actually mixing the music, which is perfect! The NUGEN Audio team has been amazing and whenever I have had any dealings with anyone at the company they have always tried to help me as much as they can. Their reputation is second to none and this is extremely important when things like metering or frequencies are concerned, because there is a great risk to getting it wrong and NUGEN doesn't get it wrong!"