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Producer · Engineer · FOH
Yoad Nevo
Yoad Nevo
Yoad Nevo
Yoad Nevo

Yoad Nevo

Producer
Yoad Nevo

With over 30 number ones, more than 50 top 10 albums and over 60 top 10 singles, Yoad Nevo has certainly been there and recorded that. He's worked with major artists like Bryan Adams and Goldfrapp and pop icons like Girls Aloud and Sia. It's a far cry from the explosive early days of learning his craft…

Bryan Adams, Pet Shop Boys, Goldfrapp, Sugarbabes, Sia, Moby, Morcheeba, Dandy Warhols, Born Stranger, Nina Smith, Tina Karol and many more.
I got used to being electrocuted

My journey into the world of engineering and production started at the age of 10 when I started playing the guitar. A year later I received an electric guitar but I didn't have an amp. I had one jack-to-jack lead which I cut one end off, exposing the wires, and I then started connecting those wires to anything I could find around the house with the hope that I could use it as an amp. This included an old radio and a TV set that exploded. I got electrocuted so many times during that period that I started liking the sensation.

I then had a reel-to-reel tape and later a 4-track machine, connecting stomp pedals, drum machines and sequencers, syncing them together and making electronic music.

I took a one-year engineering course when I was 17 and after that found myself assisting in one of the biggest and coolest studios in Tel Aviv. I remember while assisting on a big session with a major artist, the engineer received a phone call and had to leave. The producer asked me whether I could take over to which I replied 'yeah, sure' with as straight a face as I could muster…

Questions you may or may not ask…

When someone asks 'who are the artists you've most liked working with?' I never have an answer. I was really surprised with how modest and down to Earth Bryan Adams was. I remember I was waiting for him for our first session working on the Room Service album at the Townhouse Studios, and he said he was on his way. I went downstairs and there were some limousines there and I was sure that they were for him, but they turned out to be for Beyonce or someone like that. And then some guy on a scooter shows up and that was him. He's a really cool guy and we had a lot of fun.

As for advice on getting into music production, I don't know. It's so different from when I got into it because you have YouTube and all of these channels and you can just watch and learn things, which is great. But there's nothing like first-hand experience so the more you do, the more you try and the more you mix, and the more beats you create –  all of that helps. Go and collaborate and meet people – it's all common sense and there are no secrets. A lot of people ask me whether I should go to SAE [School of Audio Engineering] or just do stuff at home but, in terms of learning, you can do a lot at SAE and Point Blank, but it's more about meeting people, industry people, and having the connections and having mates to jam with.

German quality, British built

I connect the Aston mics directly into my Neve 5113 mic pre-amp and use the channel EQ if needed. When recording vocals I would use the 5113 channel compressor as well. I set the ratio to 'soft' and the attack time to 'slow' to achieve a very natural sounding compression curve that preserves a lot of the dynamics, while adding warmth and preventing clipping on loud notes.

The Spirit is my go-to mic for male and female vocals. I will try the Spirit and Origin first and usually stop there unless I am looking for a more vintage sound. I've used the Spirit for vocals with lots of people, and more recently with artists like Nina Smith and the electronic duo Born Stranger who I produce and write with. I also use it with Tina Karrol – she is huge in Ukraine.

I like the silkiness of the Spirit on vocals and the way it handles sibilance. I guess it is the unique Aston grill that disperses the high transients but does it in a very nice and natural way. Even after compressing and adding quite a bit of high mid and top in the mix, the De-Essers that I usually put one over the unprocessed vocal track (and a second one set to wideband De-Essing at the end of the chain, after the compressors and EQ), don't have to work too hard to tame the well enhanced sibilance. I also like the presence and the transformer-less solid sound of Origin on vocals and the same controlled sibilance it produces. The build quality of Aston mics is on par with classic mics, which are mostly German made, and it's nice to see a high-end product in this field that is designed AND manufactured in the UK. They produce a very rich yet manageable sound that suites current trends in vocal production.

Out-takes

Q. If you weren’t working in music what would you be doing?
A. “Lying in a ditch on the roadside.”

Q. What would your fantasy mic be?
A. “Two different capsules housed in the same chassis very close to each other, cardoid and omni, with separate outputs.”

Q. What are the 4 words you’d chose to describe Aston, or your experience with the brand?
A. “Crisp, smooth, warm, solid.”

Q. What was the first song that made you cry?
A. “I can't really think of any but I think my favourite song of all time is Bowie's Life on Mars…”

Credits

“My favourite artist of all time? It's Bowie and Pink Floyd. I'm an old prog head and into that type of music. Bowie is definitely my favourite artist but I like a lot of current pop stuff too.”

Nina Smith

Born Stranger

Tina Karol

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