Geoff Foster believes in 'real' music. This is all for the good, as he has recorded film scores for Hollywood blockbusters, as well as albums for major-league rock stars and opera singers. A master of large-scale orchestral recording, Foster's credits range from Moulin Rouge to Placido Domingo, with Madonna, Joni Mitchell and Sting for good measure. If further illustration of Foster's credentials were required, he has been chief engineer at the hugely respected AIR Studios since 1994. Not surprisingly, he believes real music comes from an equally real approach to recording.

"A significant chunk of music recording engineers go into a session and, instead of saying 'let's get the musicians to play that bit right', they say, 'we can fix that later'. That is a huge mistake," says Foster. "You have to get the humanity from the musicians, because it won't come from the technology. I think you lose some of the musicality when you pull it apart and reassemble it after the event.

"If you are editing between takes to the point that you are comping together a performance note by note, you are inevitably going to lose some of the magic" he adds.

Foster believes that the quality of British musicianship and the studio facilities in London are key factors in attracting artists to record in the UK, although he notes that recording in this country is also financially attractive.

With so much experience of working on world-class recordings, British musicians have come to be regarded as second-to-none. It is not just their impeccable sight-reading skills; the emotive nuances that British musicians bring to a score are also highly regarded.

"The best description that I've heard is that the guys over here 'read from the heart'." Foster relates. "It definitely makes people want to work in London."

Because London has number of world-class facilities with film-scoring capabilities, it is easy to forget that not every city is geared up to the same level of service. "I travel round the world a fair bit and I'm forever thinking 'I wish I was at home' because there is this fantastic technical support, with great musicians on tap" says Foster. "It doesn't matter what you get thrown, you know it's not going to be a problem."

Foster's work tends to be large-scale and AIR recently bought a 96-channel AMS Neve 88R console for this very reason. Foster cites reliability and the ability to completely reconfigure the desk for the session in hand as major selling points but adds: "I'm of the opinion that it is the best sounding console in the world."



Increasingly, Foster tracks to Pro Tools. The Pro Tools systems owned by AIR were supplied by GearBox and the studio frequently hire in supplementary systems. Like many top-flight recording engineers Foster reveals that he personally prefers the sound of analogue tape and Dolby SR but accepts that "Pro Tools has become a regular feature of the way people make films and music. People want the flexibility."

Being the perfectionist that he is, Foster takes a belt and braces approach to his recording methods; he usually records to both Pro Tools and tape. "The problem I have on a medium to large-sized film, is that you're looking, very roughly, at costs of £100 a minute during the session. So everything has got to work. If something goes wrong, I need a back-up plan. My job is to make sure not only that it sounds good, but that after the band have gone home there is something to play back."

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