Present Day Production will be hosting a two-day residential start-to-finish music production workshop on Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th April 2025 at School Farm Studios in Little Maplestead, Essex.
The workshop will consist of the recording and production of a song written and performed by British songwriting and pop icon Nik Kershaw, will feature Ian Thomas on drums, top tier bass and keys talent, and guitar and vocals from Nik himself.
The session will be engineered by Stefano Civetta and participants will get to experience first hand on day one how a song can evolve from initial idea to final arrangement, as well as the technicalities of microphone placement, signal flow and gain staging, recording drums, bass, guitar, vocals, acoustic piano and Hammond organ, getting the best from the musicians, choosing takes, overdubbing and much more.
Day two will focus on post-production, mixing both in stereo and for Dolby Atmos, approaches to stereo mastering, and how to present a track for release.
Far from this being a sit-and-watch workshop we want you to be fully engaged and involved so as you can gain maximum benefit from the experience. On day two there will be plenty of opportunity to get hands on with the mixing, try out various pieces of classic and modern gear, and you will get to take the multitracks away with you for your own practice at the end of the workshop.
And, of course, the PDP team will be on hand throughout the entire two days to help answer any questions and ensure you get the most from the session.
NIK KERSHAW
Nik exploded onto the UK pop scene in 1984 as a solo artist. A string of global hits including "Wouldn't It Be Good", "The Riddle" and his biggest hit "I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" helped to propel him to 62 weeks on the UK singles chart throughout 1984 and 1985, beating every other solo artist, and earning Nik the honour of performing at Live Aid.
After stepping out of the limelight to concentrate on writing and producing, Nik has written hits for countless other artists, including Chesney Hawkes' hit "The One And Only" and has collaborated with Elton John (including writing and producing one of the songs on the Duets album), Gary Barlow, Sia and Bonnie Tyler, whilst continuing to release his own critically acclaimed studio albums, featuring his distinctive voice and highly personal lyrics. Nik still regularly plays the festival circuit and performs live to his loyal and fervent fanbase.
IAN THOMAS
Ian has long been first call as one of the UK's leading and most accomplished session and touring drummers, with an insanely long credit list featuring Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Seal, Tom Jones, Scott Walker, Sir Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Mick Jagger, Roger Daltry, Amy Winehouse, Georgie Fame, Incognito, Shirley Bassey, Ronnie Wood, Jamie Cullum, David Sanborn, Carl Perkins, David Gilmore, Brian May, Gary Moore, Carleen Anderson, Mike Oldfield, Brian Ferry, Kylie Minogue, Sting, Level 42, Take That, Elton John, Phil Collins and Will Young being just a few handfuls that spring to mind. Need we say more!
STEFANO CIVETTA
Stefano is a sound and mix engineer, musician, composer and orchestrator. After his first 'proper' job as the Pope's organist at St Peter's in the Vatican for 7 years, Stefano relocated to the UK, completed the highly regarded Tonnmeister degree at the University of Surrey, and was then hastily employed by Abbey Road Studios where his 6 year tenure saw him working on much of their output including that from Will.I.Am, Skrillex, OneRepublic, Ed Sheeran, Nile Rogers, Bruno Mars, The Carpenters, The Beach Boys, Mary J Blige, One Direction, Earth Wind & Fire, Andrea Bocelli, Take That, Royal Blood, PJ Harvey, Harry Styles, Ellie Goulding, The Shires and Jack Garrat as well as a whole host of orchestral recordings on around 60 blockbuster scores including Solo: A Star Wars Story, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald, Our Planet, Avengers: Endgame, Rocketman, The Hobbit, The Martian, Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 and The Mummy.
As if that wasn't enough, Stefano also worked with Giles Martin on remixing The Beatles classics and is credited on two of his all-time favourite albums, The White Album and Abbey Road. Top talent indeed.
In 2020 Stefano moved out to north Essex to help Audio Network founder and School Farm Studios' owner Andrew Sunnucks build and equip the studio, where he is now resident engineer.
ROSS STANLEY (TBC)
Ross is one of the country's most in demand session keys players, having played piano since the age of 4. In his teenage years Ross was awarded an organ scholarship to Marlborough College and went on to be invited to study his music degree at several renowned institutions including Trinity College of Music, Guildhall School of Music, and a scholarship to Berklee College Of Music in the USA. Ross' musical skills have seen him play with Will Vinson, Dennis Rollins, Guy Barker, Michael Janisch, Joel Frahm, Liane Carroll, Stan Sulzman, Steve Arguelles, John Paracelli, Bobby Wellins and Clark Tracey, as well as being a regular member of the Jim Mullen Organ Trio, the Mark McKnight Organ Quartet and the Jacqui Dankworth Band, and having toured with the Steve Howe Trio, Deodato and his own quartet, and recorded with Goldie, US3, Trevor Horn and SImply Red among others.
SCHOOL FARM STUDIOS
We first visited School Farm Studios in January of 2024 having been looking for a studio with a fantastic piano to record young jazz talents The Emile Hinton Trio. We were introduced by the legend that is Mike Banks (Solid State Logic, RecordProduction.com), and Andrew invited us over for a look around. We fell in love immediately. Not only with the studio, it's wonderful location in the Essex countryside surrounded by beautiful farmland, curious alpacas, numerous dogs and Groucho the resident cat, but with Andrew, Stef, Hester and the rest of the SFS crew. The studio is truly high end, the large live room having a wonderful warm acoustic thanks to the proliferation of centuries old beams that support it, with two adjacent booths. The control room features at its core a 48 channel SSL Duality Fuse console, Neve Monsterrat and 1081 mic pres, an extensive range of outboard, well curated microphone locker, and monitoring from ATC as well as our own MUM-10MB. It's the best of the best, but it's not just about the space and the gear. The staff ensure the warmest welcome, you leave feeling like you're a part of the SFS family - and when you inevitably return it feels like coming home.
The studio is built on a working farm and features first class accomodation in both the old Coach House building opposite the studio, and nearby Chelmshoe House - a beautifully restored and extended Georgian house that is regularly booked out as accomodation in its own right.
Despite the studio easily being able to accommodate around 30 people, we have limited ticket sales to 12 to ensure that you get the best value from the event, and have plenty of opportunity to be hands-on with the session.
Once the final line-up of musicians and a schedule for the two days has been confirmed, we will offer tickets exclusively to those who have signed up for the waiting list below.
Please note that this event will be filmed, and you will be required to sign release forms on arrival to signify that you are happy with this.