PMC Helps Harvey Summers Hear Every Musical Detail
Producer and composer Harvey Summers is convinced that his PMC monitors helped him secure a prestigious nomination for Best Eclectic Album at the recent International Independent Music Awards.
“My latest release, Human, features Canadian singer Laura Cole (god-daughter of legendary producer Daniel Lanois) and is a mix of genres that range from Motown and Dub to Hip Hop and Jazz – all of which resonate strongly with me,” he explains. “When recording and mixing the songs with a Motown vibe, I leant heavily on the revealing detail of PMC’s wonderful monitors, particularly when balancing full string and horn sections with a full band and Laura’s powerful, soulful voice. I may have had my PMC speakers for some years now, but I am still blown away by the detail they present and I wouldn’t work without them.”
Summers, who owns Broadoak Studios in Sussex, has been a recording professional for more than 25 years and has mixed and mastered hundreds of projects on his PMC main monitors which he installed six years ago.
“When I first heard a 5.1 setup of PMC monitors at a trade show, back when I was in my early twenties, I was completely blown away by the depth, detail and imaging,” Harvey says. “At that point, owning monitors of that calibre was a dream. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to have had some of success (selling over two million solo albums) and built my dream studio in rural Sussex. For the last ten years or so, I’ve been monitoring on PMC TB2’s and IB1S’s, without which I could not have achieved the mixes and sounds I was imagining. The clarity and incredible detail have been essential in allowing me to sculpt audio with razor precision.”
Recent projects that owe a lot to Harvey’s PMC monitors include his own solo albums Human and Jupiter. He has also been doing voiceover work for Channel 4, mixes and masters for artists as diverse as Steeleye Span, Danny Thompson, Kusha Deep, Phil Thornton, Melanie Harrold (AKA Joanna Carlin), members of Iron Maiden, Alabama 3, Pentangle, Ellie Ford, The E.D.Fowler Band, Otti Albietz and Joel Morrow.
“A large of my work is composing music for film and TV,” Harvey adds. Recently these projets have included The Middle, Looking, Saving Grace, Eastwick, The Walking Dead, Amreeka, Pandora Jewellery, Top Gear, Blue Peter, Doctor Who and many more.
“With projects as diverse and demanding as these, all of which had tight deadlines and a clear need for creative sound sculpting, being able to trust what I’m hearing is essential. With my trusty PMC’s - large and small, I know that what I hear is accurate and will translate well, whether it is for radio, cinema, TV, or iPod. PMC are, without doubt, my favourite monitors – and to my ears the best sounding ones, too!”PMC Helps Harvey Summers Hear Every Musical Detail