As one of London's hottest multi-platinum mix engineers, Dan Frampton's resume ranges in scope from Lionel Richie and Natalie Imbruglia to Westlife and Natasha Bedingfield. While his schedule is often filled with top-of-the-charts artists, he occasionally makes time for less well-known performers who he feels have real potential . His 'world wide music mixing' service allows unsigned artists to upload tracks to him for that 'major label' sound. One production tool that remains a constant no matter what level artist he's working with, is his arsenal of Sonnox Oxford plug-ins.

Tell us about how you got started in the business.

I have played the bass in bands from the age of 14. I began recording our demos soon after and was often asked by the studio owners to engineer sessions for their other clients. As a band we began to produce other artists and when we were eventually signed to Warner Bros., we produced our album 'Welcome to Frampton Hill'.

How did you 'come up the chain' from there?

After 'Frampton Hill' was dropped, I was asked to do a two week session engineering for Pete Waterman at PWL studio's in London. At the time there was a production team there called Topham & Twigg. They had written a couple of songs for Five's first album. The band was A&R'd by Simon Cowell, who had accepted the songs but refused the mixes several times. At that point, Pete asked me to have a go at them. I'd never mixed anything for release before but grasped the opportunity. Simon came in to check the mixes and they were accepted. So from there, I spent the next two years mixing at PWL and had a string of hits with acts like Five, Westlife, & Steps.

I noticed your mixes have a great sense of both top and bottom, without being either harsh or muddy. How do you achieve that sound?

You have to decide what is going to fill those spaces. It's no good just cranking up the top end on everything, that's just gonna get hard. It may sound stupid but you just have to listen. If it's muddy you have to find where that's coming from and remove it. I give the presence to the things I want up front.

Tell us about your latest project.

I recently completed mixes for the UK #1 debut album from 'The Script'. They're three great guys from Dublin and I've been recording with them on and off over the last couple of years.

Mark and Danny, the writing and production talent, had been working as producers in the US for several years previous to that. Glen was a more recent addition, but he's one of the best drummers I've had the pleasure of recording. Danny has an amazing voice - truly world class. I'm very proud of the result and it's created a storm from Europe to Asia. I think they'll be in the US in early 2009.

Which Sonnox plug-ins did you use on them?

I used the Oxford EQ all over the album. Vocals, Drums, Keys - the whole lot. I love the top end, it's very smooth.

Some of the tracks were mixed 'in the box' and for those I used the Limiter across the mix bus. I'm perfectly happy mixing in Pro Tools but I find that bus compression has a habit of shrinking the mix. I used to find myself using much less compression on the two bus than I would do on an SSL. The Oxford Limiter overcomes this fantastically. I can retain all the punch, dynamic and width, whilst really fattening things up with the Enhance control. It's great.

Are there any specific Sonnox techniques you can share, for vocal EQ's, etc?

I use stacks of 16kHz for my vocals, since the EQ gives great 'air'! I'll sometimes use the Type 4 curve if I'm Eq'ing a piano. Type 3 works well for lifting the presence of a snare.

I didn't have the Dynamics plug-in at the time of The Script album but I've been using it on all my projects over the last few months or so. I love the hold control on it. It's great for snare compression, squashing whatever I put it on beautifully. It's also cool on overheads too. I use the Warmth control on kick drums and toms particularly, as I've found it gives them a very solid edge.

If you had a favorite Sonnox plug-in, which would it be?

It would have to be the EQ. It's my main equalizer and 'board EQ' if you like. I use it to both fix tracks and create new sounds, all with the bonus of being very processor friendly.

Tell us about your mixing service?

I've been running danframpton.com for several years now. It's an online mixing service aimed at unsigned artists. There are numerous outlets for music nowadays and good records can be made for relatively little money when people with talent get themselves a small system in their bedroom.

I use any downtime I might have to give them the 'big production' mix. I charge a fraction of what I would for a major label. The drawback from the client's point of view is that my major label clients always take preference, but a short delay is a small inconvenience when you're paying a tenth of the price!

Interview and editorial provided by Rich Tozzoli