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Herb Middleton: "Every Artist Should Have Their Own Sound"

The word ‘legendary’ is often tagged onto music producers a little too freely, but one man who is more than worthy of the title is Herb Middleton, a veteran of over 26 years in the music industry, multiple Grammy Award nominations, and a man who has worked with such lauded artists as The Notorious B.I.G, P Diddy, and Mary J. Blige. Headliner scheduled a conversation with the South Bronx-born producer about his career so far, and how Waves plugins have revolutionised his sound and workflow in the last few months.

“Producing actually started as a result of me being a musician,” Middleton says on his musical beginnings. “I was at a church in Brooklyn, and one of the head musicians was already a producer. His name was Loris Holland.”

Holland being something of a legend himself, who has worked with Lauryn Hill and Mariah Carey.

“He ended up leaving, contacted me and basically took me under his wing. It was pretty amazing. He showed me the ropes on a production and some tips on songwriting. After that it just took off from there.”

But when talking about breakthroughs, it doesn’t come much bigger than Sean Combs, aka P Diddy, aka Puff Daddy – at the time known as Puffy – calling your phone to request your services.

The world famous producer, rapper, record executive and entrepreneur was leaving Uptown Records to start Bad Boy Entertainment, and it was in 1993 that he and Middleton would work together on several projects. It was through this collaboration that would see Middleton work with Mary J. Blige and The Notorious B.I.G.

“Yeah, his name then was Puffy,” Middleton says with an air of nostalgia.

“It was the beginning of what I feel was my most successful stint as a producer in the early ‘90s. I got to work with Biggie when he featured on one of Total’s biggest songs, Can’t You See. Then I got to work with Mary J. Blige right after her My Life record, which was a great experience.”

With all that said, it’s a fairly logical conclusion that Middleton has pretty high standards these days when it comes to who he works with – not only is he looking for talented artists, but it’s very important to him that they adhere to certain principles and want to release music of substance, rather than chasing a cheap hit.

“At one point I chose to leave the mainstream,” he explains.

“I’m someone who believes every artist should have their own sound. So when I work with artists, it’s almost like mentoring also, because I’ve seen that side of the music industry and the way it was going in terms of how record labels were treating me and others.”

I’m someone who believes every artist should have their own sound. So when I work with artists, it’s almost like mentoring.

Conversation then turns to Middleton’s new love affair with Waves plugins, which he started using in the latter part of last year.

“They came in, we shook hands and they supplied me with these amazing plugins. There are so many of them! I love that there's so many diversified plugins within the package that I have. And they are all easy to use. Believe it or not, I'm not really a super technical guy.

"I work more by ear, and I find Waves perfect for my style. Some of my favorites are definitely the SSL plugins. Those are amazing. And the Butch Vig Vocals plugins with the pop vocals give you a nice fresh EQ without really having to do anything. Having this package, it’s like a toy store.

“I was using Waves when I worked with an artist called Marc Staggers, and our song hit the top of the soul charts in the UK! The plugins can make a regular instrument sound extraordinary. Everything is just immaculate for a producer like myself.

"As far as compression goes, I would definitely float down to the SSL plugin for compression and EQ actually, because they have the SSL channel where it gives you that analog kind of look – you have all your expands and your threshold buttons just like the old days.

"And the CLA vocals, I use that a lot. You can monitor your bass, treble and compression in that plugin. That's amazing. It’s almost an internal EQ system right in the plugin. You have a delay, reverb and pitch right in there.”

It’s special to hear Middleton describing those incredible musical experiences from the early ‘90s, then fast forwarding to how he uses cutting edge technology to craft hits today. He is truly one of those rare musicians who expertly shifts and evolves within the changing landscape of his industry to keep that music pouring out.