TED CARFRAE
Record Producer & Mastering Engineer



Ted Carfrae's career began in 1978 at the famous CTS Recording Studios in Wembley. Ted worked on projects with artists such as Paul McCartney & Wings, Julie Andrews, The Carpenters, Barry Manilow, Ella Fitzgerald and Deep Purple. He also worked extensively on film music including the Bond films, "For Your Eyes Only" and "Moonraker", cult classics "10" and "Victor Victoria", both starring Julie Andrews and Flash Gordon featuring an original music score by Queen. As well as sound engineering, Ted also learned audio mastering from one of the best cutting engineers in the world, the legendary Kevin Metcalf. Ted spent more than six months in Kevin's cutting room at CTS cutting every genre of music possible from original Reggae music sent in from Jamaica to Classical and pop music. Though he did not know it at the time, this training would play a major part in Ted's future career.

In 1982 Ted decided to leave CTS to freelance at other top London studios such as Abbey Road before being invited to Los Angeles in 1986 to work with renowned engineer/Producer Taavi Mote. He signed to Mote's 'Rufmix Productions' and moved out to LA full time to concentrate on songwriting and production. During this productive period, Ted worked with LA heavyweights such as jazz supremo Jeff Lorber, singers Karen White, Gladys Knight and members of the group Toto. By 1990, Ted was missing home, family and friends and made the decision to move back to London and pursue his dream of running his own production company and producing music.

After a couple of years re-establishing himself in the UK music scene, Ted spotted a gap in the market and decided to tap into the world of mastering and audio restoration taking advantage of the new digital technologies being developed. In 1993 Ted set up TCM Music with partner Paul Maddox. TCM became one of the first and most successful independent audio restoration and mastering companies in London with major contracts including Sky satellite music provider, Music Choice Europe and The BBC Music library restoring literally thousands of albums and master tapes to the then new CDR and DAT formats.

Ted also worked with legendary record producer Gus Dudgeon re-mastering back catalogue material from Elton John's Rocket Records including Kiki Dee’s entire seventies catalogue. Unfortunately soon afterwards, Gus sadly died in a tragic car accident and the project was effectively shelved. Some years later, Ted came across these re-mastered albums in his studio and decided to try and contact Kiki Dee himself and give them to her for safe keeping. He emailed Kiki at first and then spoke to her on the phone, she invited him to lunch at Carmelo Luggeri’s house in Hertfordshire and they discussed what to do with the albums. Kiki told Ted that Elton John, had given her ownership of the albums she recorded in the seventies so she was free to release them for the first time on CD. In 2006, Ted suggested that he could try to get these albums released through EMI, so with her agreement, he approached a good friend called Steve Davis who was and is still the MD of EMI Liberty Records. Steve was instantly interested in signing Kiki and after some legal wrangling, both Kiki and Carmelo signed to EMI in December 2007. All the ‘Rocket’ albums were released the following year in April 2008. Ted was then asked to produce the audio for Kiki Dee’s first ever Concert DVD "Under The Night Sky". The concert was shot at at Pinewood studios and Ted enlisted the services of long time engineer, Chris West to work with him on the project. Mixing was done at Ted’s studio in Kent and Kiki and Carmelo also went along to lend a hand. The DVD was released last year to great reviews.

In 1999, Ted got his big break into music production when he was introduced by a mutual friend to singer Jane McDonald from the BBC’s ‘The Cruise’ documentary series which was a big hit at the time. Jane's first album had reached No1 on the charts and Ted was asked to arrange and produce all the music for her upcoming television appearances. This in turn led to Ted producing the music for her first 'In Concert' long form video which went on to become a best seller.

In 2000, Universal Records approached Ted to produce Jane's second album "Inspiration". The album was a huge success selling more than 200,000 copies within the first week on sale entering the national album chart at No 6 earning Ted his first Gold Sales Award. Later that year, Ted arranged and produced music for Jane’s top rated BBC television series, ‘Star for a Night’, the show that first discovered superstar singer Joss Stone.

In 2001, Universal Records asked Ted to produce the comeback album for 70's superstar David Cassidy. Ted was despatched to Las Vegas to meet with Cassidy at his home to discuss and finalise the project content and schedule recording dates. The album entitled "Then and Now" was essentially a remake of all of Cassidy's biggest hits along with some brand new tracks. Recorded in London and at Jimi Hendrix Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the album went straight into the UK charts at No.5 and became a best seller worldwide.

Ted's next project was to produce eight songs for a new album for the legendary King of Romance; Engelbert Humperdinck entitled "I Want To Wake Up With You". Ted initially flew out to a town called Dover, just outside Philadelphia to meet with Engelbert who was in concert there at the time. We met at his hotel and I went along with him to rehearsals to meet his musical director, agree the final song selection and set vocal register keys. We commenced recording in London during September 2001 and though the album was only a modest success in the album charts reaching No.40, some tracks later appeared on Engelbert's massive selling CD "His Greatest Love Songs" that has sold more than 300,000 units in the UK, earning a platinum disc.

In 2003, EMI asked Ted to produce a new album with sixties icon Cilla Black called "Beginnings - Her Greatest Hits and New Songs". The album gave Ted the chance of working with song writing legend Burt Bacharach who wrote the title song especially for the album. Cilla was celebrating forty years in show business and EMI wanted to release an album containing all of her hits along with some new songs. Ted met with Cilla at her London home and she was very adamant that she didn't want to record the obvious covers that had been done a million times before. Together Ted and Cilla listened to literally thousands of songs and eventually made a final song selection. Initially, EMI wanted Ted to deliver just three or four new songs, but by the end of recording, Ted delivered an astonishing eleven new recordings all within budget. The resulting album is an eclectic choice of material that would stretch Cilla Black as a vocalist and deliver some of her finest work. Though the album was not a huge sales success, it received great reviews and it is a project that both Ted and Cilla are hugely proud of.

Other successes in 2004/5/6 include two albums with big selling European country music duo, Grant and Forsyth and being asked by Granada TV and Universal Records to produce the music for three television specials, "Abba Mania 2", "Queen Mania" and "Madonna Mania".

In 2007, Ted launched an on-line mastering studio service www.tcmmastering.com as a continuation of his mission to help new "up and coming" artists and producers. The emastering studio offers a convenient and fast way for clients, old and new, to access his acclaimed mastering services at a price that they can afford without compromising on quality!

To date, Ted continues to write and produce new music projects for CD, film and television release some of which he does in partnership with top Nashville songwriter, engineer and record producer Chris Boggs.

Ted has also recently launched a new facebook, twitter and youtube channel as part of the online development plan for his longstanding company TCM Music Group (formerly known as TCM Music Limited). His vision for the future is to make his vast experience and TCM's world class services conveniently accessible through the world wide web. One of the first major phases of this development plan was an extensive re-design of his popular emastering studio website which was completed in June 2010.

"Now it is easier than ever to master your music. Our new emastering studio website www.tcmmastering.com incorporates the very latest technology which ensures that your music is secure and reaches us faster than ever before! Coming soon will be further associated websites offering an even wider range of exciting new services to new musicians, producers and small record labels so watch this space." - Ted Carfrae

© 2009-2010 Ted Carfrae/TCM Music Group. All Rights Reserved.
[ MySpace Profile Design Assistance Provided by UKwebwonders.com ]

DISCOGRAPHY HIGHLIGHTS: 1978-2010

Cilla Black – Modern Pricilla (Asst. Engineer)
Ella Fitzgerald – Tisket & Tasket (Asst. Engineer)
The Carpenters – For All We Know (Asst. Engineer)
Shirley Bassey – Moonraker: Movie Soundtrack (Asst. Engineer)
UB40 – Present Arms Album (Asst. Engineer)
Julie Andrews - 10: Movie Soundtrack (Asst. Engineer)
Paul McCartney and Wings - Wings Over America: The Movie (Asst. Engineer)
Cilla Black – Especially For You (Asst. Engineer)
Queen - Flash Gordon: Movie Soundtrack (Asst. Engineer)
Julie Andrews - S.O.B.: Movie Soundtrack (Asst. Engineer)
Sheena Easton – For Your Eyes Only: Movie Soundtrack (Asst. Engineer)
Bill Wyman - Green Ice: Movie Soundtrack (Asst. Engineer)
Julie Andrews - Victor Victoria: Movie Soundtrack (Asst. Engineer)
Africa Bombatta (Mastering Engineer)
BBC Record Library - Complete Vinyl Library Restoration Project: 1996-1999 (Audio Restoration/Mastering)
Kiki Dee – Rocket Records Album Re-Mastering (Mastering Engineer)
Jaki Graham – Best of Jaki Graham, David Grant, Linx (Producer)
Jane McDonald – In Concert (Producer)
Jane McDonald – Inspiration (Producer)
David Cassidy – Then & Now (Producer)
Engelbert Humperdinck – I Want To Wake Up With You (Producer)
Hear-say – Could It Be Forever Duet (Producer)
Cilla Black – Beginnings (Producer)
Cliff Richard – Imagine (Producer)
Bonnie Langford – Jazz at the Theatre (Recorded & Mixed)
Engelbert Humperdinck – His Greatest Love Songs (Producer)
Katherine Jenkins – Frozen – Madonna Mania (Producer)
Liberty X – Like A Prayer– Madonna Mania (Producer)
Heather Small – Somebody To Love – Queenmania (Producer)
Michael Ball – Amazing Grace/Wind Beneath My Wings (Producer)
Kiki Dee – Under The Night Sky (Producer)
Grant & Forsyth - Christmas album (Recorded/Mixed)
Jackie Trent – Trentquility (Producer/Recorded/Mixed)
Alex Hughes – Georgia On My Mind (Producer)
Jaki Graham – Taking It To The Streets (Producer)
Julie Forsyth – The Abba EP (Producer/Recorded/Mixed)
Rosabella Gregory – Not The Girl (Producer/Recorded/Mixed)

Members:

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