Sir George Martin –The
Beatles producer who taught me so much about really making real music.
Paul McCartney – He taught me to sing string lines to seasoned musicians
without being intimidated. A huge presence and a massive influence on me.
Geoff Emerick – George Martin’s Engineer – simply a genius and such a
nice guy.
Quincy Jones - who gave me the best advice ever when I asked him about
how he chooses hit songs. His reply; ‘Always pick songs that excite you inside
and make the records you like, because there are bound to be millions of others
on the planet who will get equally excited and like what you do’
Terry Britten - friend, songwriter and producer. Terry is such a modest
man as most genius’s are. An amazing musician and a truly great producer.
Alan Tarney – Producer – The first real all round writer, musician and
producer of his generation.
Jeff Porcaro – Top LA session drummer [sadly no longer with us] I met
Jeff a few times when I lived in LA. His time keeping was like a metronome – the
tightest drummer I have ever worked with.
Jeff Barry – Songwriter and Producer. A real gentleman and a legend who
was so kind and generous to a young engineer finding his feet in LA.
Chris Neil – Producer. Working on For Your Eyes Only with Chris and
Sheena Easton was fantastic. They were really cool sessions and Chris taught me
a lot about getting great vocals. I even bought Sheena a packet of Tunes.
Taavi Mote – Top LA Engineer and Producer who gave me my first big break.
He was the one who invited me to LA and signed me up as a songwriter.
Nigel Olsson – Elton John’s drummer – best drummer in the world – ever!!
Along with Jeff Porcaro of course!
Diane Warren – She is the most amazing and consistent songwriter of the
past twenty years.
Bee Gees – The best chord structures in the business.
Kiki Dee – A dear friend and an incredible vocalist. Check out her
version of ‘Stay With Me Baby’ – Incredible vocal.
Jaki Graham – The best British female soul singer ever to come out of the
UK. Apart from that she is a dear friend and someone I hope be working with
until the very end.
Cilla Black – What can you say about Cilla. It all started in one of her
sessions back in 1978 and it then came full circle when I produced her
Beginnings album in 2003. She is an amazing and instinctive singer with perfect
phrasing. It doesn’t get much better than Cilla Black.
Sir Cliff Richard – Working with Cliff was a real ‘pinch me’ moment. I am
so lucky to have worked with so many music legends and he is up there at the
top.
Gerry Kitchingham – Gerry is simply the best vocal engineer I have ever
worked with and someone I have admired for years so to work with him on Jane
McDonald’s album was a real honour.
Chris West – Engineer – Chris worked with me on most of my big selling
albums and he is a fantastic engineer and a good friend.
Gus Dudgeon – Producer – Dear Gus was an eccentric and a trailblazer
producer that taught most of us about making great acoustic records. He is sadly
missed by all that knew him.
Ella Fitzgerald – What can I say about Ella. It was just one session and
the experience has never left me. She was a perfectionist who taught me the
importance of feeling a lyric in a performance over vocal perfection.
Queen – Wow – working with these guys was awesome. They were really great
and I remember the studio control room was filled to the brim with equipment
that we literally had to climb over. None of it was ever used but it was just
there just in case. The wrap party was an initiation into rock culture and made
my toes curl – enough said about that!
Julie Andrews – Working with Julie Andrews and the great Henry Mancini on
three soundtracks was incredible for me because she Julie did everything in one
take. She taught me so much about being well prepared and professional at all
times. She always remembered my name and was so warm and a joy to be around. I
love her to this day and she was and is still one of the most beautiful woman I
have ever seen.
Karen Carpenter – I worked with The Carpenters twice in the early days.
Karen was probably the most remarkable vocalist I ever worked with. Her voice
was sheer perfection and always spot-on in tune. I still wonder what great
records she would have made had she still been with us.
Mel Brooks – I assisted on several film scores with Mel and he taught me
that work should always be fun. I have never laughed so much as in his sessions
– I can still feel the pain just thinking about it.
Stanley Myers - Stanley was recording the score for a new film called
‘The Next One’ and he asked me to sing the title song he had written with
Richard Hartley which was a great honour for me. We recorded the song at a
studio in Chelsea and I remember we stopped after a huge bang when the building
shook. We later found out on the news that it was a bomb at the Chelsea barracks
down the road; it was a great day and also a tragic day for all of us. The film
pops up on TV quite frequently so when you hear the really high singing voice at
the end, that’s me!
SERVICES
- Record
Production
-
Mixing Services
-
Digital Distribution Service via ITunes
-
Song Writing
-
CD Mastering
-
Re-Mastering from any format including DAT, Vinyl & Cassette
-
Audio Restoration from any format including DAT, Vinyl & Cassette
[ For full details of the mastering/restoration
services on offer please visit
www.tcmmastering.com. ]
BIOGRAPHY
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 Ltd with partner Paul Maddox. TCM became one of the first and most
successful audio restoration 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 decided that it was
time to give something back and returned to mastering by launching his
www.tcmmastering.com
On-Line mastering service. Ted is on a mission to help new and up and coming
artists and producers by offering a top quality mastering service at a price
that they can afford that will make their music stand up in today’s marketplace.
It’s also a forum for up and coming musicians to contact Ted directly with any
industry questions and advice. As well at this new venture, Ted continues to
write and produce music. He hooked up with top Nashville songwriter, engineer
and producer Chris Boggs
to write and produce new songs for CD, film and television. Ted has hooked up
with dance re-mixer
DLM
[Ministry Of Sound] for a series of new, cutting edge dance re-mixes and
releases due in early 2009 so watch this space.
DISCOGRAPHY HIGHLIGHTS
Cilla
Black – Modern Pricilla (EMI 1978 – Asst. Engineer)
Ella Fitzgerald – Tisket & Tasket (BBC TV 1978 – Asst. Engineer)
The Carpenters – For All We Know (BBC TV 1978 - Asst. Engineer)
Shirley Bassey – Moonraker: Movie Soundtrack (1979 – Asst. Engineer)
UB40 – Present Arms Album (1980 - Asst. Engineer)
Julie Andrews - 10: Movie Soundtrack (1979 - Asst. Engineer)
Paul McCartney and Wings - Wings Over America: The Movie (1980 –
Asst. Engineer)
Cilla Black – Especially For You (Cilla Black Ltd 1980 - Asst. Engineer)
Queen - Flash Gordon: Movie Soundtrack (1981 - Asst. Engineer)
Julie Andrews - S.O.B.: Movie Soundtrack (1981 - Asst. Engineer)
Sheena Easton – For Your Eyes Only: Movie Soundtrack (1981 – Asst. Engineer)
Bill Wyman - Green Ice: Movie Soundtrack (1981 – Asst. Engineer)
Julie Andrews - Victor Victoria: Movie Soundtrack (1982 - Asst. Engineer)
Africa Bombatta (Album Mastering 1993 – Mastering Engineer)
BBC Record Library - Complete Vinyl Library Restoration Project (1996-1999 – Audio
Restoration/Mastering)
Kiki Dee – Rocket Records Album Re-Mastering (1998 – Mastering Engineer)
Jaki Graham – Best of Jaki Graham, David Grant, Linx (Dynamic 1999 - Producer)
Jane McDonald – In Concert (VCI 1999 - Producer)
Jane McDonald – Inspiration (Universal 2000 - Producer)
David Cassidy – Then & Now (Universal 2001 – Producer)
Engelbert Humperdinck – I Want To Wake Up With You (Universal 2001 – Producer)
Hear-say – Could It Be Forever Duet (Universal 2001 - Producer)
Cilla Black – Beginnings (EMI 2003 – Producer)
Cliff Richard – Imagine (EMI 2003 - Producer) Bonnie Langford – Jazz
at the Theatre (E.P.L. 2003 – Recorded & Mixed)
Engelbert Humperdinck – His Greatest Love Songs (Universal 2004 - Producer)
Katherine Jenkins – Frozen – Madonna Mania (Granada TV 2005 – Producer)
Liberty X – Like A Prayer– Madonna Mania (Granada TV 2005 – Producer)
Heather Small – Somebody To Love – Queenmania (Granada TV 2005 – Producer)
Michael Ball – Amazing Grace/Wind Beneath My Wings (Universal 2006 - Producer)
Kiki Dee – Under The Night Sky (New Wave Pictures DVD 2008 – Producer) Grant & Forsyth -
Christmas album (Berk Music/Soundz Good/TCM Music Ltd 2008 – Recorded/Mixed)
Jackie Trent – Trentquility (JakCol 2008 - Producer + Recorded/Mixed)
Alex Hughes – Georgia On My Mind (TCM Music EP 2008 - Producer)
Jaki Graham – Taking It To The Streets (TCM Music Single 2009 – Producer)
Julie Forsyth – The Abba EP (TCM Music EP 2009 - Producer + Recorded/Mixed)
Rosabella Gregory – Not The Girl (TCM Music EP 2009 - Producer + Recorded/Mixed)
Online Now!
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