The next generation of media companies is here, in the form of London-based Delicious Digital. Established three years ago, and describing itself as a “music communications house”, the company uses Apple technology to harness the bountiful creative energies of its directors and offer clients a complete service from concept to finished product.
With a long and impressive client list that includes the BBC, ITV, five, National Geographic Channel, FCUK, Virgin and Warner Village Cinemas, Delicious Digital is a media-savvy collective of musicians, producers and brand consultants who not only write, perform and produce the music that defines their clients’ brands but also devise and manage their clients’ “musical identities”. As Delicious founder, and one of the company’s three directors, Ollie Raphael, puts it: “There are lots of companies that do the different things that Delicious does, but there aren’t many that do everything we do”.
The key to this broad offering is the company’s technology infrastructure. Like many new media companies, Delicious need systems that are efficient enough to keep the project on budget and on schedule, and have the ability to effect quick and easy exchange of large amounts of information. At the heart of the company’s operation are its three Power Mac G5s and two Power Mac G4s, complemented by numerous PowerBooks and external FireWire drives, which are used for storage.
The company recently switched from a PC set-up to one based almost exclusively on Macs. Ed Moris, another of Delicious’ directors, says: “The G5 is simply the best, fastest and most able computer when it comes to handling audio. In our line of work, it’s not unusual to be working with 24-part harmonies over a 20-channel backing track, running three or four pieces of software simultaneously. The PC-based systems just didn’t handle it as well”.
FCUK FM Launch Party
Delicious helped its client French Connection expand its brand by starting a radio station. And so FCUK FM was born. Check out a video of the FCUK FM launch party, which took place at the company’s Regent Street store on April 1st.
Click to play QuickTime movie (10.1MB)
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As far as audio software is concerned, the Delicious team run Logic Pro 6.4.2 on the G5, along with Propellerheads Reason 2.5, ReCycle 2.1 for chopping loops, ReVision (freeware for working to picture with Reason), Reload for sound library transfer from multiple platforms to Reason, and of course iTunes for organising music and burning CDs.
Moris explains: “Usually I’ll get a backing track together on Reason — it’s a great program for getting ideas down quickly. I’ll run that through ReWire with Logic to get the live instrumentation and vocal takes recorded. This enables sync and use of the Logic mixer for all Reason channels, which gives us much more control. Once the audio is recorded, I can then export a piece to ReCycle, chop it up and play it back in Reason”.
Next page: Making Sweet Music on the Mac
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Delicious Digital
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