Al Riley’s career began when he moved to London in 2005 to work with Ninja Tune. He soon became studio assistant to Jonathan More (one half of Coldcut and Ninja Tune co-founder), and spent most of his time editing together the audio material for Coldcut’s ambitious audiovisual live show. When the Sound Mirrors tour kicked off in 2006 Al worked as technician and monitor engineer for the year long world tour. In between tour stints, Al found time to teach computer music and began laptop DJing using Ableton Live in conjunction with an M-Audio Trigger Finger.

“Trigger Finger is a great tool for live performance and studio production. It’s quick and easy to setup and is what I use to sketch out beats. My favourite thing about it is that the pads not only send velocity information but also pressure data, which feels great for ‘squashing’ effects. I use it for live bit-crushing, over the top compression and squeezing resonant filters.”

Al spent early 2007 in his home studio producing and engineering tracks for various projects. These included providing the soundtrack for Project Mumbai, an audiovisual  piece by video artist Mike Stirling which was performed in Mumbai and later at the London V & A museum.

Having tried his hand at live sound, Al decided to focus on studio work and began working at the Dairy studios in Brixton in the summer of 2007. Just a few months in, he was lucky enough to score a remix session with trip hop legend Tricky. Impressed with Al’s studio acumen, Tricky used Al for two more remixes and invited him to his home in Los Angeles for a month to record tracks for his Brown Punk label. Travelling light, much of the work was done on a laptop running Pro Tools M-Powered with a Firewire 1814 interfaced with Tricky’s studio gear.

Now spending most of his time in the studio, Al continues to work with a host of varied artists in the Dairy’s three Pro Tools HD studio suites.

“Pro Tools M-Powered is great because it interfaces flawlessly with the studio’s Pro Tools systems. If I need to prepare some material before a session at home, I know it’s going to fit right into the project when I bring it up on the Dairy’s HD systems.”

Al comments on ProTools M-Powered 7.4 elastic time feature:

"Since i'm used to sketching out ideas in ableton live, the new elastic audio feature is an absolute breeze. I would go as far as to say it is even more logical than ableton's elastic audio because in PTMP you visibly move the waveform as opposed to the beat markers."

"It brings the two hosts closer together which is ideal for me as pro tools and ableton live are my two favourite sequencers. Ableton for brainstorming ideas and PT for editing / recording / mixing."

"I've been using elastic time to preview new tempos and tempo changes to clients without the need for hit or miss time stretching. A great time saver in high pressure studio sessions."

"Elastic time can be transparent when you need it to be, e.g. correcting timing in multitracked drums without resorting to audible crossfades. But as an effect it can be incredible: mangling, squashing and stretching anything you throw at it, all within the comfortable confines of the PT edit window."

Al's credits include...

Pro Tools / Programming:
The Cinematic Orchestra Live at Royal Albert Hall Forthcoming Album (Ninja Tune) 2008
Tricky All Tracks Forthcoming Album (Brown Punk) 2008
The Dirty (Tricky Remix) ‘Why, I Think It’s Love’ Single (Brown Punk) 2007
Kira (Tricky Remix) ‘Skating Your Pool’ Single (Brown Punk) 2007
Laid Blak (Tricky Remix) ‘Red’ Single (Brown Punk) 2007
Soul II Soul ‘Today’ Forthcoming Album 2007
The Cinematic Orchestra ‘To Build A Home’ Versions (Ninja Tune) 2007

Recording:
Soul II Soul ‘Fire’ Forthcoming Album 2007
The Cinematic Orchestra Forthcoming Soundtrack 2007
Air Traffic 5 Tracks Album demos (EMI) 2008
Instruments 4 Tracks Forthcoming EP 2008

Mixing:
Air Traffic 5 Tracks Album demos (EMI) 2008
Instruments 4 Tracks Forthcoming EP 2008

Studio Assisting:
Hundred Reasons B-Sides 2007
Bullet For My Valentine Forthcoming Album 2007
The Dirty Forthcoming Album (Brown Punk) 2007
Patrick Wolf Live DVD 2008

Live Work:
Coldcut Live Sound / Tech World Tour 2006
Biffy Clyro Pro Tools Recording Live at Union Chapel 2007
U2 Pro Tools Recording Live at Union Chapel 2007
Soul II Soul Live Pre-Production Tour 2008

Pop along to Al's myspace page for more info...