The multiple-award-winning Hamilton, an American musical, was one of the most influential cultural events in the US of the century, so far. This was not entirely surprising, as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s music and lyrics are just sensationally good. Hamilton is credited with having revolutionised Broadway musical writing, and also provided a highly enjoyable and educative flashback to an essential period in the founding of the American republic.

Unusually for an original cast recording, which normally are done on a budget and in a hurry, the album recordings were of equally high quality. In the September issue of Sound on Sound magazine, engineer Derik Lee and mixer Tim Latham explained in great detail how they achieved a hard-hitting, hip-hop influenced sound, that at the same time was true to the tradition of Broadway musicals.

As a complement to the SOS article, below additional photos of the recording sessions at Avatar Studio 1, a pic of Derik Lee’s editing suite at Atlantic, and all the screen shots of Latham’s mix session of one of the key songs, “Non-Stop.”

Vocal ensemble recording set-up at Avatar

Avatar vocal recording compressors

Alex Lacamoire set-up at Avatar 700

String session at Avatar with musical director Alex Lacamoire directing

Avatar drum recording setup.

Derik Lee’s editing suite at Atlantic during mixing

Download all mix session screen shots of Non-Stop in one zip file.
This includes a large number of plugin screen shots not shown below.

Non-Stop edit window 1

Non-Stop edit window 2

Non-Stop edit window 3

Non-Stop mix window 1

Non-Stop mix window 2

Non-Stop mix window 3

Non-Stop mix window 4

Non-Stop mix window 5

Non-Stop mix window 6

Non-Stop stems window

Non-Stop aux group tracks