SAE and the X-Factor success

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10th December 2008

Hero, by the X-Factor finalists, spent an impressive three weeks at Number One, and SAE Institute are proud to have played their part in the making of the best selling single of the decade. A cover of the Mariah Carey hit, Hero went straight to the top of the charts on the 8^th November, selling over 300,000 copies in the first week.

Hero was produced by Swedish duo Quiz and Larossi, who have had previous success with Il Divo, Westlife, Diana Ross and Geri Haliwell, amongst others. They recorded the 21-piece string section at Studios 301 Stockholm by inhouse engineer and ex-SAE London student Ian Agate.

“I didn’t know anything about it!” says Ian. “I knew the song, but it was just called ‘Project-X’, because it was all top secret until it was released. So none of us knew what the actual song was. But then last week Quiz and Larossi came back and said ‘congratulations on another UK number one!’ which came as a pleasant surprise. And then they filled me in on what the session was all about. I confess that I didn’t actually know what the X-Factor was, living up here in Sweden!”

“Quiz and Larossi are often at the studio. They do a lot of Simon Cowell work. They also did the strings for Westlife’s The Rose here a few years back. ‘Project-X’ was a quick session, as usual – about 90 minutes from start to finish. To record the strings we used six mics – mostly driven by a stereo pair just above and behind the conductor, and then we had spot mics for each of the sections, which was done in an 8-6-4-3 configuration. (First violins, second violins, violas and cellos.) We recorded everything through the Neve VR console into Logic using Pro Tools hardware.”

Proceeds from the record will be divided equally between Help for Heroes, a charity providing support to wounded British servicemen and women, and the Poppy Appeal. So far the single has sold over 800,000 copies in the UK and is the fastest selling single this decade.

www.studios301.com