One for all you techie types. Gabrielle's latest single has a special mix that has been engineered specifically for playing on MP3 players. Put together by producers The Boilerhouse Boys, the 'poduction' mix (ha ha) is designed to overcome the fact digital music files contain less data than a CD recording which inevitably reduces the sound quality of the recording.
The story behind it all is rather interesting (well, I think so). Boilerhouse Boy Ben Wolff told the BBC how he has always been obsessed with the superior quality of sound recordings released by Motown, explaining how he discovered the quality was down to the men with "lab coats" at the label who always advised studio engineers there on how they could make recordings sound louder and better. He borrowed some of their techniques when working with Gabrielle on her 1996 hit single 'Give Me A Little More Time'.
He continued: "Usually, when I'm about to start writing and producing, I turn off the radio and go away for a week with a bunch of cassettes and see how I get inspired. This time, though, I had an iPod. I put together a playlist of the 50 greatest songs of all time according to Rolling Stone magazine. Almost without exception, each of those tracks had incredibly satisfying stereo. It was thrilling. I started talking to my nieces and nephews about music, and I was really surprised at how much 'old stuff' - as they call it - they have. They loved that they could hear exactly what was going on in those recordings. One of them said you could hear the music as you would see it, and I thought that was kind of inspired. So our "poduction idea" puts all of those ideas into practice. In a way, it's a remix for the 21st century".
On the finished product he explained "I don't think the average [iPod using] fan will necessarily be able to tell the difference [between the mixes] - but you'll know which one you like more, even if you don't know why".
Garbrielle's new single 'Why' is out this week.