Fusing Old School Soul and Modern Flair: Kim Tibbs Reaches the Top of the Charts, Using Harrison Mixbus 10 DAW

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, lyricist and Hammond B3 prodigy takes sound production into her own hands, with two chart-topping hits and a new forthcoming album, ‘Intermission’

Huntsville, AL, December 19, 2024 — With her latest singles "It's Alright!" and "Believe in Something Called Love" having reached #1 on the Official UK Soul Charts, Kim Tibbs has one foot grounded in traditional soul and the other in more challenging, forward-facing soundscapes. Tibbs, who is internationally known as a prodigy on the Hammond B3 organ, was raised in a southern Baptist family and began performing and singing gospel music at age 6. Now, as a multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer in full command of every aspect of production, Tibbs has a firm grip on her future. For the past four years in her home studio based just outside of Huntsville, she has had Harrison's Mixbus at the core of her production workflow.

"My studio is based on authentic analog instruments," says Tibbs. "When I bring my stems into Mixbus 10, it immediately lets me know whether or not I've done a good job on the recording. Everything is exposed, and quickly — if something doesn’t sound right, it will let you know." She says that bringing in stems from her forthcoming album Intermission was validating: "Everything sounded great, and I knew I was on the right track. I knew I could trust my workflow." With a bevy of instruments and equipment including two Hammond B3s, Fender Rhodes and Moog Music synths along with vintage microphones from the likes of RCA, a MCI 2" 24-track tape recorder and Harrison's Mixbus 10, Tibbs embarked on her most personally satisfying and successful project to date.

Mixbus 10: a world-class production tool
While Tibbs has always regarded the sound of Mixbus as its most important attributes, she was very pleased with the aesthetic and functional additions afforded in the latest software version: "One of first things I noticed and really appreciated in Mixibus 10 was the updated graphics - this really made me feel like I was sitting in a studio looking at a professional console, which is what I am using to seeing," she says. "The other thing I appreciated was the convenience of being able to access the presets more immediately. Whether you are looking for EQ or compression, you have a set of world class presets that will do most of the heavy lifting if you know what kind of sound you are looking for."

"You have a ton of tonal options and a knob for just about everything you want to do," she continues. "Grouping is very easy. After I got the levels and tone on all my drums and guitars, I just grouped them all into a bus. Mixbus 10 helps me get top production quality in just a few minutes, so you can keep on working and stay focused on the music. I feel like there is a real console in front of me and this makes all of my production decisions easier."

She also appreciates the reverbs, which are very authentic emulations of some classic studios she's worked in. "They are so good. Not only comparable to some of the best classic outboard reverbs I've used, but also the real physical echo chambers in classic studios I've worked in."

Female-forward vision
Combining her own creative workflow in with Mixbus 10 has allowed Tibbs to take greater control over how her music is perceived: "I want to be a combination of Quincy Jones meets Motown, meets Stax meets Royal - and I want to push out as a female," she says. “I want to not only build my sound as a multi-instrumentalist, but also a lyricist, composer and singer. Mixbus has really helped me take control of my own sound as a female artist. If I want certain things, I will put them in and if I don’t want something I’ll leave it out."

Most recently, she has written a new song called '10 Minutes', which tells a story of a person that has 10 minutes left to live. "What are you going to do? Are you going to love? Are you going to forgive? It's a new direction in sound for me, and I'm working on becoming a better storyteller." Not surprisingly, songwriting and creating music represents the most important part of Tibbs' life, and she is working every moment: "I am always living, working and breathing music, and I try my best to record from my heart."

For more information on Kim Tibbs, please visit www.kimtibbsmusic.com; to learn more about Harrision Mixbus 10, please visit https://store.harrisonaudio.com/all-products/mixbus-10.

About Harrison
Harrison has been designing, manufacturing, and marketing audio mixing consoles in Nashville, Tennessee (Music City, USA) since 1975. Our products serve the markets of music recording/mixing, international film and television sound production, audio post production, broadcast sound, and live sound reinforcement. Over 1,500 Harrison consoles have been installed worldwide, constituting a significant share of the overall world market for high-end audio consoles. Harrison's dominance of the high-end market demonstrates that customers who require solutions to complex problems invariably turn to Harrison to provide the answer.