Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Tape Op 135 Subscriber 243028
Tape Op 135 Subscriber 243028
Greg Kurstin
Beck, Lily Allen, Adele, Paul McCartney
Jack Antonoff
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fun., Bleachers, Taylor Swift, Pink
Phil Thornalley
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Bryan Adams, Thompson Twins, The Cure
Norbert Putnam
Neil Young, Jimmy Buffett, Joan Baez
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Ebonie Smith
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Senior Engineer at Atlantic Records
Maria Elisa Ayerbe
Il Divo, Paula Arenas, Juanes, Kronos Quartet
Recording in Iraq
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Jack Kennedy & Mosul Live
Thomas Jouanjean
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$ 5 . 9 9 N o . 1 3 5
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Hello and
welcome to
Tape Op
#
10 Letters
14 Ebonie Smith
18 Greg Kurstin
135!
26 Maria Elisa Ayerbe
32 Jack Antonoff
42 Phil Thornalley
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50 Recording in Iraq
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56 Norbert Putnam
62 Leo Sidran
p a g e
66 Thomas Jouanjean in Behind The Gear This issue’s cover is an homage to the
Pink Floyd song “Echoes,” from the album Meddle. The
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70 Gear Reviews idea came to me after I saw Brian T. Silak’s photo of
92 Larry’s End Rant
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Jack Antonoff’s vintage tape delays, as the Binson
Echorec features prominently in that track. “Echoes”
was also used as the soundtrack in the classic surf film
Crystal Voyager, in which the last 23 minutes of the
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I recently had the experience of listening to hundreds of new albums in a slightly disassociated context;
film is footage of seminal surfer George Greenough riding
inside the tube with this track as the score, hence the
wave photo. The text was lettered by Bobby Lurie and is
the first verse of the song, written by Pink Floyd
many times I knew nothing about who the artists were or what style of music they were supposedly playing.
(Gilmour, Waters, Wright, Mason) and published by
Removing any of these preconceptions can be a liberating moment, and I found myself getting into lots of
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Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. -JB
interesting groups I might not have stumbled across otherwise. The funny thing is that if some of these
albums had been contextualized – like by theoretical genre, popularity, or even where they originated from
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When I start a new session with a band, I always hope they don’t tell me that their sound
exists inside some pigeonholed micro-genre subcategory. I want to hear
them with fresh, open ears and do my best to capture their songs in a unique
and sympathetic manner. Genres, labels, and preconceptions can often only
get in our way.
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Enjoy music, and begin every day by attempting to really hear the beauty
within all that you listen to. Stay open and creative, and keep your ears
ready to hear something new.
Larry Crane, Editor
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<instagram.com/tychomusic>
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Scott McChane
Gear Geek at Large
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Andy Hong
Contributing Writers &! Photographers
Angelica Tavella, Lauren Colchamiro, Alexa Nikol Curran, Pax Paloscia, Andres Franco,
Bren Davies, Brian T. Silak, Paul Meyers, Amy Walters, Jack Kennedy, Jake Brown,
Mark Whitcomb, Adam Gonsalves, Gus Berry, Garrett Haines, Eli Crews, Anthony
)
Gravino, Christopher Koltay, Mike Kosacek, Adam Kagan, Eamonn Aiken, Ed Hickey,
Tony SanFilippo, and Will Severin.
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Editorial and Office Assistants
Jenna Crane (editorial copy editor), Jordan Holmes (reviews copy editor),
Thomas Danner (transcription, online),
Maria Baker (admin, accounting), Jay Ribadeneyra (online)
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TAPE OP magazine wants to make clear that the opinions expressed within reviews, letters, and
articles are not necessarily the opinions of the publishers. Tape Op is intended as a forum to
advance the art of recording, and there are many choices made along that path.
Editorial Office
(For submissions, letters, music for review. Music for review is also
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reviewed in the San Rafael office, address below)
P.O. Box 86409, Portland, OR 97286 voicemail 503-208-4033
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8/Tape Op#135/Masthead
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miss him and his knowledge. -LC improve the result, and additional work only makes the and were taught by some fantastic industry professionals.
My MCI JH-16 and I both shed a tear when we heard results different, not better, and often makes things worse. One memory I do have is always having a new physical
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Steve had passed. -JB When you reach your limit for your ability with your tools, copy of Tape Op in the foyer to take home and study. I
the quality of materials you started with, and your remember the very first article I read was about
Hearing about suicides and mental health issues in
deadline, then you are done and should stop. Anything else persevering with whatever recording format you had and
communities I belong to and resonate with always affects
is just wasting time needlessly. Complicating this situation getting the best out of it. I really do wish we still could
me. I’ve been lucky outside of my (non-professional) music
is the fact that the result is completely subjective. There is get the physical copies here in Blighty. It’s an excellent
life to specialize in the treatment of suicide as a clinical
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no logical way to say that one item is “better” than the magazine, and crucial to developing and trying out new
psychologist, and currently run a program specifically for
other when both were done with roughly equivalent techniques as a recording engineer.
people having a hard time with managing emotions and
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inputs, using adequate tools, by reasonably talented Simon O’Brien <simonobrienconsultancy@gmail.com>
suicidal thoughts here in Portland, Oregon (the Portland
workers. This can be proven with mathematical
DBT Institute). Like the “Working Happy” article says We wish we could still print and ship an edition in the
logic, and if you doubt logic, then you will often find
[#134], take care of yourselves folks. There is a nice line UK, but despite our best efforts, and the amazing work that
contradictions such as A>B>C>A when you compare
about community from the creator (Marsha Linehan) of the
therapy I practice, where in her latest book she dedicates
to people struggling with mental health issues, “You don’t
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versions after they have been done and reworked again. It
is true that highly skilled workers using a wide range of
tools they have experience with can take an input and get
our publisher Alexander Lawson did for us there, it was very
difficult to generate the ad revenue needed to publish
overseas. Sorry! Please keep in mind that we always offer
have to wring your hands today, I am doing it for you.” The free PDF subscriptions (with lots of bonus content recently)
top results faster than others. But continually reworking the
work folks do in our music community is amazing, but it to anyone with an email address anywhere in the world,
result will (once again) not make it better, merely different.
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can also lead to feeling isolated and alone at times. We and that physical back issues are always available for
William Adams, PE, PhD <wmbadams@hotmail.com>
need to give each other support and be the people who purchase at <tapeop.com>. Thanks! -LC
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help in the wringing of hands. And my main plug is that A response to Douglas Tourtelot’s letter [#134]
wondering why the Rolling Stones concert was too loud for I just wanted to tell you how enlightening and
there is really, really good treatment out there. We should
him: A lot of fans are conditioned to concerts being very, reaffirming it was to read Justin Douglas' article "Working
obsess over finding a qualified therapist the way we obsess
VERY loud. If it’s not crushing, then it’s not “right,” and Happy" from Tape Op #134. It's one of those things that
over microphones, fuzz pedals, and tape calibration
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they will express this to the front-of-house engineer. Either no matter how much you think you "know that already,"
practices. Get good consultation and reach out in the
it's always so powerful to hear someone else reaffirm
community. Don’t give up, even when it’s the engineer will continue about their business and mix it
those beliefs. It really puts your life back into
really hard to find something that works. the way they desire, or re-think what they are doing if
enough people come up demanding that the volume be perspective. I will be including a copy of that article in
Andrew White <www.pdbti.org>
louder. The engineer might succumb to the request, and my annual “Thank You” cards to all my freelancers this
As much as I enjoyed your interviews with Tchad Blake year as a holiday gift! I always try to prioritize mental
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the house mix gets louder, perhaps for the worse. Mix
[#133], Michael Brauer [#131], and Andrew Scheps health of my staff at our company because it really is so
engineers are totally to blame as well. Some just have to
[#133], I noticed the disturbing common thread. important to take care of yourself first, and the rest will
mix with the level in the red and push it to the limit no
Unattended mixing is great, but people not taking your come from the heart. Working in the world of music is so
matter the room, PA, or mix quality. So, yeah, some
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time seriously isn’t. I am happy to be as busy as I am, exciting and yet so daunting. I consider myself lucky to
engineers just let it rip, without concern for detail or
and I really appreciate being able to work with people all be in a position where I can ensure people are having fun
dynamics. Some mix the kick drum louder than the vocal.
over the world. But I wrestle with how much it has and staying healthy while doing it! Thank you for keeping
Some mix painfully harsh, and some use way too much sub
changed the gig and the priorities. Thanks for addressing up a great publication! I share it with everyone I know!
bass. It could be plain old bad engineering, PA system
this. In terms of long distance, unattended mix work, my Matt Barba <inconcertproductions.com>
shortfalls, engineer misuse, ear fatigue, or even an
records this year include musicians from Tuva, Australia,
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in this new paradigm, but I just don’t know how I got any
not allow themselves to be perceived as “less rocking” if
good at it. Things get done so much faster in person, and
their set was quieter than the opening act. There are a lot Send Letters & Questions
I can’t help but think we are creating more conservative
work because of the new methodologies.
of explanations for the volume at a show. to: editor@tapeop.com
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The artist Do you have any tips on how to
should keep the creative flow going
You have many credits as a producer,
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not have in the studio?
engineer, and mixing engineer.
to think I think the thing that keeps it flowing
What do you identify with as your
about easily is that artists can get to work
primary role in the recording process?
as soon as they arrive. I am not the
I’m an artist, first and foremost. I think that’s the
type of engineer who arrives with
easiest way to encapsulate all of it. But I get paid to
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the artist. I usually request at least
engineer and produce, primarily.
two hours before, just to make sure
I know that you took the music tech
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that the studio is properly set up. I
program at NYU. Was it from there
like to ensure that all the
that you knew you were going to start
headphones are working, all the
producing and engineering?
I actually set my goal before that, when I was at Barnard
College; part of Columbia University. Going to school
there afforded me the ability to take classes at the
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Atlantic?
I’ve been working for Atlantic Records
since August of 2013.
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goofing around, and then, “Oh, you got that!” That’s
one of those things that establishes trust very early.
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Do artists walk in knowing exactly what
sounds they want, or do you have a
conversation beforehand?
It depends on the artist. Having worked with so many Can you talk about this 1608 console a What are a few plug-ins that you’re
different artists, in so many different genres, you’ll little bit? using the most these days?
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find a variation of methodologies. There are so many Yeah. We have the 548 [preamps] in the API console. I I love the Little Plate reverb by Soundtoys. I also love the
different ways to create a song. Sometimes I’m just think they’re very transparent. I love them mostly on UAD Neve 33609 [compressor]. I use those on every
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engineering. Sometimes I’m asked to produce and to guitars, especially acoustic. I think they sound great mix. I also use a [Waves] L2 [limiter] at some point on
have ideas, or they just trust me to tell them and on electric guitar and amp sounds that have been every mix as a utility limiter if I need help leveling out
usher them through a workflow. I do know processes mic’d. They add a tonality, without being super heavy- some of the dynamics in the process of mixing. I enjoy
that work better than others. My biggest thing is handed in terms of the coloration. I think it’s a good the 560 API graphic equalization plug-in too.
always efficiency and making sure that we’re
capturing as much as we can, in the amount of time
that we have. I have my methods for that. A lot of
the pres that are in this board.
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mix of coloration and transparency that you get with What have you been doing with Gender
Amplified?
How do you think that compares to the Gender Amplified is an organization that celebrates and
times artists will defer to me at this point, because 1073s, as far as coloration? supports women in music production and audio
they’ve done what you’ve done. They’ve looked at my I think what you inherently get just by turning on the engineering. That’s very broad, because that can
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résumé and said, “Okay, this person must know what 1073s is a more rounded-out midrange that I feel is include established women whose visibility may not be
they’re doing.” So, they typically take good cues from richer and has a better sense of harmonic variation. as large as it could be or should be. We try to shine a
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me when it comes to workflow. With these pres and this API board, I find them to be light on incredible women in the field winning
Looking around this room, there’s a lot of a little bit more transparent and not necessarily Grammys for engineering and production, and who are
gear to choose from. What are some of adding that much richness in the lower midrange and doing such amazing things that many people may not
your favorite pieces of equipment here?
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the high mids as much as the 1073s would. When necessarily know about. For example, Emily Lazar
I love the [Neve] 1073s. I’m a big fan. We have a you’re recording into digital equipment and you’re winning a Grammy as a mastering engineer was a huge
combination of the newer AMS preamps, as well as using converters, it’s good to have as robust a signal win for her. NOVA Wav [Denisia “Blu June” Andrews
vintage pres from actual Neve consoles. I find them to as you can going from that continuous environment and Brittany “Chi” Coney] took a Grammy home for
be so reliable and trusty when it comes to creating to a discrete environment. It makes a lot of a their work on the last Carters album, Everything Is
rich harmonics. They just sound wonderful. It has a difference to be going into the computer from such a Love. There are so many women out there making
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lot to do with the circuitry and types of components great-sounding preamp. music and receiving credit, but not necessarily being
that are used to make those preamps. I rely on them What does your balance between the use validated in the public space as much as they could be.
heavily during the tracking process, but also during of plug-ins versus outboard gear Gender Amplified serves as a bit of a bullhorn for those
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the mixing process. They have line inputs, so I’m able usually look like? When are you women. Then there are women who are aspiring to do
to mix on them as well. If I had my choice, I would doing things in the box? this. We try to provide resources, workshops, panels,
track everything on them. Over the course of this last During the tracking process, I’m tracking everything and conferences for those women looking to
week, I had the opportunity to work on a 64- through this 32-channel API going into Pro Tools. professionalize themselves and give themselves a leg
channel Neve 88RS [console]. Those pres sound After that, I’m in the digital world, so I rely very up, and who are looking at the women we highlight as
incredible; there are 64 of them, so I was able to heavily on the UAD plug-ins and the Waves plug-ins. potential role models and mentors.
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really spread out. My setups can be pretty I have a number of plugs that I rely on in that space Do you work with a lot of young people?
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expansive. We do have 32 channels of analog I/O to get a good mix in the box. Then, when I have We’re working with a lot of young ladies. We have our
in this room. I don’t have 32 Neve pres, so I do something that I feel like sounds interesting enough, newsletter, and we also run a music production camp
have to be selective about what I send through I usually will use the API to further mix, find some called THE CTRL ROOM SERIES. We’ve been partnering
them. But I also absolutely adore the API pres that interesting harmonics, and add back some analog with NYU and the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded
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we have in the 1608 [console]. warmth to the digital mix I’ve achieved in the box. Music to make this available for their students who are
E. Smith/(continued on page 16)/Tape Op#135/15
producers and are looking to find their way into the done, and to further our mission. That’s really the to expand your mind and read as you can, to make
music business. Every month, we run this camp where vision for Gender Amplified: an institute with its education not just something that you do, but
we bring established producers and engineers to their own studios, and its own curriculum that’s looking something that is of your fabric and of your
campus and do a day-long recording session with critically at gender and how it’s affecting the music personality. It becomes an extension of your
them where they’re writing for artists. It’s a small business, as well as our world in general. personhood. That’s one of the things that has helped
initiative right now; but I think it’s something that’s Is education something that you’ve me tremendously as I’m in this position, because I
helping to change the lives of these young people, always been interested in personally? feel like a student all the time. I spent the last week
and to show them that they can be producers and find Education is something that is necessary for me, in at Berklee College of Music as an Artist in Residence,
professional opportunities while they’re still in school. every facet of what I’m doing. As a producer and and I feel like I learned more from the students and
What do you hope for Gender Amplified engineer, I’m constantly reading books. I just being in that environment than I was able to give to
to become? How do you envision it finished On the Record by Al Schmitt. I’m reading All them. It was a great, symbiotic back-and-forth; to be
looking in five years? You Need is Ears by George Martin now. I feel like I’ve constantly learning and constantly thinking of
I have been talking with a major university to start the gotten an MBA building out Gender Amplified as a yourself as a student, as well as allowing the
Gender Amplified Institute. It will be an institute non-profit. I had to get my Dante certification. atmosphere and the environments that you find
that focuses on the study of music technology, Everything about being an audio engineer and music yourself in to teach you and for you to teach them.
alongside gender and women’s studies. It’ll be the producer involves education. Reading manuals, r
first of its kind. It will be doing the work of THE CTRL studying trends in the business, going to conferences <www.atlanticrecords.com/member/ebonie-smith>
ROOM SERIES – the work of mix sessions and the like AES and NAMM, as well as making sure that I’m
work of our newsletter – just in a very interfacing with other people in my community while interview by Angelica Tavella <www.angelicatavella.com>
institutionalized way where we can make sure that also learning about new products. photos by Lauren Colchamiro @laurencolchamiro
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we’re able to touch so many lives per year. We’ll be Yeah, there are so many ways to learn
these days.
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www.tapeop.com
under the umbrella of an accredited college and
university, but we can start to bring in guest Books are great. I’ve read tons of books by musical
lecturers and do the types of studies we need to do executives as well. The Soundtrack of My Life by Clive Bonus content online!!!
to figure out if we’re making a difference in the Davis is an excellent read. Ahmet Ertegun’s book,
music business by way of the young people who Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built, is also an
we’re preparing to enter that industry. We’ll be able excellent read. In addition to reading non-fiction, Tape Op is made
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to keep track and not be as fledgling as we have there are some bits of fiction I draw from. There’s a possible by our
advertisers.
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been in the past. We’ll be able to use the resources wonderful novel called The Autobiography of an Ex-
and the support of an established, accredited Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson. It’s a bit of a Please support them and tell them
you saw their ad in Tape Op.
university to get the things that we need to get review of the jazz age. I think the important thing is
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You mentioned the mixing aspect. Are When someone hires you as a producer, In 2006, you produced records for Pink,
you hands on when you mix your are they getting you as a player as Peaches, Jessica Simpson, and Kylie
records, or do you have someone you well? Do you end up playing on the Minogue. Did that year feel like it
work with for mixing? records that you produce? was a turning point for you?
There’s a certain point where I started to use outside Yeah, unless it’s a rock band or something like that. Most Actually, The Bird and the Bee was really the turning
mixers. When I finish producing a track, I will do the of the time, I’m working with an artist; probably a point for me. I would say that was really the first time
best mix I can possibly do in the amount of time that singer. A lot of times I’ll play all the instruments on I got to show what I can do. As far as an outside
I have, and I use that as an example of how I want it a track. Maybe I’ll get a drummer every now and then, project, beyond The Bird and the Bee, I’d say that Lily
to sound. Then I hope the mixer will take it to the next or I might get some outside horn player or Allen was the first record [Alright, Still, 2006] that got
level; maybe make it a bit more punchy in the drums, something. But when it comes to keyboards, guitars, noticed. I felt I got to show the more unique side of
and maybe a little bit bigger or wider. But sometimes and bass, a lot of times I will play those, and even what I like to do, like referencing older ‘60s music,
my mix ends up getting used. I’ll usually mix The Bird drums occasionally. I do have some friends who are bossa nova, Brazilian music, and The Beach Boys. I
and the Bee tracks, and occasionally I will mix a song great drummers, and sometimes it’s outside of what I got to incorporate those elements into pop music. I
here and there if people like the rough mix. But a lot can do on a drum kit. That’s the instrument I’d say was free to do that with Lily. That was the first time
of times I’ll use different mixers. I’ve worked with that I probably play the least. I felt I got noticed. I started to work in the UK more,
[Mark] “Spike” Stent a lot. I’ve also worked with Serban But you do play? Is that you on The Bird and then some of that work started to get noticed in
Ghenea, Tom Elmhirst, and Manny Marroquin [Tape Op and the Bee? the United States. I’d say that was the start.
#109]. Those are the main mixers I’ve worked with. Yeah, but not all of it though. Joey Waronker is playing So, when you did the first The Bird and
on a few of the tracks. On Sia records, or something the Bee album [self-titled, 2007],
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like that, it’s me on drums if it’s a live kit. A lot of was that something you did as a fun,
musical project? Or was it like,
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times it’ll be a hybrid of me playing, chopped up, and
I’ll do some programming with me playing. On a lot “I want to make a demo for myself,
of records where I’m playing drums, it’s a hybrid. as a producer.”
Do you create loops out of what you’ve That was a huge learning experience for me, that first Bird
done on drums? and the Bee album. I really wanted to start to produce
For me, I have to do that. Unless it’s a certain kind tracks and make albums. Meeting Inara was really great,
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of song that I can play straight through, really because it was the first time I was able to be self-
simply. But a lot of times it’s more of a pop thing, sufficient, and learn [Apple’s] Logic, and do it myself.
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where I will find the best of myself and chop it up. Before that, I was in bands, or I was a studio musician,
I wish I could do it straight through, but I’ll feel and I didn’t really know how to record on a computer
like those four bars are the best. That’s going to be yet. The Bird and the Bee was the first time I was able
the first place. I feel like there’s something really got signed to Blue Note by Bruce Lundvall [former
great about a lot of early hip-hop samples, where president and CEO of the label]. We put out our first
they loop the intro of the song over and over again. album, and I didn’t have much going on, other than
I love that simplicity. some outside production.
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You said earlier that you identify Almost ten years later you worked with
primarily as a musician, but looking Adele on her album 25.
back at what you’ve been doing for That got a lot of attention, and then the Grammys. That
the last decade or more, it seems like was a whole new experience for me. That was really
you’re mostly a producer. fun. I produced three songs on that album, and we
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Well, that’s how I got into production. Production for me wrote the songs together. I went to England and we
was guys like Prince. That’s who I used to look up to did a bunch of writing sessions. In those writing
growing up. I would imagine his productions and how sessions, we ended up doing “Water Under the
he would build a track with his Linn [drum machine], Bridge,” “Million Years Ago,” and “Hello,” which was
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as well as play the keyboards and all the instruments. the first single. I was producing the tracks
That’s how I started making tracks, and that’s how I simultaneously while we were writing the tracks.
got into production. Then later, when I worked with And playing on them?
Paul McCartney, the Foo Fighters, and artists like Yes, I was playing everything on those tracks.
them, I needed to learn another way to produce You’ve got a lot of cool horn
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where I’m not playing all the instruments. I need be arrangements on tracks that you’ve
on the other side of the glass and help these artists produced. Do you play some horns?
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with their vision, and not play all the instruments. I don’t play any horns, but I used to play a lot of jazz in my
Production, for me, is mostly being a musician, and twenties. I would play in jazz bands and write jazz tunes;
playing, and coming up with the parts, so I do look part of that would be writing the horn parts and
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Liverpool, but he’s so much more. There’s so much Do a little bit of this, and then jump to something industry. You’re doing highly
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complexity to the harmonies that he comes with; the else. I get perspective and learn from new projects. I commercial-orientated records with
chord structures, melodies, and everything are so can take a little bit of what I learn, and when I revisit Adele and Pink, and then working
amazing. He comes up with new ones all the time. I an older session I’ve been working on, I can bring with Beck and The Flaming Lips.
don’t hear him repeating himself – even production some of that into the new project. Then I can see how Yeah, it’s funny. I started out more in the indie rock world
ideas. I think he really likes to always move forward and this compares to everything I’ve been working on. in the ‘90s; that’s where I started playing in bands.
not do something ordinary. He always wants to push the How was it working on Beck’s Colors? Then, in the early 2000s, I wanted to be a producer
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envelope. I think if he works with the right person, that I love working with Beck. I play a lot on that record, and who builds tracks and the only place you could really
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person will help him do that as well. I really wanted to Beck jumps in there occasionally and plays a guitar or a do that at the time was the pop world, so I jumped
be that guy for him. Instead of the typical “band comes keyboard part. I have a lot of respect for his ideas when into the pop world. A lot of my friends who were
in and plays a song,” he wanted to use a cello, or he’d he plays. He thinks differently than I do, but we also playing in bands in the indie rock world were laughing.
do that on a guitar part. Maybe we’d have his overlap. He’s such an easy guy to work with. He’s very Like, “That’s funny. Greg’s working with this or that
harmonium doing that, and a flute will play this part –
something that’s not the obvious. I love that he wants
to do that, and he always pushes that boundary.
– we’ll narrow it down to something that we feel
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free and doesn’t mind exploring the most ridiculous idea
Paul?” I’d go out there and play something, and he’d and then he’ll start throwing in these harmonies. That’s came back to that world. I felt comfortable in the indie
say, “That sounds great! Just play that.” Or there’d be great, and it really turns into a Beck track. rock world because of that. Now, who knows what is
a Minimoog bass part; I’d hear something and present I had read that that album was spread what? It’s hard for me to decipher if the tracks for pop
him with it. If he liked it, I’d play it. But he played a out over several years as well. music are the same as the tracks for indie rock music.
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lot of the instruments on the record, and his band also Yeah, it was similar to the Paul McCartney album, where I don’t know!
came in. Abe Laboriel Jr. played drums a lot on the we were going to get together for a couple of weeks The barriers are going down a little bit.
record, and sometimes Paul would play. I love hearing and work on it. He would go off and tour, and I’d start Yeah. It’s really about the songwriting, the voice, or the
Paul play drums, guitar, and piano. He’s great. working on other records. We were both pretty busy. I lyrics that differentiate it. Everybody’s working on pop
Was most of it more built up rather than was producing a lot of different records, and Beck is music now. It’s a whole different thing, and it’s great.
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tracked as a band? always busy. It took a long time to figure out what the The Liam Gallagher records you did must
It was a variety. The majority of it was built up. It would record was. We got serious at the end, “Okay, these are have been fun to work on.
be the two of us in the room adding parts and trying the songs. Let’s finish these up.” That was fun. I worked with my old buddy, Andrew Wyatt
Do you get to a point sometimes where
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to solve the equation of, “What does this track need?” [Blakemore], on that. We played in a band together in
I was trying to feel out what Paul was needing at that it’s like, “I need to get this one out college, so it’s fun to work with him again. Liam was
moment. He’d always come into the studio with a plan of my life! We need to get it done.” great, super straightforward, and he knows what he
for what he wanted to do each day. Sometimes he It’s easy when you’ve worked on something so much to likes. I got to rock out more, which was really fun. He
would have a clear vision of how to achieve that, and lose perspective, but I knew down deep that that was into what I was doing, and I was really proud of
sometimes he would look at me and ask, “How do you record, specifically, I was really proud of. It was what we did on that first album [As You Were]. I did a
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think I should achieve this?” Then I would chime in, something I was not doing anywhere else, or with any few on the new one [Why Me? Why Not.]. I don’t really
and I would start coming up with ideas. There would other music. It really straddles all the music I grew up get to do stuff like that too often. It’s nice to branch
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be days where he wanted to bring the band in for a listening to, but also pop music. I felt very excited out; it’s definitely part of who I am, and a far cry from
week, so we would cut it live, which was really fun. I about the music, even though I might have heard the some of the music I’ve put out. I grew up playing in
think Paul really enjoyed that. He likes to mix it up songs a million times when working on them. I still rock ‘n’ roll bands, so it’s nice to have these
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and keep it interesting. could remind myself, “This is going to be great.” opportunities to do that with different people.
20 /Tape Op#135/G. Kurstin/(continued on page 22)
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It sounds huge. It also has a lot of space, because there’s not
that much going on. Drums, bass, and maybe two guitars.
The drums sound massive. Drums and guitar take up a lot of space; but then, when
he takes a solo, all the rhythm guitar drops out and it still sounds full. I tried to
keep that feeling on The Bird and the Bee record. There are a lot of layers to the
record, but there were times when I wanted to keep it keyboards, bass, and drums.
When the keyboard’s soloing, maybe not have any other keyboards under it. I
wanted to keep a little bit of that tradition going on.
Which keyboard is the main synth on “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout
Love”? Do you remember?
Definitely the Minimoog.
There’s a polyphonic synth, too.
It might have been the [Roland] Juno-60, [Korg] Polysix, or the Prophet-5; those were
the main ones. There’s probably a little [Yamaha] CS-80. There was [Roland] Space
Echo on some of the long, held-out notes. I think I flanged the drums. We did some
real tape flanging. My engineer, Alex Pasco, ran the drums through a tape machine,
did some VSOing [Variable Speed Oscillator], and got a real flange like The Cars did.
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You don’t see too many CS-80 synths working anymore.
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This one is working great. It’s an incredibly deep synth, and I do use it quite a bit. I
like that you can make your own presets. I do a lot of the Blade Runner trick, where
I hold out a note and let the frequency open up a little bit. I get a little vibrato
and it bends with the aftertouch, using it as a lead synth. I know Bruce Springsteen
used it in a polyphonic way on “Born in the U.S.A.” It’s a cool instrument.
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The Bird and the Bee meet
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You said you were into rock more when you were younger.
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the world to me. It was the first music I got into when I started playing in bands.
Van Halen, Ozzy, and Rush. That lasted for a short time, and then I got into punk
and The Clash. I stopped listening to the hard rock bands and got more into punk
and new wave music. But 11-year-old me was all about Van Halen. That was as
big as you could get.
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I love what you guys did with it. Michael Anthony never overplayed the bass parts in
It was really fun to tackle that music and turn it into The Bird and the Bee music. Van Halen.
Where were you when you first heard their debut album, There’s definitely a lot going on with the drums and the guitar. Eddie Van Halen’s
Van Halen?
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rhythm playing is incredible. I think that’s one of the things that people don’t
I was probably in a car somewhere. Maybe a day camp. I bought the vinyl; I still have mention enough.
the same album. It’s all scratched up. I think I heard “You Really Got Me” and The riffs are what make that record.
“Eruption” first. It still sounds huge. When I was working on The Bird and the Bee Yeah, and the solos are so fluid, like [Jimi] Hendrix. Then David Lee Roth; you can’t
versions, I would use the sonics as an educational thing. In Logic you have the mess with those vocals. He really has an incredible phrasing. There’s no one like him.
Match EQ plug-in. I was wondering, “What’s going on in that guitar tone?” I noticed Did you have to pull back on your bass playing in order not to
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there’s so much low end to the guitar on that record; the guitar fills so much space. get too complicated?
I Match EQ’d it to my [Sequential Circuits] Prophet-5 [synthesizer] going through an Well, I did what I wanted. There’s some bass on the record, but there’s also a lot of
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amp to see if I could Match EQ the Prophet-5 to his guitar tone – I wanted to see keyboard bass. I took it a little bit into the world of Devo or The Cars. Those were
what the difference was. All this low end got boosted by the Match EQ. Then I have some of the references I was thinking of: that angular new wave realm, which is
that EMT digital plate panned to the right, guitars on the left. I used a little bit of another area of music that I really love. I thought, “What if I bring a little bit of
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that. Isn’t it that digital EMT? That record’s drowned in reverb. Devo to Van Halen?”
22/Tape Op#135/G. Kurstin/(continued on page 24)
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You’ve spent the last ten years working with some huge pop stars.
Do you ever get intimidated? How do you manage the egos in
the room, or does it melt away once you get down to working?
Everything melts away. When you get in the room with anybody for the first time,
there’s a little bit of nerves. I want to be liked and to do a good job. Growing up,
I was more nervous outside of music. Music was my sanctuary where I could feel
at home and comfortable. I never want that to get in the way. When I’m making
music, I remind myself that this is where I get to feel good and shine. That’s why
I play music in the first place. Everywhere else, I was awkward. I don’t let the
He’s got such a great voice. It’s so unique. nerves get in the way. I’m getting in a room with a human being and I try to treat
Yeah, definitely. When you have a vocalist like that, it makes my job easy. They go them like a person. “How’s your day? What did you do today?” We’re all the same.
and sing and deliver. “Oh, okay. My job is done.” It’s a nice thing. I can easily jump into that and get comfortable with somebody, even though they
When you’re working with a vocalist, do you find yourself might be a famous person. Even Paul McCartney. You can get nervous with a Beatle,
coaching them? Or do you let the singer decide what’s a but I realized I feel comfortable in my ability. I’ve worked really hard in music, and
good take? I feel I can do what he wants me to do. If he wants me to arrange vocals or help
I tend to let the singer decide, but I’ve been really lucky that I’ve mostly worked with him harmonize, I feel very comfortable in that world.
great singers who have a personality. When I’ve worked with singers who have So, music is your happy place?
trouble singing, sometimes it’s hard for me to know what to tell them. I could get Music has always been my happy place. I didn’t ever want to let anything get in the
technical with them, but I’m really a vocal producer who lets the vocalist do their way of that. I feel like this is the area I’m supposed to have fun, and I always want
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thing. I try to make them feel comfortable. I try to take any pressure off so that to remind myself of that. r
they know they can do as many takes as they want. I don’t make them do a million <gregkurstin.com>
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takes. We can do a few takes to get that initial energy. “Let’s do a few takes, and
we can always come back to it later if you feel we didn’t get it.” If they want my
feedback, I will give it to them. Certainly I’ll say, “I like when you did that” or,
“Maybe if you could hold that note a little bit longer?” But I don’t really get into
“relax your diaphragm.” I don’t really know the technique of it. I do love harmonies
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and vocal arrangements. I can really get in there when it comes to that. I have
ideas for days. I can almost be annoying, like, “Can we do one more harmony?” I
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love coming up with countermelodies and harmonies. That’s where I really step in
there with a lot of singers.
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You’re from Colombia? I’d have an audio engineer saying, “Could you please get arts faculty. I lived in Chile for almost three years.
I am, born and raised. I was born in Bogotá and I lived close to the microphone?” Very early on in my life I Then one of the top universities in Bogotá had
there for 16 years. My mom was working for UNICEF, realized I was very musical. When Nirvana’s MTV changed their audio engineering program into a five
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and she got transferred to Bolivia when I was 16. I Unplugged in New York came out, I knew I wanted to year music program, with a major in audio
graduated from high school there. By then, I knew I play guitar. I really wanted to go to music school, but engineering. I basically had to start over. I was
wanted to do audio engineering. I never felt I was a performer. I can sing in tune, but already two and a half years in from Chile, so I ended
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How did you know that? I never thought I had the personality to be a singer. up doing seven and a half years in undergrad
My mom told me to be an audio engineer. When I was I was studying classical guitar, but I didn’t see myself programs. I was working at a post-production house
born, my mom was a television producer. She would as a classical guitarist. The other thing is that, as an audio professional already while I was still a
take me on set to the telenovela she was shooting. I throughout my life, I’ve always been very handy at student, and I was also teaching audio basics as a
remember being at recording studios with my mom fixing things. When I was about to graduate, my mom student. I was also a sound designer for a couple of
said, “You know, there’s a career called audio movies, one of which [Contracorriente] got picked by
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girl?” She’d have me overdubbing and doing those two.” There weren’t any universities in Bolivia a French/Peruvian/Colombian production. I was
voiceovers for her shows. that offered that program, but I moved to Chile and dealing with real clients. There was a Colombian audio
You learned the routine of it, to wait for got into the Universidad de Chile – a huge university. engineer, Jose Pupo, who had just come back from
the cue and to put on the headphones? They offered an audio engineering program inside the the McGill University program in Canada. Martha De
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didn’t really do the studio thing, like being the proper I hear about [that champions women in the industry]. She If I’d gone to a college in a different
studio intern. I had a different internship approach state than I grew up, it would have
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Is The Music, SoundGirls, Women’s Audio Mission, Women
doing post-production; I was dealing with real clients In Music – you name it. The farther south you get from cost me more.
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“The music comes from people who didn’t
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know what they were doing. That was the
sound, like reggaeton. It was people in San
Juan, Puerto Rico learning how to do that.
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The amount of compression they’re getting
on it is stylistically correct – it doesn’t matter
how technically “incorrect” it is.”
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and real television networks with real, paid expectations. Miami, the more sexist it is going to get. That’s our When you are an international student they ask you to
Then, on the other hand, I was dealing with real culture; we can’t deny it. It got to the point where I wasn’t have a lot of money in your bank account, just to get
recordings of classical sessions of people who were doing the job that I wanted. Jose hired me to be the post- the visa. I thought, “I’m going to write to them and
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expecting a lot. Classical musicians are interesting; their production supervisor for a reality show [Protagonistas de say, ‘Here’s my biography and résumé. I really want to
relationship with technology is very weird. They hate the Nuestra Tele]. I was the second in charge. We had a team go there, but I have no money.’ Let’s see what they
presence of the microphone, because it’s all about them of 20 audio engineers, and they were all under my wing. can come up with.” They actually offered me a full
being on stage, which I understand. We had 15 people living underneath a roof, and everybody tuition. They have a program that’s an assistantship
What happened after school in Bogotá? was wired. We had about 70 mics all around the studio tuition. I became a graduate teacher; an assistant.
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When I graduated, I kept working with Jose Pupo. There’s house where they were living. The audio engineers would So, I did the graduate program for three years.
a big festival in Colombia for classical music in Cartagena do shifts of eight hours. After everything was shot and What did you think of going to there
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[Cartagena International Music Festival]. It’s a beautiful recorded, I was doing post-production on that. I got the from a totally different culture and
city, and they bring the top classical performers from all episode delivered at 2:30 p.m., and by 9:30 p.m. the school?
over the world. It’s a once-a-year program – four to five episode was airing for millions of viewers in Colombia. It
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concerts a day, for a span of two weeks. was very hard work.
28/Tape Op#135/M. E. Ayerbe/(continued on page 30)
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I loved it. The audio engineering program was a dream Is that Julio? Have you gone back and done sessions
to me. There’s an API Vision [console], an [SSL] Julio Reyes Copello. He’s also Colombian, and a very nice in Colombia?
Duality [console], two SSL 900 [consoles]. Any mics person. When I met with Julio, he said, “You’re coming I have. I’ve also taught classes and done workshops. I
that you want. The rooms were beautiful. Because I to work with me.” I left Criteria, and I ended up mixing feel like you’ve got to go back and tell your story.
was a tutor and working as a graduate teacher, I had for Il Divo and doing all the engineering for half the Do you feel like there are more jobs in
the chance to stay at the studios and do more studio album [Amor & Pasión]. I worked for the top Latin Colombia for people in audio now?
time than anybody else. For me, it was a dream come artists with Julio. Yeah. Studios are popping up everywhere. Now it’s
true. Then I started interacting with the whole That’s a really amazing opportunity. cheaper to travel to the U.S. People can come here and
Nashville community, going to shows, and meeting Yeah. Then when I needed to get an actual work visa, he buy gear. Colombia is a place that has exported talent
people. It was perfect. offered to be my sponsor, and he still is. He basically to the world. Everybody knows who Shakira is. Those
I assume you were still mixing and gave me the opportunity to stay and work. Nowadays, sorts of talents open up the world to Colombia. J
working while you were doing the I’m a freelance engineer. Whenever Julio wants to work Balvin is Spotify’s most played artist in the world.
school thing outside of work? with me, or sees an opportunity where I can jump in, “Despacito” was produced by a classmate of mine.
Yes, I never stopped. I was getting mixes from Colombia he’ll hire me right away, and he recommends me a lot. Andres Torres and Mauricio [Rengifo] are both
all the time. I kept working for all of my clients. I was He runs a production studio, not a commercial studio. Colombians, and I went to school with Andres. As I
lucky to find an internship at a studio, Creative It’s not open for the public. He’s also allowed me the took off to Tennessee, he went to L.A.
Caffeine, in Nashville with the sweetest, craziest Italian freedom to work for whomever I want to work with. With the mixing work you’re getting
producer in Nashville; Pino Squillace. He’s probably the Before working with Julio, I’d never done professional sent, do you have a space that you
only guy who knows how to really play Latin percussion live sound. Then he partnered up with a very fancy work out of?
in Nashville. He played with Tito Puente. I managed to restaurant venue here in Miami, and they came up with Yeah. I came to the U.S. with a couple of bags and my
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start out the internship through MTSU. The day I a showcase for his label, Art House Records. Julio said, computer. With the very few bucks that I would make
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arrived, the studio engineer quit. There was an Amek “You’re going to do it!” I said, “I don’t know how to do a month from MTSU for being a teacher, I saved for
Angela console wired to a Studer. Pino was on the live sound!” He said, “Well, you’ve worked with all of about a year and I purchased myself really nice
drums, and there was a guitar player. They’re like, “Do the artists, because all of them have come through our acoustic treatment that I’ve been tweaking over the
you know how to run this?” I jumped in and I ran the studio. Even if you don’t know how to do live sound, years. I started getting very used to my home studio
session. He said, “You’re no intern. You’re going to be I’d rather have you there because you know how to situation. When you walk into the actual studio at my
the studio chief now.” My entire one year internship, I deal with them and know how they should sound.” I place, it’s like you’re in a real studio. I call it my mixing
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was actually the studio chief and I ran all of the had no idea how to tune front-of-house. I hadn’t done suite. I’ve tweaked my speakers. I work in the box. By
sessions. We were getting a lot of work, but, at the
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that since college. It was very stressful, but I figured mixing a lot of reggaeton and a lot of urban genres, I
same time – because of my whole immigration situation it out. Now I’m getting lots of live sound gigs. When noticed certain analog equipment colors my low end.
– I couldn’t get paid for it. When I graduated, it was the you’re at a studio, the monitors never bite back at you It’s beautiful for when I do rock or pop, but it doesn’t
summer in Nashville. It’s dead. I needed to figure out like they do in live sound. You’re not doing that in front work for this. As audio engineers, we know what is
my situation; I needed to change my status from being
a student to having a one-year work permit. Then I
thought, “What if I go to Miami?”
of 500 paying customers. I was a total nervous wreck
for a few months until I figured it out.
What about studio work?
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a style, such as the urban style, their roots are in the
street. The music comes from people who didn’t know
How come Miami? There isn’t a lot of tracking going on in Miami besides what they were doing. That was the sound, like
Because I’m Colombian, and it makes sense! Miami is the vocals. I have a pool of customers. They know I’m a go- reggaeton. It was people in San Juan, Puerto Rico
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hub for the Latino music industry. I had been applying to person when it comes to real tracking, and they’ll learning how to do that. The amount of compression
to other different jobs in Nashville, and people would call me up. I also started working for the New World they’re getting on it is stylistically correct – it doesn’t
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say, “Do you know how to record country drums? You’re Symphony – a symphony made up of graduate matter how technically “incorrect” it is.
Colombian!” I’m like, “Yes, I know how to do it.” students. It’s like an in-between orchestra for It’s not our job to change that, but
With coming to Miami, what was the path professional performers between college or graduate instead to reinforce it and do it as well
to finding people to work with? degrees, as well as a professional orchestra. I worked as we can.
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I had a professor from MTSU, John Merchant, who helped with them, recording all sorts of different shows and I recently became the Chair for the P&E Wing here in
me out with a lot of introductions. He had lived here for performances with New World Symphony. The venue is Florida for 2019-20. We had a loudness committee with
20 years; he was one of the head engineers for Criteria beautiful. The audio system they have there is the top the P&E Wing in L.A. in February. They all said,
Studios. He introduced me to the people at Criteria and in the country, and the hall sounds amazing. I did that “Loudness is killing us!” I said, “Hold on, hold on. If
all of the top engineers from here. I drove here and for about a year, and then I started getting back we don’t have loudness in Latin America, we’re going
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interviewed with a bunch of people, and I also called problems. I spent so much time at the computer, and to disappoint an entire continent. People are not going
old acquaintances who had moved here. I was an intern we had to set up and break down about 100 to be able to dance, because we’re giving them some
and a runner for ten days over at Hit Factory Criteria microphones for every show. You can’t do that when air to breathe. They don’t want that!” A reggaeton
Studios. They offered me a job, a contract, and
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you’re in pain. I dialed down on that and started track has to make your chest pump and your hips
everything that I needed. The hours were crazy. I was getting more and more into mixing and recording. move. You can’t take loudness away from trap. It’s not
delivering pizza to Lil Wayne, which was obviously a Where do the mixing jobs originate from? going to make cars rattle. r
different status in the chain, but I was okay with it. From Colombia, or from here. I started getting a bunch <www.mariaelisaayerbe.com>
Then one of the top producers from Miami called me, of clients from Haiti and the islands. I’ve actually
and said he was producing Il Divo. They’re huge all over managed to work with Haiti superstars that I didn’t Tape Op is made
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the world. He said, “My in-house guy is not going to be even know about. The Haitian community is huge possible by our
available tomorrow. Are you available tomorrow?” I here in Miami. We’re blocks from Little Haiti right advertisers.
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said, “Uh, I have a shift at 6 p.m. at Criteria. I need to now, which is the second most Haitian populated Please support them and tell them
take out the garbage.” He’s like, “What?” He’s got a place in the world. I also produce and look for bands you saw their ad in Tape Op.
beautiful studio down by Coral Gables and is the top to develop.
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Born in Bergenfield, New Jersey, Jack Antonoff has performed,
recorded, and toured with the bands Outline, Steel Train, fun., Bleachers, and,
most recently, Red Hearse, with a self-titled album released in 2019. He has co-
written with (and/or produced) Taylor Swift, St. Vincent [Tape Op #134], Lorde,
Lana Del Rey, Carly Rae Jepsen, Pink, and Sara Bareilles – basically a Who’s
Who of recent pop stars. He’s won four Grammys, and he’s even started his
own music festival, Shadow of the City, in New
Jersey. He produced the soundtrack for the
2018 film Love, Simon, which includes four
Bleachers songs. Brian and I caught up with
Jack at his Walters-Storyk designed home
studio in Brooklyn, NY.
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When you read it like that, it sounds like more than it is.
At any given time, I actually consider myself to have less
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going on than a lot of other people I know who do what
I do. It’s because the focus is on albums. Me and Kevin
Abstract made an album that took a month [ARIZONA
BABY]. Right now, I’m making an album with the Dixie
Chicks that’s going on two years. If you make albums, you
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can do different projects at once, because it’s more of a
meditative thing – it’s all-existing. I’ll be working on one
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project and think, “Okay, these songs need help,” and
then I’ll spend a couple of hours there. I’ll go into a
session with these people [whom] I’ve been working on
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their separate ways. You take a step back. To have these
ongoing album projects, it actually enables me to jump
around more, because they’re living and breathing. They’re
almost like family. How do you have time for friends and
family? Well, I don’t spend every day with them. If I go on
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spend time with them. Then I’ll come back and spend time
with my girlfriend, and I’ll be focused and spend time with
her. I think that’s what albums are. It comes up a lot
where people have this idea that it’s this crazy output, but
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greatest gear in the world – the board they did this on,
and the mic they did that on. They’re tools to get you
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feel this way too?” Everyone’s DNA comes out in one of the most important studios, historically. It’s an
everything [they record]. For example, the way you EQ honor to be there. You get to walk around in I think we all have it. For a long time I would brush
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a mic: are you someone who wants to have it bright [Washington Square Park] and think. The park is very things under that rug and be like, “Oh, I’m sad and
and have [the listener] feel like they’re talking right to unchanged, by the nature of college students and drug introspective because of this loss.” That’s bullshit.
you? Do you want it to feel distant? It’s fascinating addicts always being themselves no matter what’s Everyone is having their own version of a hard time.
how all these things are expressions of the soul. To going on in the world. I spend a lot of time there. In This work that we do is a function of figuring that out.
release that music; you’re trying to find your own little L.A., I’m usually at Conway [Recording Studios], which We’re not people who make something tangible or
tribe, your people who hear it. Take Nine Inch Nails: all is also one of my favorite studios in the world. Every specific. [This process] is an emotional tool. Every
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of those albums sound a very specific way, even the room there has a Neve [console] that I love for side of it is about getting to the bone of something.
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ones that are a departure. Or David Bowie, who made different reasons. I spend time at Henson [Recording Happiness is pretty uninspiring, historically – and
so many different styles of music; there’s still this Studios, formerly A&M Studios]. That’s a great place. specifically in music. What’s inspiring is taking the
common thread that if you get it, you get it. Releasing One place I’m dying to go to is Candy Bomber in darkness and trying to sift through it. Happiness, or
music is just asking if anyone’s having a similar Berlin. I heard about it from Nick Cave’s people. I saw having a great old time – well, we all know what that
experience to you. That’s why so many people who
make records didn’t relate super well early in life – at
least a lot of people I know. They use this medium to
them recently at Conway, and they were saying how
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brilliant [Candy Bomber] was. There’s a studio called La
Fabrique in France, where they do Mix With The Masters.
feels like. If you pull up any playlist you have, even
ones you don’t think are particularly dark, what’s way
more interesting is sifting through the darkness where
find people all over the world, because maybe in their I want to check that place out. I try not to go to big you can’t find your way and can’t make sense [of
small town they didn’t find enough people. studios, unless I go somewhere for a specific reason. anything]. When I was younger and was going
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What was your first recording setup like? Obviously in L.A., I’m at a [big] studio. I took the band through grief and loss, I thought, “Oh, I’m out here
When I was in my house in New Jersey, I had a laptop. up to a place called Outlier Inn in upstate New York, on an island reporting about this thing that very few
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I had a [Shure] SM7 going right into the interface – which is an interesting studio. In Atlanta, we were at people can relate to.” The older I get, the more I
not going through anything. I think it was the first Atlanta Doppler Studios – a wonderful place. I’ve realize it was always going to be that way. Everyone I
Mbox. I was recording on cassette when I was a kid. worked all over the world, and I basically work every know and relate to in this work seems to come from
I was always super into recording. When I was 12 day, so I almost see it like gathering. It’s more about that space of just sifting through darkness. Even
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years-old, I was taping everything. I recorded my working in the quiet of a hotel room, or finding bizarre songs about feeling good are about darkness, because
band called The Fizz from ‘97. Early recordings were on sounds in the town, and bringing that back [to the they are all about “when I didn’t feel good.” The best
little cassette recorders. Then I saved up and got this studio]. If I’m out traveling, I’ll record as much as example of that is Christmas music. Every Christmas
weird Zip disk recorder, the Roland VS-840. It was possible, go to my hotel room, do a ton of editing, and song ever is, “I hope my baby comes back on
massive, and the latency was out of control. It was then bring it back to here, Electric Lady, or Conway. I’ll Christmas. I hope I’m not alone next Christmas. I hope
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almost impossible to multitrack, but I did. From there, sift through and decide in those spaces, where I know I survive.” It’s always a twist. Even the happiest songs
[I worked with] local studios that had ADAT. It was what it sounds like. My whole plan with a room is have still have that tinge of “maybe it’ll go away.” It’s the
that super shitty phase of recording when it was post- it ready to go and have tricks everywhere, with mics in fabric or thread that connects all of us, and that’s
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tape and pre-Pro Tools. At some point, that first Mbox every corner; no fiddling, and I can have options. what we do. Music is meant to connect.
came out. I recorded on that forever. At that point, I Picture this: you’re sitting at the piano, so we’re going You’ve said in interviews that “if you
had no concept of anything. I’d turn the knob until it to record stereo mics on the piano, obviously. But then live in the suburbs, you dream. If you
hit red. I’d only seen Pro Tools in big studios. There why not also throw up that Telefunken and the Wunder live in New York City, you’re not
was this guy named John Naclerio at Nada Recording Audio CM7 because we’re doing vocals all over the dreaming, because you’re there.” Or,
in Newburgh, New York. He would record us and let us room? My favorite is a [Rode NT5] stereo pair, which “Growing up in a place that is forced
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come in for a month for $1,500. It was on ADAT; gets the coolest room sound. Now you have one piano to be in the shadow of something is
really special, because there’s so
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punching and punching to try to get the punch right. take, plus all these other possibilities that, if you
Why weren’t we recording on tape? Obviously, it was didn’t have, you would sit there and try to create with much energy in that.” What was it
the cost issue. Then he got Pro Tools, and it was mind- plug-ins. This doesn’t break the bank; we’re not talking about growing up in the suburbs that
blowing. My old band, Outline, was his first Pro Tools about crazy mics. It’s about options. Then you can has had such an influence on you
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recording. It was so cool because of the options. bleed them together, or set them off of each other by and your music?
34/Tape Op#135/J. Antonoff/(continued on page 36)
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Laura Sisk
Brian and I met up with Laura Sisk at New York’s Electric Lady Studios in the room that she Your lyrics, your chord changes, the notes you gravitate
shares with Jack Antonoff. We talked a bit about her workflow with Jack. Look for a longer to, and the sound you gravitate towards – your whole
interview with Laura in Tape Op soon. sound – is based on where you’re reporting from. If
you’re reporting from a town in the middle of
What’s your approach to bringing out the best vocal from an artist? nowhere, that’s a perspective. If you’re reporting from
We normally try to record everything in the control room. It’s a much warmer environment. It’s treated well, and the center of New York City, Hollywood, or London,
it’s a little bit bigger than a normal booth, but smaller than a live room. It’s so much nicer to be able to speak that’s a perspective. That changes things, and you
to an artist without the pause of people talking in the control room before they reach out over a talkback mic. hear it in the songs. My perspective, and the place I
It feels more like you’re in it together. With recording in the control room, we’re balancing it against the amount report from – I lived there my whole life, and it’s
of noise. We’ve worked in places too where it’s so loud in the control room, and it’s hard to mitigate. [We put] ingrained in me – is a specific place. It’s New Jersey;
packing blankets over all of the gear, because we have to leave at least some of it on while we’re recording! and what’s so specific about New Jersey is its
The first thing that I have to do when I get to any new studio is turn off everything that I don’t need. proximity to one of, if not THE greatest city in the
It makes the artist feel like they’re participating in any production decisions that world – and the almost medieval cruelty, where there’s
are being made along the way. this thin body of water that separates [the two]. So,
And we can also flip back and forth between the speakers, as well as jump out of headphones for a second if we want it’s not the same as being from “near the city.” It’s
to hear anything. [We track everyone in] headphones, usually. I love the CM7 S. It’s the Wunder Audio clone of very specific, and it creates what I’ve come to know
the [Telefunken U]47. It’s an incredible mic. It has a dip around 8 kHz, which helps with sibilance, but it’s still as “the New Jersey sound.” It’s staring into the
bright. It’s a little more controlled, and I feel like I don’t have to EQ it as much as a 47. We play with turning it window of the party. There are these feelings in New
a little bit [off axis] for background vocals, or, depending on the part, recording slightly off-mic. Pretty much all
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Jersey of, “We’ve gotta get out of here.” But there’s
of it is cardioid. It’s usually through a BAE 1073 [preamp]. We’re bouncing around studios all the time, so using more to it than that, because you get these East Coast
the reissues can be helpful for us because we can get a consistent sound in a bunch of different places.
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sorts of sounds. You feel that in some of the changes
The original units, if they’re modified or recapped, will have a slightly different in the horns, [and] there’s such a melancholy to it.
sound at each studio. Then you go further up the coast, and it gets a little
You never quite know. There are two [original] U47s here that are from different years at Electric Lady, and they bit brighter and a bit more settled in. “We choose to
sound very different – which is another reason the CM7 S is great, because it’s so consistent across the board. live here. It’s wonderful. This is a great little town!”
Then we have the [Tube-Tech] CL 1B compressor, which is awesome – usually not compressing too much on
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But that New Jersey thing – “in the shadow of the
the way in. It has a fixed attack and release setting that’s quite nice. It’s pretty fast, but it kind of catches city” – it’s so devastating. It’s very emotional and it
transients. I don’t like compressing too much on the way in because it makes it harder to tie sounds together,
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creates a deep melancholy, but also a hope. It’s
even if we end up compressing a little bit more on the back end. Sometimes we use a [Shure SM]58 or little literally who I am.
[Rode] NT5 room mics. One of the coolest things about Jack is that he treats the studio as a place to You’ve cited a nostalgia for John
experiment. We’re all trying to figure out new chains. Hughes’ movies, what they stand for
You and Jack often work on different aspects of a recording in separate areas of
the studio at the same time.
My job should be invisible, in certain ways. Jack and I often have dual setups, so we’re not always in the same
(d in your mind, and how they’ve
affected your songwriting and
production style. How has this
room together. I have my little laptop rig in [the live room] right now. We’ll bounce sessions back and forth all pervading sense of ‘80s nostalgia
day. We’ll record something, I’ll take it and work on it in the other informed your music?
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room, and he’ll keep moving on, working. Jack’s easily the The ‘80s were a complicated period. Most periods are.
most productive person I’ve ever met. Part of the way What speaks to me about the ‘80s was the willingness
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we keep up with everything is that we’re working to accept dark feelings in some big songs. There was
in tandem at the same time. When we’re in the more rage in the ‘90s, which was when I grew up. The
same room together, we’re bouncing back and music in the ‘80s was so goddamn pouty. It’s such a
forth between using the computer and making
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he’ll do something and be like, “We’re me into an emotional tailspin. I feel like I had a
going to listen to that in 30 minutes, bigger connection to it a decade ago than I do now.
after we work on this other song for a I’ve been really into mixing lately. I’ve been obsessed
little bit. Then it’ll be very obvious [how
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the world has these wavering tones. If you think Binson. I’m off that right now. Anything that freaks know how we got here, but this is awesome.” You learn.
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about Prince, sounds are wavering in and out. They’re me out and shocks me. It’s almost like the most basic Different albums are filling in puzzle pieces. In the
phasing, they’re imperfect. Everything here is always concept of a lot of psychotherapy or treatment: shock beginning phase [of recording] this Lana Del Rey album
one click away from going through the Binson the person into a new place. [Norman Fucking Rockwell!], we were messing around.
[Echorec tape delay] or the [Roland] Chorus Echo. I’m Do you put forth conscious daily, or There are pianos, and acoustics, and a drum set. We
recording the room – anything to create a situation. weekly, efforts to make big changes, were also throwing 808s on; totally messing around.
Which is a pain in the ass. Sometimes we shoot to force growth? When we recorded a song called “Mariners Apartment
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ourselves in the foot where “that’s the vocal tone, and I make big efforts to take myself out of myself, but I also Complex,” we said, “Oh, there it is!” It’s this drum
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it’s not coming back,” because it’s those mics going have developed good armor for when I know it’s right. sound, where it’s very roomy but quiet. I turned off
through the Binson at who knows what setting. What If you get “there” and don’t know you’re “there,” that’s everything but the overheads and the room. It was this
are the odds the tape will ever spin that exact same a big problem. Defining that you’re “there” is a feeling. quiet drum take, but there was so much room in it that
way again? It’s cool. That’s what you’re looking for – You need to have style and feeling, but you can learn it was amazing. “That’s the drum sound for the album!”
those moments.
Near the top of your list of ‘80s
influences is Yaz and Depeche Mode.
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[the technology]. It’s pretty easy to know what gear is
great and how to patch it all together. You can go nuts
making interesting sounds. There’s a lot of finesse
Then there was a very specific piano which happened
to be in Conway Room C, recorded a very specific way
because we had eight mics on the piano. The close mics
What was it like to work with Vince there, but it’s learnable. To know that you have “it” sounded weird, and it was a specific vocal tone. I start
Clarke as one of your producers on the and you’ve hit “it” – by the way, it’s not like 90 to fill in this palette, and once I have the palette, then
Bleachers album Strange Desire in
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percent, or you’re “almost there,” or you “pretty much I have tools. “Now let’s attack all the songs through
2014? You did everything over email. have it.” You do it, or you don’t. You have the this palette and see if it’s going to keep working.” If it
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I spoke to him yesterday, actually. We spend time recording, and you have the song, and you have the does keep working, then you might have an album.
together, but we’ve never worked in the same room. takes, and you have everything in the mix – or you In the case of that Lana Del Rey project,
It’s just a vibe I got from him. He has this cave of a don’t. To know when you’ve hit that feeling, that is the it sounds like you decided to go
studio [in the basement of his home in Brooklyn]. You most important skill. organic across the scope of the
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go down and he’s got a museum of synthesizers. A big I’ve heard you talk about this notion whole album.
part of producing records is figuring out how you’re that, in the end, all that matters is That album’s totally organic. We talked about the theme
going to get the best from someone. I don’t need the mix and what works. This speaks of an album – or maybe there is no theme. When
Vince’s name on my record. Believe me, it’s cool, but to what evokes the most authentic you’re making an album, there’s a period of time
what I need is for Vince to have a good time. I’ve version of the feeling you’re trying where you’re totally messing around and want to be
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given him songs, and then he’ll send me back more to capture. in rooms like this where you touch a whole bunch of
tracks. Anytime you work with anyone who’s That’s 100 percent true. So many records have been instruments and see what happens. Once the people
specifically affected your sonic DNA, it’s weird. You destroyed by people getting obsessed with, “But we in that room have a glimmer of what that palette is,
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hear them doing parts that you have very specifically spent a month on that string section.” But it doesn’t then you can start seeing if it’s going to be something
lifted and done again, and then given back to them, sound good. “But remember when we stayed up all that is exciting for an album. Sometimes you’ll land
so now it’s this crazy loop. I learned how to play night and we pitched these bells together until they on a palette. You’re recording, and a month later you
synthesizers because of Depeche Mode and Yaz. That’s were perfect?” But they don’t sound good. You’ve gotta say, “This doesn’t really do it for an album.”
why I love synthesizers, which, in my opinion, is a very be okay with that. Let’s talk about the design and setup of
good jumping off place. Synthesizers are so delicate. And if it doesn’t sound good, if it doesn’t your home studio. You were working
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You’re tweaking and tweaking until you finally hear serve the song, are you a strong with Jeff Bhasker [Tape Op #130] and
that perfect sound. To send Vince my Bleachers tracks, believer in scrapping it? fun. at NYC’s Jungle City Studios
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which are so influenced by him, and having him play To do this work, you have to be acutely aware of the fact [#89]. You were so impressed with the
on top of a sound that he, in some way, already did – that you might work on something for a month – setup there that you decided to hire
through me – it’s weird. But that was a lucky whether it’s recording it, writing it, or mixing it – and the Walters-Storyk Group to design
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relationship to have. He’s the Picasso of synth. then walk in one day, throw up a mic, and do it better this room?
38/Tape Op#135/J. Antonoff/(continued on page 40)
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I love John Storyk – he’s a genius! He built Electric Lady brilliant mixer. Unbelievable vocal producer. A lot of
Studios. He gets it. He and I are building another one times, editing can be the difference between making
in L.A. right now. It’s turning into an interesting place. something usable and making something shit. I’ll go
Is it around the same size and scope as in, play drums, and say, “Okay, I want the bridge and
this? the chorus.” Then she edits it and it sounds how I
Much bigger. It’s an honor to work with him. I’ll say to want it to, which is not perfect. I don’t want it on a
him, “Here’s what I’m thinking…” Then he’ll come grid. I want it a little bit more presentable than what
back and have an even better idea of what I was I did, but I want it to sound like me. I only work with
thinking! We’ve been going back and forth over email her now. But in other experiences I’ve had, that
about the B Room in L.A. “little bit too much” ruins everything and makes you
What are the particular items in want to go home for the day.
this room that help shape your How did your collaboration start, and
sound, your production style, and how long have you been working
workflow? together?
I don’t have a Fairchild [limiter] here. I’ve been She was engineering for a producer named John Hill,
recording a lot of drums, so that would be a goal. who I was doing the first Bleachers album [Strange
These [Chandler Limited] EMI strips – the TG2 rack Desire] with. We did that whole record, the three of
units – the lack of options makes me way more us. Then I was starting to make other records and
creative. I used to be obsessed with recording amps. seeing if she wanted to come help. It’s six years later
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I don’t think I’ve recorded a guitar amp in a few years at this point, and we pretty much work together
because of these strips; I’ve been doing all my guitars every day. It’s such a delicate thing to be able to pick
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and basses [through] them. If I have a distorted up on peoples’ cues. Every time you put a body in the
tone, it’s that. You have your red and blue-gray room, it’s a plus or minus, and she’s always a plus.
knobs, and you’re in this dance of how much you’re She always brings more to the picture. She’s got a
going to distort it. It’s so dynamic and reactive to my great ear for everything. We have similar goals, and
playing. That’s my favorite way to get these tight, the bar is constantly being pushed. To work with
incredibly gritty sounds. I’m extremely obsessed with people where, when something happens, no one says,
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tape delays. At Electric Lady, I’ve got a bunch of other “It’s good enough.” That’s what people deserve, if
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ones. I just got a Binson [Echorec] Baby. It sounds you’re going to put this music out into the world.
totally different from the full-sized one I have here. Gear is way secondary to developing the skill of being
I love this German one, the Echolette NG51 from the able to capture something exciting, different, and
‘60s. I’ve had it for a couple of months now at Electric honest. You can do that on the crappiest rig on earth.
Lady, and I put it on everything. The ‘70s Watkins
Copicat is my favorite piece of gear right now at
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Electric Lady. What I love about it is the tape is right
My advice to people is to focus on capturing a vibe.
Don’t try to make your records sound like other
people’s records. It’s already been done. If you’ve got
there, so when I’m recording something on tape, I’m Pro Tools, go nuts in there. See what happens. The
messing with the swell with one hand and literally ultimate goal is to do what you feel truly sounds like
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squeezing the tape with the other to manually slow YOU – and then to feel proud to share your work
it down. The Copicat has four knobs, and you don’t because you’ve hit that level on all fronts: the
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see anything – just the tape sitting there. It’s not production, writing, mixing, and everything. r
covered by anything. It’s fun to put your hands on <www.instagram.com/jackantonoff>
the tape. I’m doing it to an absurd [degree], feeding <twitter.com/jackantonoff>
it back and then squeezing it. Physically
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manipulating tape and tape echos on drums and Bren Davies is a singer, writer, and voice coach living and
working in Brooklyn, NY. <www.brendandavies.com>
vocals. I’ll send them into the EMIs and blow them
Brian T. Silak is a professional freelance photographer
out that way. I don’t feel like I’m hearing a lot of
that. It really excites me. from New York City. His work focuses on creative
Let’s talk about your collaboration with personality portraiture and graphic illustration.
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Phil Thornalley
I Want it to Sound Like This
by Paul Myers
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How did that American immersion affect friend, of a friend, so I got an interview and I guess
you in the mid-70s, while the punk rock he liked the cut of my jib. At that time, the studio
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explosion happened all around you? was very much that of, “you sit in the corner, you
It actually divided a lot of people. There were the people operate, and you shut up.” The chief engineer on the
who were still listening to the Eagles and Steely Dan, first session even told me something to the effect
and then there were guys like my best friend Chris, of, “Don’t talk. Do what you’re told, and you’ll get
who bought right into the Ramones and threw all the on.” At a very young age, I got to see the recording
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other records out. I sat on the fence and thought, studio as a career, first as a tape op, and as a tea
“Well, I still like those old records too.” I liked the boy at RAK Studios. Within the space of the first six
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punk records, and I was in a punk band where we months, I’d worked on orchestral recordings. I was
would cover the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, but the assistant on the sessions for Barry Manilow,
then I was also in a nine-piece soul band that played Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Jam. I’d done
the American Air Force bases.
Do you remember the first moment you
became aware of recording gear and
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music that came in. For the first two days I thought,
“What is this crap?” Then, two weeks later, after the
that recording was a “thing”? producer or whoever worked his or her magic, I’d
Yes, absolutely. I had all the studio gear in my bedroom, realize, “Oh, actually yeah. I see what this is about.”
like TEAC and ReVox tape recorders, and it would move Mickie Most made his name in the ‘60s
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from one guy’s house to another, depending on when with acts like The Yardbirds, The
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the parents would say, “That’s it! Get that stuff out!” Animals, Donovan, and Herman’s
We’d rehearse, and I had a tiny bedroom with a piano Hermits. Does that make you kind of a
and a set of drums in the corner. I had a go with these bridge to another era?
2-track machines. You know that Todd Rundgren tune, Before I was working for him, Mickie had had all these
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“There Are No Words,” where it’s improvised, hit records. Some of them had very bizarre
multitrack singing? I tried that. I started by singing arrangements by people like John Paul Jones. He
the bass note, sitting at the piano going, “And then took me under his wing, for some reason. Even
I’ll sing this note, and then I’ll sing that note.” It was though I was the assistant, we would look at each
totally out of tune, but in a way it was like looking in other and he knew that I had a sense of what a good
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a mirror and thinking, “Wow. I look good!” performance was, just as he obviously did. A band
And with recording, you can overdub. would be playing; there’d be nobody else in the
Yes. Our band owned one pedal, which was this amazing control room, and Mickie would look over at me, and
phase/flanger thing. You know how Electric Light I’d say, “That just slipped.” He’d say, “You’re right.
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Orechestra’s “Strange Magic” had this [flanged guitar]? Start again!” He’d hit the talkback, and the band
I would put the mic through this phase pedal before it would do another take. Mickie liked to do take after
got to the tape machine. I’d use it on the piano and take until he got it right. I kept a little notebook,
the drums, and it made it sound exotic. I’d be thinking, and one time we got to take 113, but the final track
“Oh, I wonder what that would sound like?” went to number one. Mickie talked in colors – I think
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One of your song titles from Astral Drive that’s actually a recognized condition now
is “Summer of ‘76”, which is around [synesthesia]. He would say to the band, “We need
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the time you had discovered Todd some green,” and then he’d get an arranger in who
Rundgren, right? What happened would add the overdubs, like strings, brass, and
when you started to hear what backing vocals – the big colors – onto these massive
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compressing of the tape. Mickie used to do tricks, who were perhaps technically not that great, sound knows how to program drum machines,” which, in
like putting the bongos through a wah-wah. That’s kind of like John Bonham. It was over the top. When those days, made you a genius! I had read the first
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him operating the wah-wah pedal on Hot Chocolate’s I saw him do that, it was like, “I don’t want drums to three pages of the manual. [laughs]
“You Sexy Thing.” He was basically trying to sound like drums. I want them to sound like they’re But you had probably logged a lot of
replicate that Donna Summer sixteenth-note busting out of the speakers.” Then, of course, as the “flying time” on your own?
synthesizer sequencer sound, but on the bongos. years went by, working with other producers I realized Yes. I used the down time to do my own songs, and
I wonder if such an in-depth that you can compress the close mics as well. You can muck around with the synths. This is more on my
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apprenticeship might be a lost really control the sound. demos, but then I’d get a flavor of, “Oh, yeah. This is
tradition? the sound I like.” I’d worked with an Oberheim DMX
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Thornalley recording and
mixing Bryan Adams’ “On A
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op on [Todd Rundgren’s production of Grand Funk’s] U 87 with an API mic amp and EQ, and a rare blue the room showing me her photographs. It gets to the
“We’re an American Band” at Criteria Studios in Miami. face UREI 1176 limiter. RAK had a big control room, end of the session when Macca comes in to mix it. He
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I wrote a whole book about Todd Rundgren, although the monitoring was more out of control. It knew the mobile well; there was a really small
and yet I’d never heard that! had the bass and took off, so it was difficult to put a monitoring board with these 24 tiny faders. Paul
Alex told us that story while he was producing the mix on the big speakers and not go, “Oh, something’s comes over and pulls them all down; he mixed it
Thompson Twins [Quick Step & Side Kick]. Alex was wrong.” But this bass sound was super tight, like in a himself, balancing how he fancied hearing everything.
great; we got on famously, and he was very generous. club, so you could whack up this Thompson Twins mix After about a minute, Linda said, “Uh-uh, Paul. Phil’s
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He loved it when I would put on crazy reverbs, delays, as loud as you like, because it’s tight. That was all was better!” Paul turned to me and said, “Go on,
and over-compressed sounds. If I went too far, he’d Alex. He had a very scientific approach. then!” It was very warm. There was no attitude about
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dial it back; but usually he loved it. For instance, You also produced one of my all-time it. Unfortunately, that track was never released, and I
when I first worked with XTC, it was actually Alex and favorite singles, Prefab Sprout’s doubt very much that it will. It’s likely buried in the
I as a pair, but since I was on fire Alex would sit at “When Love Breaks Down.” vaults of [McCartney’s production company] MPL.
the back of the room. One of the XTC guys came up to I did that song at RAK Studios over five days, which was How did you end up working with
me and asked, “What does Alex do?” I said, “When (d
the standard production [turnaround] time back then. The Cure?
things are going right, he’s letting me do my thing. I’ve heard you speak before about how I don’t know this for a fact, but I have a feeling that
When something goes wrong, you’ll see that he knows much the vocal pads were inspired by they must have heard [Thornalley’s mixes on] The
how to fix it.” 10cc’s vocal tape loop experiments on Psychedelic Furs’ records. I think they wanted a
You engineered two great Thompson “I’m Not in Love.” change. I was 21 or 22; the lead singer [Robert Smith]
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Twins records with Sadkin, including This was in the days before digital samplers, so we had was 22, and the drummer [Lol Tolhurst] might have
their subsequent breakthrough to do a lot of leg work in the studio to get that sound. been 23. Before we worked together I met them in
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album Into the Gap, and the single There was none of this instant dial-up for a hundred the pub, which was very unlike me, and we all got on.
“Hold Me Now.” voices. Prefab Sprout’s Wendy Smith had a beautiful They were very well-rehearsed in the studio. We did
That was a great record for me, because that was the breathy tone, so we triple-tracked her singing [each demos of the whole album to check out the vibe and
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first one I had a royalty on that did really well. It of the individual] notes in the song’s key; then I see if I was up to it. A couple of those demos ended
was right after Alex and I had done Duran Duran’s finally “played” this 24-track vocal tape loop to the up turning into masters, because we caught a vibe.
Seven and the Ragged Tiger. I was parachuted in to track, manipulating the faders. That became the Pornography, their fourth album, was very dark, with
finish off Duran, got on a plane, went back to principal production trick on a great song. lots of eighth notes on the bass. This was my first
England, and went straight from the airport to the Another feature on that track was the moment to let loose with all my ideas about getting
studio and mixed “Hold Me Now.” I was so hot! I was huge, ethereal and melancholic parts to sound a certain way. There was nobody
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at the board and I was like, “I know what reverb is keyboard sound. sitting at the back saying, “You can’t do that,” so I
going to work here.” This was my first record where MIDI was available, so was compressing the drums, getting that drum
That’s when everyone seemed to be [Prefab Sprout leader and songwriter] Paddy McAloon ambience, and throwing on delays. Whatever the song
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“sacking the drummer,” to use the played these beautiful, Bacharach-esque, two- needed. There was no “grownup” in the room, and the
English expression, and reaching for handed, cluster chords on a “Rhodes” patch whilst band liked what I was doing. Their confidence in me
the machines. we MIDI’d that to a warmer, floatier pad sound; gave me confidence. I remember saying to Robert
Well, the penny dropped for Tom Bailey, the principal probably a Juno. I’m very proud of that record. So Smith, “I don’t like your guitar sound. Have you any
songwriter, that this was the way forward. They many people still tell me they love that track, and it other guitars?” You wouldn’t say that now. He ended
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fired the rest of the band. Then Alex produced this stands the test of time. up using this horrible-looking Ovation electric guitar.
pop/dance record with drum machines and And yet, you did not work on the rest of I don’t want to make too much of [my role]. I think I
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synthesizers and let me engineer. That’s another Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen album, did a really good job – but the band were well-
case of a guy who’s a really good engineer, but very which ended up being produced by rehearsed, and, as the record shows, Robert Smith is
different and very particular. He would compress Thomas Dolby [Tape Op #119]. a pretty fine musician.
sounds, but sensitively. It was to get an effect,
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But confident enough to know that if Even while your studio career was Shine a Light. Bryan is such a brilliant singer and
he you let you shine, at the end of flourishing, you had this whole
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communicator, and the best singer I’ve ever recorded.
the day they’re going to say, “It’s a other side of you; the songwriting. Incredible tone and phrasing; every take different.
great Cure record,” not, “Great Phil Didn’t you even sign a record deal in Which leads us to your recent solo
record.” How did your iconic jazzy 1983 as an artist? project as an artist, Astral Drive. Tell
bass line on The Cure’s “The Love Yeah, I did a couple of singles that flopped terribly. When us a bit about how that fits into what
Cats,” which you also produced for I told Sandy Roberton that I was going on the road you’ve been doing all your life.
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them, come about? with The Cure, he was like, “You’re nuts! You’ve just For most of my professional career, up until “Torn,” I was
After Pornography The Cure’s bass player, Simon Gallup, established yourself as a producer. You’re making good
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an engineer, a mixer for hire, or producer for hire. In
had left the band for whatever reason, so I ended up money.” But the life experience was good. When I came the years after “Torn,” I became that creature known
filling in on bass for a few festivals, as well as a back and started producing again, I also decided I was as a “songwriter/producer,” so I could express myself
showcase tour in America. When we flew back to Paris going to make a solo album, which again he was not more in music as well as sound. I found myself trying
to do some recording, Robert taught me this bass line
idea. When they’d started, they’d been this post-punk
pop three-piece. Then they’d done Pornography with
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particularly happy about. I made a solo album on MCA
[Records] called Swamp, an honest effort that flopped.
My songs were getting better and better, but it wasn’t
to get back in touch with my own music, as well as
monkeying around with Rundgren-like changes. It was
a great opportunity to share some of the stories of my
me, which was very doomy, and the record after that until I was 38 [in 1997] that I finally had a song that life, looking back and thinking the way I did when I
[The Walk EP] they had a drum machine and got on the charts, a Top 40 hit called “Today’s the Day.” was a teenager full of idealism. It made me happy.
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synthesizers. They were sort of flip-flopping. Robert I’d actually written it for an artist I produced; soap star Astral Drive is what I wanted to say back at 17, only
wanted the vibe to be like the Hot Club de France, Sean Maguire. It was a big moment for me to be I didn’t have the production and songwriting chops to
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with a touch of the Aristocats, actually. We were in validated as a songwriter. After 30 years! do it. It’s also made me happy that a lot of people
Studio des Dames [in Paris], which had all these You also produced Australian television who I admire enjoyed it too.
orchestral instruments, like vibes, tack pianos, soap star turned recording artist Your long apprenticeship seems to have
glockenspiels, tubular bells, and the like. Robert was Natalie Imbruglia’s worldwide smash given you not just the chops you spoke
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playing the tack piano, then the drummer, Andy hit, “Torn,” which was a song you of, but also the applied knowledge to
Anderson – who passed away recently – was playing had co-written with Ednaswap’s Anne make something musical out of it.
brushes and a kick drum. The guitar sound is a U 87 Preven and Scott Cutler. How much of I spent years and years in studios, but I’m not a great
in the middle of this great room, and it’s all the sound a gamechanger was that for you? technician. I think I’ve always been drawn towards
of the room. I was engineering and producing it, and Quite! Scott Cutler was an L.A. songwriter for hire who the feel, rather than what EQ is being used.
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I somehow managed to play the stand-up bass. I had I’d worked with writing songs for Johnny Hates Jazz, Technically, if somebody got my tapes, they might
never played the stand-up bass before. I remember and his partner, Anne Preven, wanted to do a demo say, “Oh man, what were you doing here? You’ve over-
getting the tuner out and putting Chinagraph marks tape as an artist. Around this time I was totally recorded this.” Having said that, I do have the
on the neck where the notes were in tune, because I unemployed, very cold, and seriously not getting any
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walking in a scale; but if you listen to it closely, you’ll solo artist. Back home, Anne and Scott had wisely my career being quite serious about, “I want it to
notice that it’s not particularly accurate. There are decided that they needed a vehicle, so they created sound like this.” r
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probably jazz bass players still now listening to that this group, Ednaswap. They recorded a post-grunge-y
<www.facebook.com/astraldrive>
and thinking, “What is that guy doing?” Repeating version of “Torn,” changing the chords to make it
Paul Myers is an author who has written several books
notes, and playing notes in the wrong chord. Hooray darker, which was the sound of pop back in 1995.
including A Wizard, a True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio,
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for me! [laughs] How did the song get to Natalie? and co-edited the recent anthology, Go All The Way: A
48/Tape Op#135/P. Thornalley/(Fin.) Literary Appreciation for Power Pop. <@pulmyears>
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Recording in Iraq
Capturing Mosul Live
by Jack Kennedy
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I had been writing and producing music in Los
Angeles long enough to question the state of my existence when I
got an email asking me to come to Iraq and help record an album to be called
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Mosul Live. My heart leapt with joy. Finally, a break from gluten-free lunches
and vegan ice cream. Finally, a break from young songwriters and various A&R
guys not calling me back. Finally, something bigger than the music business. I
may as well have been going to Mars. I joyously told my girlfriend about the job
offer. She was alarmed by my excitement and we split up shortly thereafter.
Some people got visibly uncomfortable when I talked excitedly about going to
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Iraq to record musicians living under the Islamic State. Some changed the
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out.) The Sound Devices MixPre-10 was my best option. It would run for 20
hours at a time on two battery packs, and it had eight mic inputs with Kashmir
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preamps that record to a hard disk/thumb drive. I combined that with a handful
of microphones from SE Electronics, and the whole setup fit nicely into an
over-the-shoulder Stingray bag made by K-Tek.
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payment and spending money. Between the cash, the get rid of the demon. He was left alone.
and linguistic backgrounds together. We see this
rock ‘n’ roll, and the potential danger, Iraq felt like a
“During the
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album as a way of encouraging creation among the
spiritual home for me. I was made for this
destruction. The project will reach Mosul city
musicians, Mosul city residents, people displaced
environment. The inner monologue in my mind occupation music was
from the city, the larger Iraqi and Kurdish
dimmed way down and I felt present. It was very easy to
outlawed, taken off the
populations around Mosul, as well as the broader
get into the headspace to create music.
radio, and forbidden
community of world music supported in the West.” to be performed in
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public.”
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me what countries I had traveled to on my trip. “Oh,
Iraq? How did you like it there?” she said pleasantly. I
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told her I had enjoyed my time there. Her smile faded
and her tone shifted. “Interesting,” she said stoically.
She told me to step aside and wait. A police officer
One night we were in a Kurdish shisha (hookah) We made a three hour drive from Sulaymaniyah to a came and ushered me into an interrogation room. I
bar in Sulaymaniyah. We joked around with the owner Yazidi IDP [internally displaced persons] camp near was questioned for 30 minutes. He knew all of my
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that I would do a concert there. He thought this was Zakho. David was translating a young Yazidi poet, Zêdan social media accounts and also about the large amount
great idea and booked me the following week. I made Xelef, and I was hoping to record some Yazidi musicians. of cash I was transporting without me saying a word.
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up some flyers and sent them around the local The Yazidis underwent a genocide during the Iraqi’s had jokingly told me that all of my movements,
university. The show went over really well with the occupation. The Yazidi religion predates Judaism and texts, and phone calls were being monitored, which I
non-English speaking crowd, and the owner asked me the Bible, which made them a target for ISIS. If you were thought seemed a bit paranoid. I was wrong. However,
to perform again the following week. At the next show Christian or Jewish, the Islamic State gave you the
the same group of Kurdish people showed up with all (d
of their friends. They had listened to the music online The Yazidis are considered pagan by ISIS, so they were
and learned the lyrics. I didn’t want to tell them what not given these options. Thousands of men were killed,
after a lot of questioning, my passport was stamped and
options of paying a tax, converting to Islam, or moving. they let me back into the USA.
I walked out of arrivals at LAX with a sense of
accomplishment. After five weeks in Iraq we had
my English lyrics meant in Kurdish. and the women and children were forced into sexual
recorded one amazing album. I had made some
slavery. They fled their homes in the Nineveh Province
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Most of my days were spent with a Kurdish lifelong friends and learned a lot about the world and
writer/translator named Biryar Bahhaalddin. and were relocated to this camp of tents in Kurdistan.
myself. I got into a Lyft and made my way across town
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Bahhaalddin was forcibly Arabized by Saddam We spent a few days with one family. They had lost to Moonlight Rollerway, where I kill time as a roller
Hussein’s Ba’ath Party as a child. His whole community seven family members fleeing ISIS. Though ISIS was skating DJ. I started telling a young skater that I had
was taken from their homes, relocated to a remote gone from their homelands, they could not return there. just returned from Iraq. He wasn’t interested. Maybe it
camp in the desert, and forced to “become Arab,” The area had been littered with land mines and was all a dream. r
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shunning their native Kurdish language and giving up explosives. Household appliances, like refrigerators, were
<mosullive.com>
their culture. Biryar spoke perfect Arabic and Kurdish, jury-rigged with improvised bombs. They had been
<soundcloud.com/kennedykarate/awtar-nagal-mosul-
which was an asset in the areas we were working. He had living in this camp for a few years.
lives/s-Unags>
a deep knowledge of the region, the people, and The recording sessions were casual. We set up in a <auis.edu.krd/kashkul> @kennedykarate
connections all over Mosul and Kurdistan. Acting as Quonset hut/tent that was acting as the family’s living
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part A&R scout, translator, and road manager, he room. We ate, drank tea, and smoked shisha. Someone
found the artists we recorded, organized the sessions, would pick up a saz or an oud and start noodling
and drove all over Iraq in treacherous driving around. Then another person would pick up an
conditions. We spent most every day together and
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by Jake Brown
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Baez’s “The Night They Took Old Dixie Down.” He’s also recently
released an autobiography called Music Lessons: A Musical Memoir.
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Your roots run back to your teenage days as one of Muscle Shoals
most famous bass players. How old were you when you first
stepped foot inside a real recording studio?
I never planned to be a record producer. I never planned to be a musician. I grew up in
Florence, Alabama, and when I was 15 the kids in my school were putting a band
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together to play early Elvis [Presley]. We’re talking the era of Bill Black, Scotty Moore,
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and DJ Fontana. One of them remembered my father had an acoustic bass. No one else
in school did, so I was approached by this kid, Danny Cross, to play with the band,
and I said, “Danny, what makes you think I can become proficient enough to play in
your band overnight?” He said, “Norbert, this Elvis music only has three chords.” That
was the beginning of my journey. Tom Stafford had started a music publishing
company [SPAR: Stafford Publishing and Recording], and his office was right above
the city drug store where his father was a pharmacist. He was also the manager of the
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Princess Theater. He said if we’d come play on demos, he’d get us into all the movies Nashville. The first year I did 100 record dates, and the second year I did about 250.
free. At 16, after school, we’d run up to Tom’s place and he’d be preaching to us, “Right By the third year, I’d played on some hits and had established a style of playing that
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here in Florence, Alabama, we can write hit songs and hit records, and be in the music was different from anyone else. By 1970, I was playing 600 record dates a year! It was
industry.” Tom was this older guy, 26 or 27, and he wore his blue blazer, gray trousers, me, Bobby Moore, Junior Huskey [Roy Huskey Jr.], and Henry Strzelecki on bass. On a
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and school tie every day; and he’d sign anyone who could make a rhyme. We were lot of dates, it could be any one of four or five drummers, four or five keyboard guys,
writing original parts for original songs. David Briggs [keyboards], Jerry Carrigan and any one of a dozen guitar players – because most sessions had two guitars. The
[drums], and myself were coming up and demoing songs for Tom Stafford after school. culture of the Nashville session players, at that time, was that they were focused. If
That’s when I was between 16 and 18 years old.
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you had a 10 to 1 session in the morning, everyone was there at 10, ready to hear
You three became the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Is the first song. Us Muscle Shoals guys would wander in around 10 o’clock, get some
it true you three actually got to open for The Beatles while coffee, talk about what we did on the weekend, and maybe by 10:30 everybody comes
still in high school? in and they play the first song down. In Muscle Shoals we’d play it for an hour before
We had been written up in print as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, because we were we memorized it; but this was the culture of professionalism, we fell into it once we
the only rhythm section in Muscle Shoals that made records between 1961 and 1965. got to Nashville. Thank god we did, because by 1970 a good studio guy could make
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In 1964, The Beatles were coming to America for the first time, and they asked if we $100,000 a year. I would drive my station wagon in every morning, and I might be at
would be the backup band for the opening acts. That was, of course, February 11th, RCA Studio B from 10 to 1 in the afternoon, Studio A from 2 to 5, Columbia from 6
1964. In those days most acts didn’t travel with a band because it was too expensive, to 9, and, a couple nights a week, I might have a 10 to 1 a.m. session, and get home
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so they would show up with their charts. We got to open for The Righteous Brothers. at 2 in the morning. That’s at 23, 24 years old.
The Righteous Brothers and Tommy Roe were on the bill, and when The Beatles came How did your years as a session player help prepare you to
out, they were the first loud rock ‘n’ roll act I’d ever heard! transition into the role of record producer?
You arrived in Nashville a year later and quickly made a name Every day was an education. When I got to Nashville, I got to work with some really
as one of Nashville’s most in-demand session players. incredible record producers, and it was a great education. I worked for some really
What was the secret to your success in that first stage of your great producers, but the best part of it is that I also worked for some really horrible
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studio career? producers, and the horrible producers taught me what not to do. The only time the
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Nashville musicians were chameleon-like; they could hear the voice and type of song and Nashville session guys ever had any problem with a producer is when he’d come out
morph into that kind of backing musician. I had to be able to play seven or eight and try to tell them all what to play. The thing he would tell you to play would be
different styles of bass. If you could play all the styles, write your part out, and listen some commonplace part that shut off any creative thought you might have for this
to the singer, and play with much emotion as possible, you could be a Nashville studio guy. That was probably my first lesson in producing.
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guy. It took me about three years to get into the top four or five [session bassists] in You had the rare opportunity of recording over 100 songs with
56/Tape Op#135/N. Putnam/(continued on page 58) Elvis in the studio.
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I did 122 tracks for Elvis over a seven year period. I started the biggest album of his career, Harvest, and in 1973 time, and she delivered that great vocal. Everything on
with him in June of 1970, and – get this – I was just Dobie Gray came in and does “Drift Away.” Between all the record she sang with the band. The band played
retiring as a bass player. I played five years in Nashville, that we had Joe Walsh & The James Gang, Grand Funk until she got it. She was such a great singer it only took
and I think the last year I played I did 625 record dates. Railroad, and more. Within three years Quad became her two or three takes to get a great vocal. The same
I was so exhausted; I was 28 years old and my back hurt this mecca for pop rock in Nashville. [Neumann] U 87 we recorded her lead on was used for
because half the dates I played were on the upright How did the original house become a all the backing vocals, and nobody in the band wore
acoustic bass! Felton Jarvis had been producing Elvis recording studio? headphones. They could all hear Joan well enough, and
Presley for two or three years, and Bobby Moore had I think the house was built around 1905. It had a front she could hear them well enough with the doors open.
played on all of Elvis’s records when he came back from porch with a bay window that looked out to the street, The bleed was controlled from the drums because he
the service. In 1969, Felton brought in some of the and you came into the entrance foyer, where there was was in a separate room.
Muscle Shoals guys that had been up here. I did it a hallway and a staircase that led upstairs. There were You produced five studio albums for
because I wanted to see what Elvis was all about. He only two big rooms upstairs and a bathroom. Below it Jimmy Buffett in the 1970s. What
was on my bucket list, and I only had two or three guys there were parlors with a sliding door between the front grabbed your ear about Jimmy’s style
on that list. Another one of them was Ray Charles, and and second parlor. The kitchen was to the left, behind of playing?
I’d done a television show in Nashville with Ray. I got the staircase. It was a very small house, and Dave and He’d come to Nashville and he was writing for Billboard
to spend the whole afternoon with him, and we did a I were trying to figure out, “Should we take that front Magazine, doing concert reviews. I think he came to the
whole bunch of his classics. The first week, June of parlor and make it the control room?” Then we thought studio when we were doing Jerry Jeff Walker. My friend,
1970, we did five nights with James Burton and Chip we wouldn’t have enough space; but the front porch Don Gant – who was producing Jimmy Buffett in the
Young [Tape Op #124] on guitars, me, David Briggs, happened to be quite large, so we decided we’d enclose earlier ‘70s – first suggested Jimmy call me, and we had
Jerry Carrigan, and Charlie McCoy, because he could play the front porch, take out the bay window, and put in a meeting. Jimmy said, “Norbert, my band is more like
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everything in the band. We did 35 or 36 tracks that first new glass. We leveled the floor as best we could. We put the Rolling Stones than some Nashville studio band.” I
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session! He [Elvis] came in with a big smile on his face, the Steinway grand piano in the second parlor. The remember trying to imagine the Stones performing
and had his arms open like, “Come over here,” like a entire rhythm section went in there. The front parlor “Come Monday.” I said, “So you think your band will
football huddle. He gathered everybody around, and he was for the singer and quieter things. We put glass in give you more energy?” He said, “Yes! That’s it. If I can
said, “Guys, let’s sit down and talk for a minute before the pocket doors so they could be shut for some record with them in the studio.” I said, “When can I
we go to work.” We wound up spending that first night isolation. Then we had this bizarre idea, “What if we hear your band?” I saw them at Hermitage Landing a
sitting on the tile floor at RCA Studio B with Elvis, and took the kitchen, put in a window that can go up and couple weeks later. They had a floating stage they
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for two hours he regaled us with the funniest Elvis down, and we’ll put some drums in there?” We now had pushed off the sand there. Jimmy’s band was a rock ‘n’
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stories you’ve ever heard. He had us laughing. Over that a console with good headphone outputs, and we made roll show. The band was killer, but they weren’t a country
two hours we forgot this was the biggest artist in the the drummer wear headphones all the time while we band. After it was over, I went back and saw Jimmy and
history of the world. Then we knocked out three tracks were tracking. Our kitchen became one of the town’s the band partying. I said, “When can we get together to
in three hours, and there was no pressure. He would nail first iso drum booths! Gene Eichelberger put 2 inches of play me some songs?” He came over the next day and
his vocal on the first take. He didn’t need to work up to
it. I could see him getting ready to do the vocal. He’d
take a deep breath before that first take, and he’d say,
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sand down and built the floor around that so it would
absorb more of the kick drum, and it worked great. He
could push a button and the glass would go up. Even
played me ocean songs. Songs about sailing, drinking
rum, and being in the islands. He asked me, “What do
you think?” I told him, “We need to go to Miami.” I’d
“Guys, we’re gonna get this on the first take,” and he with the glass windows down, we could still hear the been doing a lot of work down in Miami at Criteria
would attack that song right off the bat. Most of the drums well enough in that second parlor to play with Studios in 1976 and ’77. He looked at me in confusion
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artists I worked with worked up to it, so they would the drum kit without headphones if we wanted. and said, “Why? You’ve got one of the greatest studios
sing it two or three times, and then would feel like they One of the first records you ever produced in the world.” I told him I’d been recording with Dan
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were about to get it. We started at 10 o’clock, Elvis was Joan Baez’s cover of “The Night Fogelberg in Colorado, and when I’d do the vocals in his
would go from 10 to 3 or 4 a.m., and by 4 we were all They Drove Old Dixie Down.” neighborhood, he was more comfortable. “Jimmy, if you
dragging. Most of us would work a morning and Kris Kristofferson was originally supposed to produce that were able to breathe salt air, and you and I could go
afternoon session before we got to Elvis at 6. He was record! I got there about 20 minutes before the session sailing every day, maybe we could bring in some
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the greatest recording artist I’ve ever worked with. was supposed to start and he told me, “I’m not doing Caribbean sounds.” As a record producer, I thought it
What inspired you and co-founder David it. I’ve been talking to Joan, and she thinks you should was important for me to give some thought with every
Briggs to go against the grain and do it.” So, I ran upstairs, found Joan, and she said, “Can artist I produced – to the way the backing track
take a gamble on building a studio you help me do the record? You could plug your bass in sounded. When it came time to work with Jimmy Buffet,
in a house? in the control room, and listen and play, couldn’t you?” I was trying to get him to buy into what later became
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As a matter of fact, it was like remote recording in a little So, I became a record producer 15 minutes before my known as the “Trop-Rock” sound. I told him, “I want
old house. There could have been a remote truck out first production. I had a great band! I basically said, your record to be like Caribbean rock.” He looked at me
back instead of having a control room on the front “Joan, get your guitar and play the first song down.” At and said, “That’s the most boring thing I’ve ever heard
porch. It was not designed to be a studio, although we 2 o’clock she picks up the guitar. We all had legal pads, of!” I told him, “I’ll rent a house for a month on the bay;
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started to deaden down some walls. After the first year and, as she started playing, we all started writing the we can bring your roadies and they can be bartenders.”
went by, Gene Eichelberger came to work for us. Gene charts. Every session man was responsible to write his I didn’t think he was coming back to see me, but he
had a degree in Electrical Engineering, so he wired the own chart. She played it down, and I said, “Joan, play called me a few days later and said, “Norbert, I think
place, and he became one of Nashville’s greatest the second verse again.” I said to the band, “Guys, you may have a good idea. I’ve started the first song.
engineers in the early 1970s. That’s Gene’s mix on Dobie you’ll notice she’s got a syncopation into the second It’s called ‘Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude.’” I
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Gray’s “Drift Away” – the biggest record of 1973. Gene verse going into chorus. Let’s notate that. I think we found myself in Miami two months later, and Jimmy had
grabbed Neil Young at a show in 1971, and said, “Neil, should all play that together.” When we recorded “The made enough money to buy a 33-foot boat. He brought
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you’re in town for a week. Why don’t you come down Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” she had the door that over to the marina at Coconut Grove. I explained to
and do a few sides with me at Quad?” Over a weekend open to the second parlor in Quad and was standing in him that since most of his guys had never been in a
they did “Heart of Gold.” In 1971 I got “The Night They the front room facing us as she played that guitar part. studio before, they were going to find themselves in this
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Drove Old Dixie Down” with Joan Baez. In 1972 Neil got She played along with the rhythm section in perfect terrible environment. “It’s like going into a space
58/Tape Op#135/N. Putnam/(continued on page 60)
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a brand.” I knew it should be a hit when I heard it. I parts one after the another. The strings were done in the Latitudes… album, I did five more with him and had this
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didn’t tell anyone what to play – I never do that – so I front room of Quadrafonic. Because the room was so great catalog. Everything was gold and platinum, and
let the players come up with parts that they’re happy small, it was a section of two violins, two violas, and two Jimmy Buffett was touring every summer. We used to sell
with. The track gelled based upon Buffet’s original cellos. They would play it through once, and then I a million records from the catalog every summer he
rhythm he played, which dictated a lot to the band. If I would say, “Would you guys do that one more time?” We would tour. That went on for 25 years. Unbelievable! r
remember correctly, we had a few problems with the would punch up two more tracks, and it would sound like
<www.musiclessonsbynorbertputnam.com>
drums, because the band hadn’t rehearsed this song. I 12 violins, four violas, and four cellos. At that point in
)
Award-winning music biographer Jake Brown is the author of over
suggested that Kenny Buttrey replace the drummer, time in Nashville, the symphony was so bad we couldn’t
40 books, including Beyond The Beats: Rock & Roll’s Greatest
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because he was an old studio pro who would kill that go down there and grab players because they couldn’t
Drummers Speak, in stores now!
part on the first take, and he did! When Kenny got play in tune very well. Jimmy came up with a couple
behind the drums, two or three takes later, we had it. guys from his band, and they did all the harmonies on
Buttrey pulled the whole rhythm section together. A all the vocals. That was all overdubbed at Quad.
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LEO SIDRAN
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HANDED DOWN
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BY MARK WHITCOMB
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Leo Sidran is an accomplished solo artist, of those songs.” I brought it home and played guitar, cappella, but I know that the songs are also shaped
multi-instrumentalist, award-winning music vibes, and Rhodes [electric piano] on that song, and by production. I think that’s goes back to the time
producer, and podcast author. He grew up I was really pleased to discover that it all does still when I was 12 or 13, and I learned to record, to play
surrounded by great musicians, producers, feel like my production. There’s a way that each of us guitar, piano, to program, to sing – I learned all of
engineers, and recording studios via his produces and records that has its own personality. I’ve what I do now by doing them all at the same time.
father, producer/keyboardist Ben Sidran. been playing with that idea more over time: How far Your album Mucho Leo sounds as much
When he was a teenager, he wrote a few can I go, and still maintain my identity? If I’m not like production as songs.
songs for The Steve Miller Band and playing, but I am recording, does it still have my That’s cool; thank you for saying that. I know it has a
watched with perplexity as his demos sound? If I’m not playing or recording, and I’m just different life to it, because I’m not precious. When I
became the actual album cuts on Steve’s dancing, am I still transmitting something? play all the instruments, I try to keep it feeling pretty
next record. He went on to win Oscars and a Can you trace how, as a young kid, your performed. I don’t overly fix a lot, and I leave it
Grammys for productions with other artists producing identity developed? rounded on the edges. I leave it a little sloppy, a little
that were essentially from the original demos I don’t remember the first time I walked into a recording loose, because there’s something, particularly in the
as well. In the spirit of his brilliant The Third studio, but it must have had an impact on me. By the rhythm, that happens when I’m locking with myself.
Story Podcast, where he interviews prolific time I was three or four years old I was taking piano I know it can happen when I’m not playing too. The
creative types and looks for the moments lessons, but I didn’t want to take piano lessons Alex Cuba track we were talking about; we got a great
that helped shape their success, I caught up anymore. I told my parents that the room I wanted to feeling, and I wasn’t playing bass or drums on that.
with Leo to get a glimpse into his production be in was the room with the musicians and the You were dancing!
ethos, and to track how that may have been microphones, not the room with the piano teacher. I I was dancing, and who knows, maybe the dancing did
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shaped. We talked about demos, dancing, definitely had some concept of what recording was, something. [laughs] But in terms of what happens on
eureka moments, gymnastics, and making where it happened, and who the people were that those tracks where I play everything, and I also record
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records in the parlor. made records. I started playing drums when I was 5 it, even the introduction of an engineer can change
or 6, jamming with my dad and local teachers in it, because I’m so fast at grabbing a punch-in, or
I want to talk about Alex Cuba’s Healer Madison, [Wisconsin]. The first was Clyde rolling back to exactly where I need to be. That
album. It’s an amazing sound. How Stubblefield, who came over to the house because he communication, of having to talk to someone else,
much of that is you? was a friend of my father’s. He didn’t really teach can trip me up. My house is generally set up so that
)
The Alex Cuba record was, in many ways, the perfect exactly. He guided, you could say, and encouraged me. there’s a general version of “set up” that’s ready to go
culmination of all that I have been doing all these You put out a tune about Clyde at all times. Right now, there are two ribbon mics that
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years. The Spanish aspect of it, the jazz and soul [“Handed Down”]. It was so touching. are ready to be the room mics at any point, and
influences; he’s a singer/songwriter, and it’s a largely That’s the demo, right? But you there’s this Bock 251 that is my go-to workhorse mic.
acoustic album. He reminds me of a classic kind of released it to the world. The drums are mic’d up and those mics can move
artist from the 1970s, and a perfect fit for me to work There’s been a real evolution in my thinking. I used to
with. The record started when he sent me demos of
himself playing guitar and singing, and asked, “What
believe that there was some fundamental difference
between a demo and a record, and I feel that much
(d around the room to grab guitar amps, vibraphone, or
percussion. Everything is ready to record. There is
almost never set up time; maybe a half hour.
would you do?” I did that thing where I’m alone in a less now. Our studio needs are usually zeroed, so
room and I play all the instruments. I stacked the When you work so quickly, is that if I want to do something of my own I
because you don’t know where it’s have to really be committed because
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track up, and I sent it back to him.
I love the tune, “Realidad Que No going, or because you do know where of set up time.
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Escogimos.” Is that what I’m hearing it’s going? Yeah, I did a lot of work for three or four years at Let ‘Em
there? I don’t really know! Sometimes I have a vision and I’m In [Studios, NY]. What I loved about it, initially, was that
Well, not the song that you’re asking about. Alex trying to catch it before I lose it, but a lot of times I really it was a 15-minute walk from my house, it was cheap,
eventually came to New York and we did another part don’t know what it’s going to be. With that Clyde song, I and I could run it by myself. But I used to say to the
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of the record with a rhythm section tracked live in the really didn’t know what it was going to sound like. I had owner, “I don’t know why you don’t keep everything
studio, and I wasn’t playing on those tracking a little bit of an idea that I wanted to write a sweet, story- mic’d up in here.” My mentality was not that of a studio
sessions. I brought those rhythm tracks back to my song, almost from the point of view of a child, and owner, it was that of a guy like me, “Why do I have to
place and filled them up with additional elements. My underneath it I wanted a Clyde-styled breakbeat. waste time every time I come here to set up the whole
main concern was, “Will this be coherent? Will this all Did you know what you wanted to say, or room?” I did the same thing in that room that I’ve done
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sound like the same production, if some songs are did that evolve? in my own room, now that I have the space. I’d go in
made by one or two people playing everything? Will That came out of a song club that I’m in. Every two and set up the kit, mic the piano, set up the Rhodes, set
the other songs with a more traditional rhythm weeks I’m emailed another song title, or a lyric; up a guitar rig, set up the bass rig, and basically prepare
section tracked live in a room feel like more of an old something that can get your juices flowing. That week the room as if a band were about to record. Then I would
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school recording?” I had a lot of conversations with the title was “Hand Me Down,” so I started thinking move from station to station. I made a lot of Mucho Leo
Alex about it. The track that you’re asking about, about hand-me-downs, or things that are handed that way. We also made Alex Cuba’s record there, and we
“Realidad;” that’s one that was cut live with Alex down. Clyde handed something down to me, and made Joy Dragland’s last EP [Tumble Town] there.
playing guitar, a bass player [Rob Jost], and a that’s how I approached that song. How long does it take you to make a
drummer [Rob DiPietro] in another studio. I was How complete was the song before you track this way?
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recording it, and basically just dancing. started recording? Almost all of the tracks on Mucho Leo are made in a day,
That’s awesome. The songwriting happens in tandem with production. I and that might include set up. “Tonight Someone is
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Alex talks about the effect of my dancing on that might walk into the studio with a lyric sketch and Me” was a day. On most of Mucho Leo, that whole
record, about how he would look through the glass some chords, and the song will take shape as I’m record went through two iterations of mixes, and, in
and I’d be dancing around the studio. He said, “Your recording it. I try to write songs that you can play on most cases, it’s a tweaked version of the rough mix
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dancing was a real influential element in the tracking the guitar or at the piano, or you could sing a that’s on the record. I couldn’t get it back. “Speak to
L. Sidran/(continued on page 64)/Tape Op#135/63
Me in Spanish” is the demo. When I was making it, I told on top of the demos. There’s a little additional Taylor, I learned that they seldom worked with the
myself, “Well, when I go back and fix, it I’ll do this and drumming, but not too much. I remember thinking, luxury of getting to second guess when their cakes were
that.” When I tried to get back into it – even though it’s “These are my demos. Why isn’t he fixing them?” baked. They were like, “We are mixing today. We’re
the same guy in the same room, you’re never in that What tracks are those? making a record right now. We’re doing it.” My father
moment again. That’s part of the reason I work so quickly. There’re four of them, from his record Wide River: wants it done, and he’s not particularly interested in
That is the “moment.” “Conversation,” “Lost in Her Eyes,” “Walks Like A second guessing anything. He’s interested in, “First
Yes. The “moment,” meaning the closed circuit of Lady,” and “Perfect World.” I don’t love the way it thought, best thought.” I’ve never heard him say
creativity when you are working on a song. sounds. I was 15 and it was 1993, so there’s a lot something like, “Oh, the kick sounds too woofy.”
And a moment can be a moment [snaps working against it, but they were my demos. Fast That’s not even on his radar.
fingers], or it can stretch. It’s an forward ten years, when I worked with Jorge Drexler He’s not even hearing it! I mean, he may be hearing it
elastic thing. on the song “Al Otro Lado Del Rio” for The Motorcycle emotionally, and if it’s too wet, or too dry, or too
Sure. There’s an argument to be made that a moment Diaries [soundtrack]. heavy-sounding. But most of the choices that I’m
could last the length of a record. If you were working That one sounds great! making in mixes – reverbs, delays, EQs, and
every day on a record for three weeks or a month, that Thanks! But, again, it was essentially made as a glorified compression – he’s not even [focused on that]; he
could be a creative moment. But because I tend to demo. It was his demo, where he’s playing acoustic just wants it done. He’ll say, “Turn the vocal up” or,
work piecemeal, where I’ll do a song then a week later guitar and singing to a loop, on top of which we went “Turn the solo up.” He wanted to get the record done
I’ll do another song, or month later another song for into the studio and recorded drums, bass, and piano. fast. He was really motivated to get that particular
the same project, I have to try and stay as committed Then we went back to my apartment and recorded collection of songs recorded and released. We even
as I can, and get as much down as I can. I recorded strings straight into a [Digidesign] Digi 002 with no booked the mastering date before we tracked the first
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a track yesterday. It sounds so ridiculous, but I was preamps; super homestyle. We mixed it at Smart song, because he knew how many weeks it was going
trying to make it to see my daughter’s gymnastics Studios [Butch Vig (Tape Op #11) and Steve Marker’s to take to manufacture the CDs in order to have them
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recital. I found myself playing this shaker part, studio, located in Madison, WI] in a day, very quick. ready for his European tour. So, six weeks before that,
because I was thinking that I really heard shaker on Was that a board mix? we were making a record so that we could have a
the track. I wasn’t going to leave the room until the Yes, and it was my first experience working with stems. master file to send to the manufacturer. I’m very
shaker was finished. It was 4:45, and I’m supposed to We mixed stems back into Pro Tools, and then re- happy with the sound of the record. I know it sounds
be in the gymnastics place at 5:15, and here I was balanced the stems back at my apartment afterward. silly, because we just made it, but I know I could
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doing this shaker overdub. It’s because I knew if I Wow, that was a good idea. make it sound better today.
didn’t do it then, even the shaker probably wasn’t Yeah, I learned a lot on that job. [laughs] And that It’s weird, you can get up to 96 percent
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gonna feel right if I came back at a different time. recording won an Academy Award! Ten years after the pretty quickly. The other 4 percent...
Have you figured this out over time, or experience working with Steve Miller, having started James Farber said to me, “Ninety percent of the work
was there a “eureka” moment? making records and starting to learn how to work in happens in 10 percent of the time.” Previously we
The closest thing to eureka for me has been, over time,
coming to terms with the fact that that is the work. It’s
not a rehearsal for the work, or a demo for the record.
studios, and I was thinking that in order to make
serious sounding recordings you had to do it in a (d
serious way. But we did this song in a very hybrid way
made a record at The Bunker in New York that was
beautifully recorded. I mixed it at home, and it got
played on the radio. Then we made a record at your
Those become the records. Yesterday, for example, I with very few resources, and it translated. I would say, studio [DNA], I mixed it at home, and it got played
cut drums first, then started to put electric piano on to an extent, that the Alex Cuba record, which on the radio. And then we made a record in my parlor,
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it, then put the whole thing through [Pro Tools’] happened after I had done a lot of commercial work I mixed it, and it got played on the radio! The
Elastic Audio and slowed it down 15 bpm. Then I and learned how to really spend money if I needed previous two records were recorded so beautifully; the
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realized it was too fast, so I recut drums, recut piano. to, still was made in a small, very contained way. Alex’s fact that the one I recorded at my house is
When you work with a client, I imagine record is what it sounds like when I make demos. He comparable blows me away. I’m astounded that
it’s still a similar process. did spend a lot of time doing vocals on his own, and people think that they sound similar, because I hear
Yes, and it’s taken me a long time to understand that it was mixed in Canada by Joby Baker, a great mixing all the differences.
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this is what I’m offering clients a lot of times. engineer and producer. That won a Latin Grammy, and I don’t hear any of the differences. The
What do you mean? was nominated for a U.S. Grammy. It seems, if you look players are causing so much of that
I’ve had three or four projects, other than what I’ve at those three albums alone, the message that keeps sound.
done with my dad, that made me realize that my getting sent to me is that the most automatic, natural And that’s Ben’s thing. He comes from the old
career – my life, this journey – is built around this work that I’m doing seems to be rewarded and comes producer’s school: finding material, assembling the
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thing that I do. I kept making apologies for it, for a back to me with bigger results than when I worry players, and choosing the engineer – that’s the job.
long time. It starts with the first thing that I did about whether or not I’m doing it the “right” way. You grew up being around all this: the
professionally, when I wrote songs with Steve Miller. There is no “right” way. producers, the players, and the
It didn’t have so much to do with the songs, although There is no right way! I went with Alex Cuba to the engineers. Tommy LiPuma, Clyde
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I look back on it and I can’t believe I was writing Grammys, and it seemed every other speech was Stubblefield, James Farber, etc. You
songs at 15 that he recorded. But the real crazy thing someone up there saying, “When we recorded this in probably learned through osmosis,
about it was that he took my demos and played on my apartment in Brooklyn, we never thought that it but did you see it that way?
top of them, on his record. I went to his studio in Sun would have…” Yeah; I never studied what I do, but I learned it all.
Valley, Idaho, and they had put together a mirrored rig Speaking of recording albums in When I interviewed Ryan Hewitt [Tape Op #61] for my
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from my rig at home. I wrote him a list of everything apartments in Brooklyn, Picture Him podcast, I was envious because he’s someone who did
I had at my house, and he had all the same gear there. Happy [Ben Sidran’s recent album] it both ways. He learned it from his dad, and he went
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I pressed “play” on the sequencer and ran my sounds great. You recorded and and studied it. He focused on a specific area of
sequences into his Sony PCM 3348 [digital tape] mixed that quickly? recording, and he’s a master. In my case, I picked up
machine. Then I played reference rhythm guitar, some So fast. In the experience of having interviewed people a lot from a lot of different kinds of people, in a lot
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of which stayed on the record, and he played guitar like James Farber [Tape Op #114], Al Schmitt, or Creed of areas.
64/Tape Op#135/L. Sidran/
Did you know you were picking it up at I failed at being Prince! [laughs] I failed at being all
the time? these people, and the only person I can even come
I would watch James Farber work a lot, and I knew close to succeeding at sounding like is myself.
when I went into the studio that I was taking ideas Through the course of the interviews that I do, I’m
from him at the time. I saw [the late] Tommy LiPuma very focused on getting to that same moment in other
work when I was a boy, and it was not until more people’s careers, because it makes me feel not so
recently when I was working with him – in the last alone, and it’s a very significant part of creative
few years – that I was able to better understand what development.
he did. He was so mysterious in that he made it look You started The Third Story Podcast in
like he wasn’t doing anything! [laughs] I know people 2014, as a way to learn about creative
say that about the greats, and he was like that. You people and what they do. Are you still
could not tell why he made it come out so good. It learning? What do you see for the
was done so much through his personality and future of the podcast?
through his approach to dealing with people: his I’m at that moment where there’s no turning back, but
attention, his elegance, and his respect. How do you I can’t quite see the finish line. I don’t know if it’s
study that? That was in the man; it wasn’t something good or not, but I’ve come so far that I know it has
you could ever really study. But, later on, I did have value; yet my life and motivation have changed a
“a-ha” moments with Tommy; I know a lot of people little bit since I started it. It really is a constant
did. The biggest one was when I realized that he companion. I’m constantly preparing for an interview,
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trusted me. It was really incredible how much that booking an interview, editing an interview. Originally,
I was doing it every two weeks. Now I’m doing
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meant to me, how much I wanted to do a good job,
and how much confidence it gave me to know that something every week as a new challenge to myself,
this guy trusted me. I lot of times when people trust because it was starting to get less fun for me to do. I
me, I think, “Oh, shit. They’re gonna find out that I’m had two options: I was either going to stop it or do
faking it and they’re gonna be so disappointed.” I more of it. I decided to do more. [laughs]
knew that that would never happen with Tommy. He How does that make you feel right now?
)
had a very in-tune bullshit detector. He knew when Every week it’s another race to the finish. But I love
something was good and when it wasn’t. You could being inside of these conversations, I love the
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not fake in front of him. When he thought it was process, and I’ve learned a lot. There might be a more
good, it made you believe that it was good! His commercially-viable version of it that I could do. The
acceptance of me made me believe in myself more. format is long – it’s over an hour – so I have to give
How about Clyde? You wrote about times
in “Handed Down” that sounded like
a-ha moments.
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myself over to [the interviewee] to get the good stuff.
A lot of times it’s like, “Where does the work meet
your life? How do you think about that?” These are
There were a few a-ha moments with Clyde, but it was ideas that are slow to emerge, especially with
more of a cumulative effect of being around him, musicians who are not very practiced at revealing
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seeing him, and playing two-drummer gigs with him. themselves. Musicians are often solitary people, and
That was an amazing feeling – it really showed how their process is very private. But I’m talking to the
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strong he played and how he felt. We would do gigs people that interest me and that I can learn from. I’m
where we would trade off playing drums, and then we gonna keep doing it, but I hope it leads to another
would play at the same time. It obviously felt so thing, and I don’t know what that is yet!
different when he stopped playing and I started It’s making an impact.
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playing, and I thought to myself, “What is he doing I’m sure people with more listenership get more fan
to make this feel this way?” But if you wanna play like mail than I do, but I’m getting about a letter a week.
Clyde, one of the worst things you can do is watch It’s reaching people. This beautiful level of people
him and study his technique. He had this unique, self- wanting to share their experience with me, their story,
invented way of playing that you would not want to or their question. I couldn’t hope for anything more,
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try and copy. really. Knowing that people are hearing it, and they’re
But you were able to study Clyde. moved enough to write to me. That’s very special. r
I’ve gotta find my own way to make it feel good. I can’t <www.leosidran.com> <www.third-story.com>
make it feel like he could make it feel, so I’ve got to
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trying to make records that sounded like the people I possible by our
was listening to. Like Prince, James Taylor, Paul advertisers.
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Simon, and then Elvis Costello. I went through Please support them and tell them
periods where I discovered an artist and I wouldn’t you saw their ad in Tape Op.
just try to write a song in their style, I would try to
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record it like that too. Over, and over, and over again
L. Sidran/(Fin.)/Tape Op#135/65
zone around the sweet spot, so they sound a little more
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onto; it was just a matter of opinion, at that point. I
Mastering Suite design in the early there are some things that just don’t add up. I thought didn’t like that. I decided FTB was a way to still provide
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2000s, and he now has constructed some there were a few things that either I didn’t environmental feedback to the engineer that did not
of the finest studio rooms all over the understand, or there was something wrong. My initial involve the speakers, or anything related to speaker-to-
world. Clients include Sterling reaction was to say that I misunderstood it, and so I engineer and speaker-to-room response. The idea is
SoundNew York and Nashville, Skrillex, kept doing it. And then I thought, “No, I’ve got to do very basic. What is another source of sound in the room
Brad Blackwood’s Euphonic Masters something.” So, I looked more in depth into it and that I can use, besides the speakers? It is us. It’s the
(Tape Op #102), Dave Collins found, according to my vision of things, there are a
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noise we make when we walk, talk, and enter the room.
Mastering, and many others. I was lucky few things I didn’t understand that felt like flaws. So, From studies, I knew quite well what HRTF [Head-
I decided, “Why not see what I would do?” My solution
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to chat with Thomas right before my Related Transfer Function] is; I knew how long it would
pal, Adam Gonsalves, had him design and is two rooms in one. There’s no distortion between the take for the brain to actually calibrate to a space, what
oversee construction on a new facility speaker and the engineer, but it doesn’t feel strange. it needs to do that, and what the auditory system
for Telegraph Mastering in Portland, That’s the bulk of it, and what started everything. would consider a “natural” space.
Oregon. The resulting room speaks to
Northward’s quality, and, having spent
many hours there, I can attest that the
that a hard sell for someone to take (d
With having a new system in place, was AG: Not everyone knows what the idea of
a head-related transfer function is.
the leap of faith and say, “Northward It’s basically the influence of the torso, the head, and the
design works. I’m humbled when I hear has a new vision on how to build a pinna – the shape of the ear – on how we perceive
mixes I’ve done in Telegraph, and it’s control room”? sound. So that’s the transfer; the influence of all of that
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amazing how other work sounds in the Yeah, it took a few “crazy” people. [laughter] But this is on the way we hear. For example, the pinna will give
new space. when I started guaranteeing my work, because I knew you a lot of information about elevation from the
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the system inside and out, and I knew the odds that reflection inside your ear. Another aspect is that it’s like
How did you get your start in this business? it wouldn’t work were very low. I gave these a fingerprint – everyone has a different set of ears. Part
First, I had a business school diploma, because my dad guarantees; they went for it, and it worked! [laughter] of the auditory system’s response is acquired when
wanted me to have a “serious” diploma. Then I went into AG: No studio designer says, “If you
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quite a while. Coming out of Brussels, what were my build great-sounding rooms will not do that. building a room that is semi-
chances? For three years, it was really hard. I would do This is your Front-To-Back [FTB] Control anechoic?
horrible little rooms with no budget. My parents helped Room and Mastering Suite standard. Well, our brains and hearing systems don’t like to be in
What would be the basic tenets of
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me get fed. But then it picked up; and then it just anechoic environments. It’s very unnatural. What you
exploded. construction that guarantee this? see is constantly correlated by the brain to what you
What were some of the breakthrough The system is two-fold. I looked at how the room should hear. If you’re in a dead, anechoic space, the cues that
projects for you? behave to be problem-free, but also I tied in the your brain receives about the space don’t match the
The breakthrough was coming up with my own technology. subject of how we perceive sound in an entirely visual cues. The whole auditory system will distort its
When you come out of university you don’t want to different way. In the old Live End, Dead End [LEDE] steady state response in a way that it will become a
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reinvent the wheel, so you look at what they’ve been system, they used the Hass kicker [see sidebar] and lot more sensitive to small reflections, high-
doing. I thought, “If they’ve been doing that, then it other effects to feed environmental info back to the
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did it in a very strange way. For FTB, having the membranes in the front wall that absorb the low end spaces?
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reflective front wall and these two diffusers in the that comes from the back of the speakers, and that Sometimes we do post-production, but mostly locally,
ceiling, the two in the back provides just enough eats a lot of space. Down the line I have to respect the because otherwise it would be too expensive. They
information when you make sound in a room that the choices from the engineer, but the rational decision don’t have to be as good as the studios, but we make
brain actually calibrates through these reflections. It’s would be to go for in-wall, because it’s always going them that way! [laughter] We tell them it won’t be a
able to say, “Okay, I know where I am. The room makes to be better. watered down version. For cost reasons, these tend to
sense. I’m not stressed by the environment. I have AG: If Thomas is designing a room with be in Belgium, the Netherlands, or France, so we don’t
)
control over what’s going on.” In FTB terms, these are freestanding speakers in mind, and have to fly. The budgets are usually lower, though
he’s putting tuned membranes at the
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all called “environmental cues.” They feed back technically they should have more of a budget. We do
environmental information by interacting with “self- exact point behind where the woofer a few test laboratories as well. We’ve done a few for
noise cues” – the noise we produce in the room. goes, those speakers are in that spot Philips. We’ve done a test room for Focal as well. These
With a system like yours, how big would and they can never move or be are fun projects. We designed an “average living room”
you consider the “sweet spot” of
listening in the room to be?
That depends on how the speakers are positioned. It’s
changed.
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If they are soffit mounted, the dispersion is perfect and
there’s a cavity in the wall. If a speaker ever did need
for Philips, which was just some basic furniture and
treatment so they could reproduce smaller houses or
smaller living rooms. They also had an ITU
fairly big, the sweet spot. But, you know, as soon as to change, for whatever reason, it would be fine as [International Telecommunication Union] and a FTB
you have a difference of distance between the two long as it was soffit mounted again. room built for high-quality testing too. Because they
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speakers, then you have comb filtering. You need to When you build a studio, I assume we are design drivers, and it’s all about price optimization,
be in the sweet spot. You have some head movement; talking ground up. they need to know exactly how their drivers behave.
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you can move around. But if the speakers have bad Yes. Usually it’s ground up. I don’t do upgrades. The What gave Northward Acoustics a real
dispersion, then that’s no good. The room sounds as problem with upgrades is that usually it’s because reputation, at this point?
good as the speakers do. It doesn’t have a “sound.” someone messed up, and then we’re called after the That’s a good question! As we say in French, “When
I know you recommend the ATC monitor fact. We come up, the space is finished, there’s no you’re riding a bicycle, you’re looking at where you’re
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speakers. Do you ever have to build a budget left, and usually the answer to the question of, going.” You’re not looking right, left, or behind. This
studio with someone else’s preferred “Can you fix it?” is, “Yes. But how much do you like is what I have to do. I’m glad I have all this work and
monitors? bad news?” When you have to take down a whole bass I’ve liked every one of the projects that we’ve done.
Yeah, but there are a lot of problems with speakers. That’s trap, or you discover the shell of the studio is badly There’s not one I would say I like better than others.
not something I knew when I started; that’s designed, then it’s like having a bad chassis on a The first project I had in the U.S. was with Brad
t)
something I learned the hard way. sports car. You’re just not going to win. That’s it. We Blackwood; he was nice to me and gave me a chance
What kinds of problems have you tend to avoid that because it’s a negative way the to work in the U.S. He’s one of the guys that helped
encountered with monitors? client can perceive us. We just want the room to me in my career. Dave Collins was amazing to work
(a
Poorly designed ports. Poorly designed bass extension. perform, but if it’s impossible to do the modifications with as well. We recently worked with Skrillex [NEST
High distortion. Just bad drivers, really. Speakers built that are needed, then we don’t feel like our input is Studios] and it’s interesting to see how nice the guy
for price; not built for performance. worth the money spent. And usually our advice is, “Go is, and how good he is at what he does. He has very
And this is not in the cheap range that back to your original designer. They should fix it.” sharp ears. But he expresses that in his own way, and
we’re talking about? How many rooms a year do you think you need to learn to read him to see if he’s happy with
Oh, yeah. There are some that we have blacklisted, you’re taking on, at this point? the low end response or if he wants more bass. He’s
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because once you get into that environment the Eight to ten. I’m in a bubble. I don’t really know how incredibly detailed in what he does. All these people
flaws are in your face. It’s not really subtle anymore. much work the other designers have. give us something, because they feed back on what
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If you’re in your living room, you wouldn’t catch it. How many people work with you? we do, and they all have their own way to express
But in my rooms, you think, “What is that?” It’s port In the company, just one. But we have a contractor in their relationship to our work. We take all that
noise, it’s high distortion in a low frequency, and it’s Italy that does a lot of build for us, and I have information in. But, so far, FTB hasn’t changed at all
mp
bad crossover integration. It’s been narrowed down woodworkers in Brussels that do all the decoupling for in how it functions. It’s evolved in the way it’s built,
T. Jouanjean/(Fin.)/Tape Op#135/67
in terms of maybe being more efficient than the first Yeah, but I kind of like it. I like to meet guys like Adam Haas-Kicker
ones were. But the benchmarks haven’t changed. and talk; it’s the fun part of the job. The AutoCAD Many older LEDE control room designs had reflective
Do you find yourself testing new part is less fun. It’s important, but when I have to panels placed at the rear and side walls to create
acoustic products? detail 90 pages of plans, I feel like I’m not moving specular reflections from the speaker signal, delayed in
Yeah, we’re very careful with them. We do the little step forward because it’s so much detail to process. I’m time and narrow in bandwidth, which were thought to
method, so each project we might just change 1% of happy to get on a plane and get my hands a little provide a sense of space in an otherwise dead room, and
things, or 5%, and see how it measures so we know we dirty after that. supposedly enhance the stereo listening area and
can still offer the guarantee. We have so many different I assume the input from engineers and intelligibility.
measurements of so many different rooms that we can people who are using the spaces is
see the deviation. The rooms tend to be of fairly similar really important.
On average, it’s 60 to 70 tons. Once you pour the
size, within a narrow envelope. We haven’t done huge, Even how they use it physically.
concrete on the [floated] floor, that’s a big part of the
huge rooms or very tiny rooms. We can see the AG: Northward makes their own
weight. You can jump in these rooms and you don’t
deviations, and we can compare the theory to practice furniture now [Northward Systems].
feel like you’re floating. You feel like it’s hard.
and see if we have a lead as to whether that change I make my own furniture now, after talking to these
Concrete is cheap; just get the load high and
created that small difference or not. people. We measure rooms without the furniture,
everything gets better. You lose the problem of the
Right. And was it better or worse? and sometimes we measure with the desk in. We
resonance between the concrete floor and the other
And sometimes you can’t really measure it; you just feel see the impact on sound of that and how some
floor because the concrete is so thick. Very little bass
it, in a way. Like if you push something too far. The desks are fairly poorly designed, in the acoustic
goes through. There’s distortion in non-concrete
only complaint we’ve ever had was about a quietness sense. We started designing desks for Noisia [Dutch
floors. When the floor is based on wood joists, it
in the room. Some people are disturbed by that, and production trio – Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen,
m
creates resonant cavities that deteriorate the room’s
that’s something we’ve learned. There’s a proportion and Thijs de Vlieger], and I actually found it
response. They can bend up and become concave,
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of the population that is very sensitive to quietness. interesting and a fun thing to do as a side hobby.
then the load is not okay. In the case of floating
They perceive that as pressure in their ears. They Then we came up with a mastering desk design and
wood floors, the loading on the decoupling interfaces
mistake that for deadness. They say, “Oh, it’s dead in a production desk design, all slotted systems. They
easily and becomes uneven. It’s sometimes hard to
here.” “No, it’s quiet.” But that has its points, are very minimalistic, and they make a big
tell people that they don’t have the budget for what
because you can work at lower volumes and you can difference, actually. We found a good manufacturer
they want. For a professional, our rooms are fairly
hear a lot more detail. There’s a small percentage of in Italy, and they know how to produce detailed
)
reasonable. If you’re a professional and you make a
people that are affected by that. We’ve learned to furniture there. We have a partner that takes care
normal income for a mastering engineer, you’ll be
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speak with the engineer and ask a few questions that of daily management. The next step is to
fine.
would give us an idea as to whether or not that streamline production, which is being done right
engineer would be sensitive. In a couple cases we’ve now, and also get the speaker stands out. They
AG: The whole point is to get into a
even had to change the lightbulbs because the decouple down to 5 hertz.
situation where you’re doing the best
work as you can, as fast as you can. It’s
filament was audible. We had to go to lower watts, How?
then it was more or less gone.
Outside of designing and spec’ing the
It’s a push-pull system. The push-pull system allows you
to compensate for the lack of weight of small
(d about refining your workload. Over
the life of the room, I’m going to be
rooms, do you have to do quite a bit of speakers. You can always tune it to the optimal
turning over many projects. This is
continual follow up to make sure setting for that weight.
the point.
You just need to have the work. On average, the rooms
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construction is correct? The actual stand has a system built in?
are paid for in less than five years. They’re usually
Yes, because we give the guarantee. We’ll go visit before Yes. It takes a little bit of time to tune it, but once
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membranes. Eventually we’ll do measurements at that stand, which can be as performative. <telegraphmastering.com>
point, if we have a doubt that they used the actual Do you have patents?
right thickness for it. Then we’ll test it. And you can No. That’s like putting a patent on the wheel. It’s all
see it immediately; the deviation is massive. If they about how you design the system. It’s basically
use 3 millimeters instead of 4 ½, it’s going to be 20 springs.
t)
hertz off. If it’s 2 hertz off, it’s fine. We do a whole lot It seems like so much of what you’re
of testing at 80% [of the build] before the fabric is doing, besides designing, is quality
on the walls. We’ll usually come and install the control.
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speakers, tune the decoupling system, test That’s exactly what it is. You can’t get sloppy. Otherwise
everything, and then test the room. But we first listen you’re just designing plans and you’re not sure if it’s
to the room with the engineer, and then we’ll look at going to work.
the graph. There’s a psychology when you look at the Besides the budget requirements that
graph first. “Well, maybe I hear that 1 dB bump at someone might have, what would
500 Hz.” No, you don’t; you’re just imagining it. We make you pass on a job?
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have an extensive listening session. Sometimes it Conditions are not met for the room to meet
lasts a couple of days. We’ll sit down and discuss our benchmarks. If the space is too small, there are a
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favorite tracks, and then we’ll listen and test. We’ve couple pillars in the middle of it, or the structural
never had to modify a room. conditions are not okay.
It sounds like you’re involved with an AG: Thomas’s rooms are really heavy.
mp
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Rob Kinelski
Billie Eilish
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® MADE IN FINLAND
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time. So, when I heard Apogee had created a plug-in
with Bob that recreates his effects signal chain, I Chamber 1, but impulse response taken from a pair of AEA
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immediately emailed Gear Reviews Editor Scott McChane mics), and Gated Plate (again, the Roscoe Chamber 1 but PureConnect GP-1, SK-1, PK-2
gated). Bob likes to set up a few instances of
to ask if I could write this review! Together with Apogee,
Clearmountain’s Domain on aux sends to use the Apogee
connector cleaning kits
Bob Clearmountain has designed Clearmountain’s Sometimes it’s the lesser heralded, helpful products
Domain, which they say, “reproduces Bob Studios room, the Mix This! Chamber, and a longer or
that catch my eye more than some fancy new compressor
Clearmountain’s personalized effects signal chain for more effected verb like the Roscoe Chamber or Stairwell.
or microphone. Stedman’s PureConnect connector
Each reverb send has its own Pre Delay setting and a
)
creating the cohesive spaces, expansive dimensions, and cleaning kit series – the GP-1 Gig Pack, SK-1 Studio Kit,
rich atmospheres where his mixes live.” This is not your send to the Delay/Pitch section, where you set the level
and PK-2 Pro Kit – offer up 2 mL tubes of CAIG Labs
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typical reverb or delay plug-in, with settings like Decay, of the Delay/Pitch sound (i.e., from the output of the
DeoxiT, custom 3/4-inch cotton pads, plus custom-made
Size, and Diffusion. Instead, Clearmountain’s Domain has Delay and Pitched Delay) sent to the reverb. The Pitch
microfelt tips (a larger combo one for both inside 1/4-
multiple impulse response reverbs to choose from, a section has two faders, one for the left channel, and one
inch jacks and a hole for XLR male pins, and a small 1/10-
stereo delay, and a modulation section, all of which can for the right channel. Here you can pitch your delays up
inch one for inside female XLR jacks). The kits also
be routed to each other internally to create unique and
lush spaces for your mix.
When you first open up the plug-in, you’ll see four
(d
or down a few cents, up to a whole octave. The amounts
can be fixed or random, allowing for nice movement and
realistic modulation. You can also adjust the Pitch Delay
include a threaded aluminum handle for the tips, plus
cases. The GP-1 Gig Pack is meant for musicians and
includes pads and tips for 1/4-inch cleaning, and 1 tube
main tabs: Input, Delay, Pitch/Reverb, and Mixer. Input – meaning if you have a 50 ms delay and add an extra
of DeoxiT, in a small, metal Altoids mints-style box. The
is where you can set your input level to the plug-in as 25 ms pitch delay, your signal will be delayed 75 ms. It
SK-1 Studio Kit adds the tiny 1/10-inch tips for female
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well as “pre-condition” your audio with De-Ess’ing and/or would normally take up to a dozen or more plug-ins to
XLR connectors plus a few more pads and tube cleaners
a 3-band EQ before hitting the effects (a major factor in customize sounds like these in your DAW. Having it all
in a reusable cardboard box. But the PK-2 Pro Kit is the
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how Bob creates his sound on his original hardware). in one place not only makes it easy, it actually makes
one I want you to buy, as its sturdy plastic case includes
Next is the Delay section, which looks a bit clunky at first you try new things and stumble on FX that you may
two handles, 25 combo tips, 50 1/10-inch tips, 15 pads,
but makes total sense once you’re familiar with the never have thought to create before. While the preset
and three tubes of DeoxiT. In fact, I would suggest
menu is a fun way of getting nostalgic sounds from
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parameters. The stereo delay can provide simple, clean, ordering this kit and spares of everything – stock up and
tempo-synced or manual delays, with a 3-band EQ for Bob’s classic mixes, I recommend trying the Randomizer
get to work cleaning cables and jacks all over your studio!
each channel. But the magic is in the Offset, Spin, and which sets random values throughout the plug-in. This
In use, I especially was mortified by the amount of grey
Blur controls. The Offset control allows you to apply wields totally wild sounds while helping to kick start
gunk coming out of female XLR jacks on some adapters
subtle feedback time differences between the left and ideas and originality.
I’ve had for decades, and cleaning out the jacks on our
right channels to create a wider stereo effect. For Lastly, there is the Mixer window, showing you the
t)
Feedback control, but the left/right channels can be jack and wiggling a Q-Tip around inside. I asked Stedman
linked to decay at the same time. This is incredibly helpful chain. This page is also the first place I jump to when I
if they would make a PureConnect kit for TT patchbays,
when you’ve got different delay times in the left and right open up a new instance of the plug-in to mute whatever
and they said, “There has been a lot of interest in that
channels but want them to decay at the same rate. A the Apogee default setting is. Friendly tip: Create your own
size. We hope to have it out sometime in 2020.” Excellent
great example of this is the guitar delay from David preset, with all delays and verbs turned off so you have a
news! ($26, $48, $116, www.stedmancorp.com) - LC
Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” (which Clearmountain mixed and fresh start when you open up the plug-in.
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added as a preset in Clearmountain’s Domain). Blur Bob Clearmountain has developed a method of mixing
on his SSL console that involves intricate routing to Tape Op is made
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makes this plug-in achieve so many different sounds. their home or fully loaded commercial studio. It is you saw their ad in Tape Op.
70 /Tape Op#135/Gear Reviews/
Steinberg abruptly before the fade finished at the end of the song.
With SpectraLayers, I was able to copy sections, add them
The Decay pane is the second most important feature
of the Oxford Drum Gate. A frequency-dependent decay
SpectraLayers Pro 6 to additional layers, stagger their fades, and spray noise viewed via spectral waterfall plot shows us what tonal
spectral editor to match the source. Though this did take some time, the ranges are sustaining, and also when the next hit – like
SpectraLayers Pro is an exceedingly powerful program results were certainly better than forcing an abrupt fade hearing a bit of snare in a kick track – appears. You can
for restoring, editing, and manipulating audio. I in the master. In another instance, I was working with see where snare ring notes exist, and tailor those with an
mistakenly ignored this product, classifying it as just the only track from a live show and was able to uncouple easy-to-set Resonant Decay to sound the way you’d prefer
another spectral editor. Ultimately, they’re all the same the vocal from the guitar in order to treat them in the mix. With kick, I found myself tuning the sustain
right? Wrong. Not only does SpectraLayers Pro offer more separately, which took even more time and was length (and at what resonant frequencies) while playing
tools, but as the name suggests, users can divide audio essentially science fiction at work. The remaining other back an entire mix, allowing me to sculpt the way the
among layers, expanding the possible uses significantly. uses: de-ess’ing of sibilant vocals, erasing bad fade-render bottom end was working and how the kick and bass
The spectral display (where all of the action is) is very clicks, convincingly healing dropouts form a tape transfer, worked together in the song. With toms, I was able to
customizable. From color mapping to amplitude to FFT cloning good audio to apply over errors, selecting sustain the low end and not let crash or ride cymbals
size to resolution and even a 3D render, it is possible to harmonics of variable intensity and frequency with a bleed in, helping to restore the power of the drum and
isolate audio like never before. This is critical, as generic single tool (!), limiting edits to the specific wave shape cleaning up the overall mix.
spectrograms do not always provide a clear picture of rather than using a clunky Minecraft-like square selector, The Leveller pane is the one I honestly paid the least
problem areas, making selection difficult or impossible. and reducing enunciation issues on a vocal performance attention to, though I will be messing with it more as
Initially published by Sony, the title moved to Magix hampered by dentures. time goes by. Think of it as a very versatile limiter, with
Software and now lives with Steinberg. This means the Though I didn’t edit with a pressure-sensitive tablet a lot of control to allow drum hits to become closer in
application runs on Windows 7 and up (64-bit) or macOS or with digital pencil, SpectraLayers supports those volume to each other – this could save some poor
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Sierra and up, is optimized for high DPI displays, and is devices – let your mind run wild with that! Stuck on a recordings I get sent at times. It seems to do more than
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backed by Steinberg’s customer support. The editor can plane but have edits to do? Get out the tablet and just flatten out all the levels, in an intelligent way via
run as a standalone application or instantiate from within pencil, because you’re about to be productive and “dual target control.” Leveller can also be pushed the
your DAW. Version 6 adds ARA (Audio Random Access) 2 billable from wheels up to touchdown. There are days “wrong” way via the Split control, like using a gate to
integration, which is respected as the best spotting when we review tools that advance our powers as audio duck, and I was able to make a statically played part
protocol available. Pro Tools users can relate stories of custodians in remarkable ways. sound more dynamic. Hmmm... might be useful with
trying to pitch edit audio with an external application Spectral editing applications are lifesavers that programmed drums?
)
only to have the processed material return to the wrong engineers rely on day-in and day-out. But don’t The “extra” feature I like is MIDI Out, where you can
ot
spot on the timeline. With ARA, I experienced a seamless mistakenly assume they are interchangeable. send MIDI to a plug-in (or external device) or also to
handoff between Magix Sequoia 15 and SpectraLayers 6. SpectraLayers makes most other offerings look like capture MIDI (like Massey’s DRT [Tape Op #85]) and use
You can also launch other programs from within children’s toys. I’ve threatened Steinberg that I would it to trigger other plug-ins. I exported a gated snare track
SpectraLayers, including iZotope RX [Tape Op #130], hunt them down should they ever stop making this title. to MIDI and dropped in on the EZdrummer 2 [#101]
Melodyne [#84], or WaveLab [#127].
Most spectral utilities have rudimentary selection tools
and unsophisticated crossfading of processed with source
-Garrett Haines <treelady.com>
Sonnox
(d
So yeah, I love this software. ($299; steinberg.net) instrument plug-in (my fave programmable drums) and it
was perfect, even on a track with ghost notes and such.
You can fine tune the gate to get even better results for
audio. In addition to the standard square select and replace triggering, if needed, but I simply used the one I’d set for
tool, SpectraLayers offers extensive selection options,
Oxford Drum Gate plug-in mixing the audio.
For years, I’ve been tortured by drum gates. First, in
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including their famous casting/molding routine. Similar to There are more layers of control and features I didn’t
the analog realm, where I’d be mixing poorly-recorded even cover here. If you want it, it’s likely able to do it.
a metal foundry, Spectral Casting takes the frequency
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tracks (sometimes my fault) and I’d attempt to use gates There’s a helpful bar below all the action, with
fingerprint of one layer and places it over another. The
to add punch and clarity to my drum mixes, only to have information to help you understand and run Oxford Drum
result removes audio that overlaps with the cast’s shape.
them frequently open at the wrong times or pump nasty Gate (the plug-in takes up more screen space than some).
Molding is the inverse process, leaving audio-only where
cymbal wash or hi-hat back into the blend in the worst- I didn’t download and open the manual or watch a video
overlap occurs. The levels and polarities of both layers can
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sounding way. I assumed digital, computer-based until I was writing this review, and most aspects I’d
be tweaked until the results sound best.
recording would provide us with smarter tools, but I never figured out during mix sessions. In fact, overall this plug-
There are too many tools to cover here. If you’ve
heard any plug-in gate work as effectively as I wished. In in was far easier to implement and get great results from
dabbled with popular photo editing software, you may
my opinion it took right up until now to do so, with than I was expecting, and it ended up on my mix sessions
recognize some of these tools: Eraser deletes or minimizes
Sonnox’s Oxford Drum Gate. from the moment I first tried it out.
sounds, Clone Stamp copies and migrates specific sections
t)
Intelligent detection is the initial key to gating drums The Oxford Drum Gate is an amazingly-powerful plug-
to a target area, Frequency Pencil directly paints
this effectively. Yes, we’ve all tried sidechain/key inputs in that was designed properly, and with the real world in
overtones, Amplifier brings elements forward (similar to a
on gates to keep snare out of kicks and vice versa, but it mind. I’ll be hard pressed to not use it when mixing,
dodge tool), Frequency Repair heals gaps, and Noise
only worked up to a point. The Kick, Snare, Tom, unless the song has no drums. Flat out, Sonnox has raised
(a
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included with the purchase of the 500 Series rack). The option for a basic mobile rig. Danny and I both liked or wish to start building a collection. When you factor
Camdens have standard preamp controls but add a what we were hearing back, plus he loved the form in the option of adding Cranborne’s 500ADAT expansion
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continuously variable knob that dials in an amount of factor and simplicity of the rig. unit for 16-channel functionality, this gets attractive! It
what Cranborne calls “Mojo”; two different flavors of On the module section of the unit there are several truly is a very well thought out mini-studio that packs a
transformer coloration (Thump and Cream) achieved function switches. Each module has a source switch ton of punch with has loads of flexibility and
through a saturation circuit. The claimed frequency that toggles the input between C.A.S.T. (more later), expandability. ($1699 MSRP; cranborne-audio.com) -GS
Triad-Orbit
specs are impressive. Without Mojo engaged, the ANLG (analog), and USB sources. Mix Level and Pan
)
Camden is a very clean and clear preamp with low THD. controls for the built-in summing mixer are located
The 500 Series rack itself is well built, modules seat directly below. The Chain switch sends the output of Advanced Stand System
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easily, and connections seem solid. On the 500R8’s the preceding module to the input of the next. You Accessories
rear panel, XLR connectors handle the main I/O with can build creative processing chains this way – four Back in Tape Op #130 I reviewed the Triad-Orbit reissue
TRS insert points on all eight channels. Each 500 stereo chains or any configuration you desire, up to of the Starbird mic stand and was very favorably
Series module slot can be turned on or off with an one mega chain of eight modules. impressed, as have been all the engineers who’ve used it
easily accessible switch inside the unit. If you are
using a module you switch the channel to On. If not,
you can bypass it while still taking advantage of the
The monitor section on the front panel is simple
but functional. A standard feature set offers A/B
speaker selection, mono and mute buttons, plus
(d here at Panoramic House Studios. Since then we’ve picked
up a few more of the Triad-Orbit stands and accessories. I
continue to be impressed with how useful and well built
500R8’s 8x2 summing functionality. talkback controls (external mic required). Additionally, the whole Triad-Orbit product line, called the Advanced
The AD/DA converter with a 121 dB (unweighted) there are cool AUX and Monitor blend controls that Stand System, is. Below are just a few examples of
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signal-to-noise ratio and a master-reference grade combines the summing mixer with the DAW playback problems that have been solved and/or things that have
internal ultra-low jitter (sub .5 picosecond) digital together into the AUX and monitor buses become easier to set up for sessions here.
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clock on the unit sounds great. I listened and tracked independently. A DAW 2 select switch assigns an We have an odd space here at the studio, on the landing
for long periods and found it to be uncolored and alternate pair of playback returns into the Blend of the stairwell to the upstairs room. This landing is pretty
generally true to sources. You can also integrate your control for Aux and Monitor buses. The two headphone small – maybe three and a half feet square – but it
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own converter as the master clock if desired. jacks (Aux and Monitor) finish off the section. overlooks the main tracking space and has a window
I tested the 500R8 as a mobile rig by loading it up In addition to the previously mentioned XLR and isolating it from the rest of the room. In other words, it
with preamp, EQ, and compressor modules. I then TRS inserts (post module and pre-A/D) on each would be a perfect spot to cut a vocal or an acoustic
packed up the Cranborne into a small bag with some channel rear panel, the 500R8 offers tons of additional guitar while isolating it from the rest of the band.
mics, cables, headphones, etc., and took it all to my I/O options. Digital I/O includes S/PDIF, BNC Word Unfortunately, this scenario had never really worked
house for a session with “anything with strings” Clock, MIDI, and USB 2.0. DIP switches control clock because there is barely enough room for a sturdy stand
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master Danny Barnes. He wanted to track some 12 settings. Analog connections are provided for DAW 2 capable of holding a larger mic. The space is so cramped
string guitar pieces he’d been working on, and it input (to be used as perhaps a click track or a cue mix that it’s not comfortable for an artist with a large
seemed like a great opportunity to get the 500R8 out from a stereo analog DAW output), talkback input, microphone stand, not to mention that mic placement for
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of the studio in a remote scenario. stereo Mix and Aux outputs, and two sets of speaker better sonics is not really an option. But once I started to
For this project, I installed some Burl B1D mic outputs. Also located on the back of the 500R8 are wrap my head around the Triad-Orbit universe of
preamps [#111], a pair of Rupert Neve Designs 535 C.A.S.T. inputs on every channel for Cranbourne’s mechanical connectivity, I ordered three things from
compressors [#133], and two Rupert Neve Designs 551 breakout boxes (C.A.S.T. = Cat 5 Analogue Signal them: An IO-W wall plate/desktop mount, an IO-A2A
EQs [#134]. I simply connected the 500R8 to my Transport). These N22 breakout boxes are 2-channel telescopic IO boom arm, and an OA orbital arm ball joint.
MacBook Pro laptop via USB, then configured Pro Tools mic input devices that can be connected to the
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Audio/MIDI set up before you set it in your DAW. I did 300 feet. They are also making N22H breakout box covered up by a small piece of hanging art. When we want
not do this the first go and had a session sample rate units that have a monitor section so that a musician to put up a mic, we just move the art aside a little bit,
of 88.2 kHz with an internal sample rate of 44.1 kHz. can be listening to and setting their own level for the attach the OA joint and the IO boom arm, then whammo!
Even though the session played back fine at the right mix while tracking with no additional headphone – we’re ready to record! The Triad-Orbit system is so
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can handle a lot of weight, so once you add in the Grip sitar, multiple percussion instruments, and as both a
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Clamps, possibilities multiply. One mic stand can hold drum overhead and room mic. It excelled in all of these
several mics, multiple guitars, and even an iPad (with the applications in whichever pattern was right for the
iOrbit tablet/phone holder). Super cool! When you get application – the mic wields cardioid, omni, and figure 8
down to it, calling all this a simple “mic stand” would be polar patterns – and didn’t get kicked out of bed once.
short-changing the Triad-Orbit system’s capabilities quite My notes contained adjectives like “balanced,” “warm,”
a bit – it’s really so much more and can address many “throaty,” and “natural,” with nouns like “depth” and
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different scenarios in the studio. “clarity.” However, other than as a vocal mic, I had two
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(www.triad-orbit.com, pricing varies) -JB revelations. One was on saxophone, while recording
multi-instrumentalist Will Epstein at Spillway Sound in
Neumann the Catskills. He’s a great player, and I record a lot of
U 67 tube microphone reissue great saxophonists, and this was the least harsh, most
Neumann’s recent reissue of the mic has gotten a duo with Dirty Three drummer Jim White. I placed the U
people talking, particularly since the company reports 67 a couple of feet away from Shahzad’s vintage Ampeg B-
that it’s a 100% replica of its predecessor, “made to 15 bass amp, which was cranked in an iso room. The
preamp was a vintage Altec 458A (also tube). The
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of an EF86. The AC701 is known to be brighter than the bit of a holy grail moment for me in regard to achieving a
EF86, and my experiences certainly confirmed that. The classic, forward-leaning bass tone.
capsules, on the other hand, are the same. The reissue After all of those positive feelings, I have a few words
about the accessories that come with the mic. There’s the
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10 kHz on the M 269 c; the body of the vocal sounded everything comes in has a nice look and feel as well; it’s
both handsome and instills confidence that it will protect
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significant amount more money and don’t carry a I played random songs through the machine
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warranty. Also, it seems impossible that it won’t retain experimenting with switching the transformers in and
most of its value, should you change your mind about out to familiarize my ears with what they were doing to
it down the road. On top of that, who hasn’t always the sound. The input transformers are transparent and
wanted a U 67? I think so highly of this mic that I’ll change the sound very little. However, the output
be purchasing my loaner. However, I would like to transformers impart more color, mostly noticeable in the
point out that if you’re reading this review and this low end. I also performed tests using tones to see what
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mic is out of your price range, you no longer have to differences in measurable frequency response exist. The
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spend this kind of money to get a quality microphone. main difference is that the output transformer gives a
Believe it or not, there are $400 mics being reviewed small boost between 35 to 60 Hz.
in the pages of this magazine that can hold a pretty After thoroughly testing the cards, I decidedly
serious candle to the U 67. Plus, if the cachet of the preferred the sound of the transformer audio path more
Neumann badge is attractive – and it undoubtedly is –
the company makes some excellent microphones that
are much less expensive. There may well be some small
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often than not. Since then, I have mastered several
projects using the tape machine as a color device in an
attempt to breathe life into somewhat sterile tracks. In
amount of semi-intangible magic you’re missing, but these instances, the transformer option has been
trust me, you can still make great records without $7k fantastic for adding extra girth and glue to somewhat
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microphones! ($6995 street; neumann.com) anemic mixes. One of the best features of the cards is the
-Eli Crews, www.elicrews.com ability to switch both transformers in and out for quick
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Mara, owner of Welcome To 1979 Studios and Mara has put a lot of thought and effort into designing them,
Machines, the later well known for refurbishing MCI and to my ears they are a clear improvement sonically
tape machines and selling them to happy tape users over the stock I/O. The transformer’s sound reminds me
a bit of the old Ampex machines I used to own. Tracks
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the guitar solo that I really felt the difference. Crazy about it until this review happened. What I do care about
review the then brand new Orion 32 [Tape Op #99]. The presence and midrange detail with ripping fuzz felt like it is my clients and being true to them and their vision. It’s
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effect that piece of gear had on my studio was nothing short jumped out of my speakers, then started dancing around on this way with gear sometimes. You like (or even love)
of dramatic. A few weeks into the process of having my mind the desk. The kick drum seemed placed identically as before, something as an engineer, but it can be rare that anyone
blown and remixing recent stuff before deadlines, another but the whole mix felt extended in the sub territory – not else notices. Then there occasions that your clients let you
box showed up with the Antelope 10M [#68] in it, and I boosted at all – it just seemed to open up all this inky, dark know how important something is. I’ve done seven albums
began the process all over again! That was the day I learned real estate. The mix, which was admittedly a little and a few singles with the 10MX since that Doll Rods’
about what next level clocking can do for your studio. claustrophobic, opened right up with the 10MX. It’s one session – the above reaction happens every time. It’s not
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Years later, I’m still working on the same rig and I still thing to hear this kind of clarity with an acoustic band or a like we’re never stoked at playback around here, but there’s
love it. So, when the Antelope 10MX came up for review, I jazz recording, but with high gain rock jams this can be usually a lot to review performance-wise, and sometimes
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was stoked. For the unaware, Antelope makes a full line of harder to attain or perceive. The 10MX also revealed some the tones aren’t always the focus for playback in the control
audio gear for virtually any situation. From super portable dubious placement and EQ choices I made previously in an room. It’s worth noting, however, that there has been a
touring interfaces to intense mastering rigs, and now attempt to accommodate the intense amount of harmonic definite uptick in enthusiasm during playback at my studio
microphone modeling – they do it all. Everything they make
sports incredible specs and performance, plus they use
technology like oven-controlled discrete transistor crystal
oscillators, rubidium cores, and other things I frankly do not
mirror the same way you thank a good friend who lets you (d
information shredding my reality. I appreciated this truthful
know that you should grab a mint on your way into the club.
Next up was a mixing session for the upcoming Shigeto
since the 10MX showed up!
The above examples happened during my initial
experience with the 10MX and in the ensuing months I’ve
had time to really notice its effect. I never turn it off, and
understand, that all bring unheard feature sets to any studio Live Ensemble record Versions for Ghostly International. This since I used my 10M for the last six years, I didn’t A/B them.
scenario. The Orion 32 made a big splash, but right behind record was a departure for Zach Shigeto, as he used a live But every session I’ve done with the 10MX has followed suit:
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it was the 10M Atomic and Isochrone Trinity master clocks. band and tracked the jams off the floor. Zach was on drums, Sounds come together more quickly regardless of genre or
Each one has lots to offer, and with the 10MX you get both Dez Andrés on percussion, Brennan Andes on electric bass, source, and the link to source material seems unveiled and
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the atomic precision of the 10M with the astute jitter- Ian Finkelstein on keys, and Marcus Elliot on sax. Should you immediate while a very truthful and comparatively extended
management algorithm of Trinity. It also sports a redesigned not be familiar with the Detroit scene, these are all living soundstage is presented without being hyped. Every session
smaller rubidium oscillator, new power supply, and a more legends at the top of their games, and the session was I’ve had since the 10MX arrived has garnered noticeably
streamlined circuitry. The 10MX also has ten BNC atomic nothing short of transcendent. This was the first session I more enthusiasm from the band at initial playback. This can
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clock outputs that generate an ultra-stable 10 MHz signal. did top to bottom with the 10MX. Because it is a clock, and be a pivotal point in sessions and an important place to earn
In addition, you get four BNC word clock outputs selectable I’m focused on quite a bit during these sessions, I really trust from the band – a crucial commodity in record making.
to 768 MHz, plus two word clock outputs for both AES/EBU didn’t notice the difference until the band was up and Often the trajectory of an album is decided in the control
and S/PDIF. All of this flexibility and clocking is wrapped up running. I frontload the recording process wherever room, and I’m super grateful for this unexpected gift. That
elegantly in what seems like an indestructible single rack appropriate, and we did a creative style of tracking by difference alone, and the amount of time the 10MX has
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space unit enclosure. treating each instrument as I did a quick line check. I was saved me, justify the price tag when you look at a year of
I will assume if you are the type that reads clock reviews, able to achieve this significantly faster with the 10MX and record making. Add to that the psychic benefits of achieving
that you know what it is and what it does. If you do not, could move forward more efficiently without second sonic vision sooner, while being genuinely excited and
please refer to Jessica Thompson’s excellent review of the guessing myself – all because the material was presented to inspired by what’s immediately emanating from your
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Antelope 10M and Isochrone OCX [#68]. She offers a way me with the utmost clarity and truth. On playback Zach speakers – this is priceless. So often, it’s only at the end of
better description than I ever could. Much the same as that exclaimed that it sounded “like a record” and the band a record (after many long hours and hard work) that I have
reviewer, this one prefers to sidestep the technological agreed that the takes had a more finished quality. When it a real sense of accomplishment. It’s super refreshing to get
debate and the adjacent hellscape of Gearslutz threads came time to mix, I spent about half the time I usually do that feeling earlier in the process, and that kind of
littered with mastering room man caves. I’d rather talk and got heavier sounds much quicker. It just felt like the inspiration has changed the way I work. When a company
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about what matters. As stated earlier, like many engineers 10MX broadened, deepened, and widened the canvas while starts off great, like Antelope has, you wonder how they’ll
in their late 40s I started recording on analog tape and was making the mixes higher res sounding. The thing I noticed top themselves. Well, if the Orion, Trinity, and 10M can be
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initially skeptical about digital, but eventually I made the the most was that the depth of my mixes were more compared to Coltrane’s Giant Steps, the 10MX is A Love
jump. Enjoying the flexibility and ease of digital, I gave up apparent. It’s hard to explain, but even in the best control Supreme. ($6495 MSRP; antelopeaudio.com)
the pleasantries of tape as a trade-off. Then digital seemed rooms with killer gear, the speakers can sometimes seem to -Christopher Koltay <highbiasrecordings.com>
to get a lot better, so I upgraded to the Antelope Orion and exist on their own 2D vertical plane a few feet away. The
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got a 10M. The difference was dramatic, but since they came 10MX extended the sound field. I felt things moving to and
76/Tape Op#135/Gear Reviews/
Royer Labs
Model 140NM plate reverb High
Performance Magnet Assembly
I could write 10,000 words about plate reverbs,
modifications, reasons I feel these physical reverb units are
unique sounding, and why I love the EMT [Elektro-Mess-
Technik] 140 that I own. But the people who will need to
know about this product either own an EMT 140 (and probably
have the same feelings that I do) or are out looking for a
vintage plate right now. Here’s the story: Rick Perrotta, one of
the principals at Royer Labs, bought his second EMT 140 plate
reverb a while back and during transport the magnet assembly
was lost. Now, in case you think one can pick up the phone
and order spare parts, remember that these plates were
manufactured many decades ago. So, being that Rick works at
Royer and ribbon mics are nothing-but-dependent on magnets
in order to function, he got together with friends at Advanced
Theoretical Concepts, and designed a new magnet assembly
for the ubiquitous EMT 140.
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What arrived at Jackpot! Recording was a beautifully-
constructed new part for my 140. Unlike the solid metal casing
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of the original assembly, the 140NM has a clear plastic ring
where one can see the parts inside, with perfectly engineered
metal casing and flange on the rest. It also comes with
mounting screws and washers (if needed) and a custom
alignment disc. Swapping out the assembly isn’t technically
that hard, but there is a certain process to opening up the
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wooden outer box on the plate and carefully removing the old
magnet, as a wrong movement can destroy the drive coil that
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centers inside the magnet assembly. I bolted in the new 140NM
and ran some tone tests (printing and recording tones through
the plate into Pro Tools) to compare to the original’s signal.
When I realized the levels were lower, I had to change the
alignment of the mount that the assembly is bolted to by
removing some washers (using the alignment disc to keep it
centered). With the drive coil slightly deeper within the magnet
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assembly I achieved levels matching my previous magnet, and
much more balanced left/right frequency responses.
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a review). United Plugins replied and updated the documentation quickly – hopefully
this is a good indicator of support responsiveness should you ever need it.
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FrontDAW is the brainchild of producer/remixer Greg Brimson, and offers a choice of
BR (British), US (American), or GE (German tube console) style saturation. United
Plugins says their VARM (Variable Analogue Random Modeling) technology makes each
plug-in instance sound slightly different, even with the exact same settings. The
saturation modes do pretty much what you would expect: BR adds some fatness in the
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low end with a bit of air on top. The US setting offers solid lows with punchiness in the
mids. The GE mode might be my favorite, adding a noticeable sheen to the highs and
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slight grittiness in the low end.
I often add a high-pass EQ on tracks to get rid of any mud – especially on AUX buses
with effects – so having the ability to roll off up to 500 Hz with FrontDAW frees up an
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insert point and gives me back a little CPU power. The GUI is scalable – just drag the
bottom right corner! Double clicking or right clicking can get you to additional, finer-
grained parameters and settings. The Mojo knob lets you dial in saturation. You can also
use the Input control to drive the channel harder, but be aware that the input can
change the output on the channel by +/- 24 dB – acting a bit like Pro Tools’ Trim plug-
in. I mention this because it can be easy to fool your ears with “louder is better,” and
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some other console emulation or saturation plug-ins I have used have input adjustments
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that try to keep the output level consistent when introducing saturation. Because of
this, I found it was easier to dial in the sound of each track with FrontDAW before I
started mixing. You can still tweak the high-pass filter and Mojo setting, but use your
faders after you settle on a tone.
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I added FrontDAW to a mix I was working on for a local artist. This was a ‘60s-style
rock ‘n’ roll song with female vocals. I created mixes with and without FrontDAW on each
track and then also compared the same mix with a different console emulation plug-in.
The mixes with console plug-ins sounded exciting in a different way, but, in the end, I
used the mix with FrontDAW, and the artist loved it too. On another project I put
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FrontDAW across the master bus, and again it made the mix sound better to my ears. In
the future I will probably mix and match FrontDAW with other plug-ins to achieve the
specific character I’m looking for on audio tracks or aux buses. Download it, give it a
whirl, and see what FrontDAW can do for your mixes!
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tapeop.com
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reviews online!
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engaging the -20 dB pad on the mic, as well as a pad on sophisticated plug-ins that each play a vital role in
the preamp, I was able to rein it in. This mic is bright, creating masters in the modern world of audio
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but not in a harsh way, and after some EQ the tambourine production for music, podcasts, audiobooks, and
sat nicely in a rock track. multimedia. The three plug-ins, each one available as
Next, I placed the A-55 just inside the ported front AAX, RTAS, VST2, VST3, and AU versions, provide level
head of a kick drum and got a very familiar pre-EQ’d control and several different types of audio analysis,
sound. I arranged the CR-21 as overheads in a spaced from visual analysis of levels and imaging, to visual and
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pair. They also have quite a bit of gain, so I had to back audible level comparisons of your master to various
off my preamps from typical settings. The sound streaming standards. These are professional tools, and
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reminded me of the MXL 603S [Tape Op #28] but with you will benefit from spending a good amount of time
upgraded capacitors to smooth out the highs – it seems learning to use each plug-in. I have used NUGEN plug-
MXL took notice and upgraded the build of these. I also ins for a few years now, and have found that by learning
about and applying these plug-ins, I have developed a
noticed the CR-21 mics were pretty sensitive to air
movement. If using these for outdoor gigs foam
windscreens would be in order.
With the 606 on snare and its pad engaged, I got a
(d better sense of the applications of audio levels and feel
I can easily meet the expectations of content producers,
distributors, and, ultimately, the intended audience.
nice, full-bodied thwack. In fact, the 606 really made me The most utilitarian plug-in of the Modern Mastering
re-evaluate my typical use of the dynamic snare mic I use; Bundle is called ISL True Peak limiter. Essentially a
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one I always have to EQ in the mix. With this mic I was mastering limiter, or maximizer, ISL provides an inter-
sample True Peak limiter with comprehensive and
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The mounts attached easily (even on die-cast rims) and metering sections. The first section displays the post
positioning can be adjusted closer or further away from input gain stereo input levels. The second meter displays
the drum head. Both mics had a noticeable boost in the the amount of gain reduction as one of two user-
upper mids that accentuated the attack. I adjusted the selectable display styles. The output meters display the
mics on the mounts but did not notice a big change from resultant stereo output levels as dBFS (True-Peak).
NUGEN provides further metering options, called
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was using for the tom to the snare. The A-5t gave me a Ducking work along with and are affected by the Linking
very familiar snare sound, which was totally workable function of the limiter. Additional controls affect
after a little EQ. lookahead, release time, comprehensive dither, and
I took the PA-5K to a local gig where the venue was noise shaping options. ISL thoughtfully provides the
looking to purchase a drum mic kit. The sound engineer ability to listen to the difference signal, or gain
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mic’d up the kit with the CR21s on overheads and the A- reduction effects only, of the limiting process to help
55 on kick. We saved the A-5t pair for percussion. Though fine-tune the processing against any undesirable
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we could not use the clip mounts due to the design of artifacts. NUGEN has provided presets that comply with
the congas and bongos, we mounted them on stands ITU-R BS.1770, and Apple’s afclip standards that offer
with success, and they provided the percussionist with a the ability to create level compliant masters for iTunes,
fighting chance against the guitars and drums. Netflix, or any other streaming or broadcast standard.
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or monitor the audio stream as encoded by many different streaming services,
including Spotify, Tidal, iTunes, BBC iPlayer, and many others. Since each service plays
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audio using a specific codec and audio level, MasterCheck shows an instant comparison
of the DAW audio to a specific service’s profile and allows you to create an optimized
version of the master for a particular use. In practice, I find it informative to audition
these codecs, but many of my clients do not have the ability to provide optimized
masters to each platform, as the clients use an aggregator like DistroKid, to distribute
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to several services. It is still helpful to audition and be aware of level and codec
differences between services. Occasionally it is valuable to optimize a program for a
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specific platform, such as in audiobook or podcast preparation.
MasterCheck’s plug-in preset menu provides common profile settings and loading
these will help orient you to the many options that this meter provides. I find the
external reference meter extremely useful to provide a real-time reference level of
another track in my session. True-peak levels have also become increasingly important
for any audio that will be encoded into a compressed format, and MasterCheck provides
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confidence that your audio will meet specific distribution requirements. Despite the
complexity and thoroughness of this plug-in, the manual is brief and easily digestible.
I think the MasterCheck plug-in by itself is worth the price of this bundle.
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The most involved and complex plug-in of the Modern Mastering Bundle is called
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Visualizer. This plug-in, designed for comprehensive audio analysis, is comprised of eight
different visual analysis displays. These tools include a variety of level meters, frequency
spectrum analyzers, spectrogram displays, vector scopes, and phase correlation meters.
Each meter display may be individually turned on or off, plus each display has its own
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preferences settings for behavior and look. Further, any display may be “soloed” and takes
over the entire plug-in window to show more of that view. For instance, the user can select
a familiar looking spectrum analyzer and customize its behavior and appearance while the
vectorscope displays either a familiar Lissajous or polar plot while the level meter displays
LKFS, RMS, FS, or various mid/side information. The in-depth spectrogram meters display
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frequency and level against time, with mouse-over detail readouts, while the phase
correlation meters can show simple stereo phase correlation or phase correlation displayed
over the entire frequency range. In my case, I set the K meter to show green bars up to K-
12, yellow bars from -12 to -8 and red bars above -8 dBFS. Those settings make it very easy
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to get a sense of the level without having to read specific numbers on the meter scale.
Similarly, I could adjust the response and fallback times of the meter in either horizontal
or vertical display modes. Each of the eight displays has a similar depth of control and really
must be explored to develop a set of meters that is comfortable for a given production task.
As with the MasterCheck plug-in, the Visualizer provides a comparison button to
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quickly compare the current audio to a reference track, again by using NUGEN’s Send
plug-in on the reference audio track. The comprehensive and concise manual for the
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Visualizer provides an informative section that explores the technical background and
applications of FFT analysis, which is the foundation of the Visualizer plug-in.
Understanding FFT analysis is certainly not required to use the MasterCheck meter, but
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format! and TV. Some plug-ins, like the ISL in the NUGEN Modern
Mastering Bundle, provide stereo-only operation while
papery, crapping-out fizz, you’ll appreciate the 500PRE.
It’ll certainly take you to that blown out static-blast level
the complete ISL provides multi-channel metering for 5.1 of distortion should you want it, but you’ve got plenty of
or 7.1 surround production. more useable, predictable range ahead of that extreme.
($299 direct; nugenaudio.com) Even at moderate levels without audible limiting, the
-Adam Kagan <mixer.ninja> circuit left a pleasing imprint on the audio – altogether
a little more exciting than your average preamp.
Retro Instruments On day one of tracking with the 500PRE, I first set
500PRE 500 Series tube preamp it up with a Telefunken M82 [#102] on snare drum. I’d
Years back, when I installed my console and sidecar, I never really used tube preamps on close drum mics in
sold off most of my outboard preamps. I was looking the past, but having heard the way the 500PRE could
forward to a new era of not having to choose preamps, ease into gentle harmonic grit and unobtrusive limiting
and instead just getting on with what mattered, like I wanted to hear how that translated on a much more
listening to the instrument in the room, choosing transient-heavy source. Good news: it worked really
well! I was able to dial in enough saturation to help
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flattering mic placement, and paying attention to
arrangement and performance. Burned out on the bring out a little bark from the drum without it getting
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minutiae of matching preamp to source, I welcomed the too tone-heavy or turning hi-hat bleed into a mix time
simplicity of choosing just “fast” API 212 or “slow” Neve nightmare. The Retro cut through an overdriven Vox
1084 preamps. My mantra became, “You don’t need a lot AC30 guitar amp wonderfully without suffering any low
of options, only one or two good ones.” As such, end loss. Experimenting between takes, I was pretty
checking out a new preamp didn’t carry quite the amazed at how I could gain the pre up in High range
to find a setting where dynamic response was clamped
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excitement for me that a new EQ or dynamics module
might, but my deep and unrelenting love for the Retro down hard enough that my snare mic was printing
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Instruments Sta-Level [Tape Op #66] (that I’ve used on distinct and balanced kick drum as well – it could pass
about every project in the past 12 years) suggested that for a close in “crunch” mic for the whole kit, yet
the new 500PRE might be a unit worth looking into. To without harsh distortion or heavy compression
quickly sum up the rest of my review: it is. envelope artifacts. I’ve never heard that kind of
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While unboxing the 500PRE, I got a little giddy. This
preamp looks and feels fantastic. The controls all have a
nice substantial feel to them, the faceplate doesn’t feel
response from a mic preamp before.
For our next track, I moved the 500PRE over to the
front of the drum kit, powering a Coles 4038 aimed into
crowded, and the Retro signature grey finish looks great the ground a couple of feet from the kick drum. I drove
– all in all a very professional feeling piece of equipment. it pretty hard, and the Retro added a nice texture that
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You get Input and Output gain controls, along with blended in easily with the other drum kit mics. As we
toggles for gain range (Low or High), phantom power, moved into overdubs, I set the 500PRE up for acoustic
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and polarity. I was eager to get the Retro racked up but guitars. I was recording with The Beanstalk Library, a
ran into an issue. The 500PRE draws 160 mA, which is band that writes guitar driven songs in the vein of Tom
above API’s VPR Alliance standard. While most newer 500 Petty or George Harrison, with a lean towards power pop.
We were laying a couple tracks of strummed acoustic in,
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Ahead of my first tracking session with the 500PRE, I Tone organ overdubs. There are only a couple of sources
where I start splitting hairs with preamps, and electric
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they should! Synths that were feeling a little flat and the 500PRE. I briefly swapped between the two and felt
82/Tape Op#135/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 84) like (outside of EQ) I wasn’t losing anything stepping
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or obscuring pronunciation. With the Sta-Level next in With a max SPL rating of 134 dB, the 6060 floats in
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the chain, the vocal was locked in, and fit right where I the “normal SPL” range of that category and is
wanted it – present and clear but tucked into the mix recommended as a chest-worn lavalier mic or for sound
rather than on top of it. sources that are further away. The 6061 is billed as “loud
Aside from being a bit more particular about the rack SPL” and handles a max SPL of 144 dB – recommended
that powers it, there’s little to complain about here, for theatre performers that wear the mic mounted on
especially for the price. Even at high gain settings, signaltheir forehead or in front of their mouth. For video and
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to noise ratio was impressively good. The noise floor audio interview use a lavalier mic is a great choice. They
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native to the source (or the room!) always became an attach to the clothing with a small clip or fold neatly into
issue before the preamp’s did. The unit does run about as a buttonhole and are very unobtrusive. After trying a few
hot as you’d expect from its three enclosed vacuum different options for lavs, I landed on the DPA 4061 and
tubes, and only time will tell what that may mean for its never looked back. I found the 6060 series to be basically
lifespan – though it’s worth considering Retro’s
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reputation and trusting that this consideration did not go
unplanned for in the design. I’ll be leaving some space
identical in performance except for its smaller size. The
tone is robust in the midrange and generally has a nice
balance when placed around and just below a subject’s
above the 500 Series rack to be safe. Ably handling most neckline or mid-chest. Depending on the source, I
any recording scenario with gobs of gain and a wide and sometimes cut a bit around 800 Hz while adding a touch
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controllable texture palate, this preamp reduces my of highs, but often no EQ is necessary. The cables are
desire to patch in compressors at tracking while ample in length, and if needed extension cables are
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providing exciting harmonic and limiting possibilities at available for an additional cost; I own the extension
mix. The 500PRE has won me over, and I’m hoping to cables and have not yet needed to use them.
have a pair permanently parked in my rack. The mics have removable caps for cleaning that protect
($895 street; retroinstruments.com) them from sweat and water (IP58 certified). Color choices
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-Eamonn Aiken <thebastillestudio.com> are beige or black and come in individual small hard plastic
DPA Microphones snap cases. The DPA 6060 Subminiature Microphones are
high-performance miniature microphones, suitable for a
6060 Series Subminiature variety of voice and music applications. Highly
Microphones recommended.
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Good things really do come in small packages! Sure, ($549 MSRP; dpamicrophones.com) -GS
bigger budgets for that record you’re working on would be
nice, but with all the bragging about crowd sizes, big
rockets, big armies, miscellaneous “yuge” stuff, and other www.tapeop.com
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#127] for over a year now and have been very pleased with possible by our
their durability, response, and sound quality. advertisers.
An updated version of this microphone style, the 6060 Please support them and tell them
you saw their ad in Tape Op.
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“super-natural” in my notes: the V1s provide a realistic but really clean. I ended up swapping out the RØDE for a dynamic
included custom VSSM shock mount, and rightfully so. Unlike nicely enhanced picture of every instrument I recorded. There’s or ribbon mic but kept the TF-5 for room sounds.
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most flimsy plastic shock mounts I’ve encountered, these zinc very little upper frequency hype with a strong, balanced I cut drums for both Megan’s project and a project with Jeff
and high-impact ABS accessories weigh as much as the mic richness in the low end. At mix time, I found the V1 overheads Walker while I had the TF-5 pair. I first used them as drum
they’re designed to support! The V1 capsules are custom- could work as the sole drum mics, something the KM 184s (for overheads in ORTF configuration, which is a breeze with the
voiced and built specifically for Vanguard to their all their merits) could not. The V1s definitely offered more of a included stereo bar. Again, the sound of the RØDEs was
specifications, as are all included accessories – nothing vibey drum sound, and I was really happy after mixing in only present and defined – making it quite easy to hear cymbal
generic here. Vanguard’s Derek Bargaehr notes, “We’re very a touch of direct kick and snare for added pop. placement in the stereo field. The snare was present and
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proud of the capsules in particular, but also that everything Having so many capsules on hand really opens things up for strong, with a really nice attack from the toms. There was
we do is 100% original and custom – it took me nearly 18 experimentation and makes it that much easier to get the right excellent definition on the ride cymbal, with loud crash
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months to get the small capsules right… the circuit design sound at the source rather than trying to fix it in the mix. The cymbals never becoming too strident. I often feel like crash
was a cinch by comparison.” Though the included stereo bar wide cardioid capsule is stellar, and worth the price of admission cymbals are the place overheads can easily fail – thankfully
isn’t as much of an overachiever as the capsules perhaps, it is alone. With the V1S Kit, Vanguard again shows they’re a this was not the case with the TF-5s.
portable and performs the job for X/Y or ORTF set up. The only
thing missing from the package is a handle on the box, but a
trip to the hardware store might easily solve that.
With so many capsule options, I decided to start simple by
company driven to make affordable products that can enhance
even the deepest of mic lockers.
(V1S kit $699 MSRP, V1S $349 MSRP/each;
vanguardaudiolabs.com) -Ed Hickey <edhickey.com>
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For Megan Hosack’s song “Head Space,” I kept it simple with
just a single bass drum mic and the TF-5 pair as room mics. The
tone of the entire drum set was clear, with a nice air around it.
RØDE Microphones
close mic’ing acoustic guitar. I recorded multiple guitarists, On the mix, it was really easy to EQ the tracks in general and in
setting up each mic in a mono configuration with a different a way that helped to pull a little extra snare out. A big tom fill
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capsule to compare. When close mic’ing with many SDCs, I find TF-5 microphone pair articulated a nice classic feel – not a modern “in your face”
there is a buildup in the low register when the guitarist is The latest addition to the RØDE microphone line is the TF-5 thing – it really worked perfectly for the track.
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playing loudly and letting chords ring. While tracking a forceful small diaphragm cardioid condenser matched stereo pair. The On Jeff Walker’s song “Giant Stacks” I put the TF-5s on short
12-string guitar shredder, the wide-cardioid capsule was a mics come packaged in a nice two-tiered box with precision cut mic stands to use as room mics. Thinking back to the guitar
perfect in capturing the full-spectrum intensity of the dense foam that included the mics, windscreens, really nice sessions, I decided to point the mics away from the drums and
instrument. I was able to position it close enough to represent clips, and a wonderfully useful stereo bar (more on the absolutely loved how they sound on this track. The
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intimate detail, but it never seemed muddied by proximity accessories later). They’re finished in a flat black with the aforementioned reach and focus made for a really interesting
effect. Compared to the standard cardioid capsule, the wide signature gold dot near the business end of the microphone. The tone. My room can be somewhat splashy, but in this position,
cardioid really showed an ability to manage the drones in the first thing I noticed was the mic’s heft – these mics are small, the TF-5s put a nice air around the drums while deemphasizing
lower registers while at the same time smoothing out the busy, but they have a nice weight that instills confidence. Luckily, I any of the typical splash. I really like the snare tone from these
chimey top end. didn’t drop either mic while I had them, but if they were mine mics in my room, and, though I haven’t mixed the track yet, I
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Vanguard doesn’t publish frequency response data, but to I’m certain in time they’d take a fall or two, and I wouldn’t really can already hear that I’ll be able to really push the room mics
my ears the wide cardioid capsule has a very natural response be worried if they did – they are sturdy. up without the track turning into a mess.
with decent off-axis rejection for such a large picture. In I’ve been using the TF-5s for a couple months on several I needed to add Hammond organ to Megan’s song
close mic’ing both guitars and percussion, the additional projects. I threw just about everything I could at them to see “Pointlessness.” I have the Leslie model 145 rotating speaker in
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ambience of the wider polar pattern was minimal compared how they’d fair, and I’ve been quite impressed with most of the the vocal booth, and decided to grab the ORTF pair of TF-5s off
to the regular cardioid. In fact, I found the wide-cardioid sounds I’ve heard. I think I would characterize these mics as the large boom for overheads I was using on drums, then put
capsule fairly magical – I kept choosing it on every source! slightly hard, but never harsh sounding. They have a defined them on a medium height Atlas stand – your studio does not
It provided a wonderful balance of rich body with a touch of presence, whether placed close to the source, or used to capture have enough of these and other shorter mics stands. That put
air. However, the standard cardioid capsule is no slouch, ambience. On a project with Chicago singer/songwriter and the pair about 26-inches off the floor and about three feet away
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either. I found it to be the perfect solution for a different comedian Megan Hosack, we built up a lot of the songs starting from the speaker. I had two different sounds set up on the
guitarist with a much softer, delicate playing style. The with her playing guitar to a click. Both acoustic and electric Hammond (one on each manual) and got to work. I performed
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capsule really added support to the low mids, while providing guitars were used, with a few different amps. I was often using some typical volume swells with the pedal while changing the
a bit more bite than the wide cardioid. a close mic on the speaker paired with an ambient mic. What Leslie speed several times. The TF-5s reacted quite well, and the
The hypercardioid capsule was the clear choice for mic’ing really impressed me, when I used the TF-5 for ambience, was organ sat perfectly in the track. The stereo spread is really nice,
both snare drum and hi-hats on a soft, jazzy tune with brushes. what I can only describe as reach. It made the ambience really and on louder sections the tube drive from both the Hammond
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The increased rejection and smooth top end made the task of unique, as it was focused in a very different way than most mics and the Leslie translated really well.
86/Tape Op#135/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 88)
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worked really well. The entire range of the piano was well Roland Cloud Drum Studio - four mics (dynamic, condenser, mid room, and far room) as
well as which set of outputs you’re sending the channel
represented, without anything sticking out or dipping out in a Acoustic One virtual drum software signal to. When you select Comp at the channel top you are
bad way. Both X-Y and ORTF spacings sounded very even. The Everything is on the “cloud” these days and Roland’s
given an On/Off switch and controls for Thresh, Gain, Ratio,
X-Y offered (as expected) a much tighter picture, with the left treasure trove of synths and drum machines are up there
hand playing feeling a little closer in than the ORTF recording,
Attack, Knee, and Release – all standard but effective. The
too. The Roland Cloud has a wealth of quality plug-in
which sounded just generally bigger. With ORTF it sounded Reverb layout has an On/Off switch plus controls for Decay,
instruments available, but we’ll be focusing on Drum Studio
almost like I’d moved the mics away from the piano even Mix, Pre-delay, high-pass filter, Density, and low-pass filter.
- Acoustic One, Roland’s cloud-based acoustic drum sample
though the stand was in the same place. Using the pair on the There are four selectable reverbs including a room, two
plug-in, the flagship drum program on the Roland Cloud
room gave a wonderful airy sound while maintaining a lot of halls, and a plate setting. Always present at the bottom of
subscription service. We’ll cover what Acoustic One has to
midrange detail. the plug-in window is an effects chain that includes Flanger,
offer and then briefly discuss some of the other sample-
Chorus, Distortion, Doubler, and Stereo Delay. These are all
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On a tambourine overdub the TF-5s impressed me quite a bit
based instruments and software emulations of the
– with one placed close like an overhead, and the other about nice to have, but unfortunately only apply to the entire kit
company’s classic synths later. System requirements are Mac
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ten feet away and chest high. As most of you know, globally. Would have been nice to be able to control the
OS X 10.10 (Intel Core i3 or greater) or Windows 7 SP1, and
tambourines can be a lot harder to capture than they should be. amount sent to each channel.
a 64-bit DAW or host that supports VST, AU, or AAX
But with the TF-5s there was no smearing of the transient, and So how does it sound? I thought that sound quality was
the jingly ring of the tambourine’s bells came through really
instrument plug-ins.
top notch. The drums are very well recorded. They’re realistic
well. A plastic Rhythm Tech tambourine seemed to fit best with Once you sign up at rolandcloud.com, you will need to
and easy to get up and going in a mix. While “playing” the
the song but others sounded great too. Again, the reach of the download the Roland Cloud Manager app. The Manager is
kit, I was taken by the detail in the touch velocity
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room mic was quite impressive and though I mostly use room where you will find all the various downloadable
sensitivity. Apparently during the sampling process many
mics with close mics, the TF-5 room worked well on its own instruments and updates. In order to use Drum Studio, you
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additional samples were captured for the fractions between
without sounding super splashy or unclear. will need to first download Concerto, Roland’s sample-based
velocity levels for a much more dynamic instrument… and
On a simple brush on snare drum, I got a perfect sound with software host. Once Concerto is installed and opened as a
it shows. There are also multiple samples for the same
a single TF-5 about 18-inches over the drum. I spent a lot of plug-in in your DAW, you can download the Drum Studio
velocity – like an amped up round robin – which adds to the
time getting the drum to sound how I wanted, working with
tuning, muffling, snare tension, and even putting a small bit of
tape on the head of a lovely old Rogers wood shell snare. This
was a pseudo bluegrass train beat, so articulation was key. The
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software from the Concerto window. You need to be online
to install, but after that authentication only happens once
every seven days. So, an online connection after initial
install isn’t mandatory. It’s also worth noting that up to five
realism. If you want to get something going quickly with
minimum fuss, this works very well. Having said that, if you
like to dig deeper with tweaking, then other drum plug-ins
sound from the TF-5 captured everything I worked for in tone
might work better for you.
devices can be authorized at the same time. With that in
and performance. As a composer who doesn’t play drums, I find
mind, subscribing to the service makes a lot of sense for a
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I also recorded some backing vocals with the TF-5 as well, programming realistic drums challenging without a jumping
studio or post-production house.
and they worked quite well. On occasion I work with a chamber off point. With that in mind, I wish that Roland had
Drum Studio’s main window is cleanly laid out as a group
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group of piano, cello, and flute, and though I didn’t have the supplied MIDI files along with Drum Studio to take
of 12 mix channel strips. There are ten kits onboard to
opportunity to use the TF-5s in this application, I really think advantage of the awesome dynamics on display here. For
choose from at the top of the window. They range from
the it would work well for recording ensembles. most mainstream applications Acoustic One excels. The kits
straight ahead rock to jazz and vintage kits, with sticks,
Now, let’s talk about the included accessories. The mic clips sound great and were recorded in a top-notch studio with
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rods, and brushes available for each. There are also knobs
are not only snug, but they have tightening levers quite similar incredibly playable dynamics.
for Sample Randomization, Key Sensitivity, Pan (global),
to Drum Workshop cymbal stands. These might be the best mic In addition to drums, I also had a chance to audition
Limiter (on/off), and Volume (global).
clips ever – you just set your angle and tighten them down. many of the other synths and drum machines the Roland
How many mic clips do we each own that periodically need
Each channel has four viewable options: Info, Mix,
Cloud has to offer. And I have to say the content here is
tightening with a screwdriver, or that we eventually stop using Comp, and Reverb. Info is the default setting with controls
outstanding. The software modeling does take a toll on your
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because they just don’t hold position anymore? This clip for Tune (-1200 cents to +1200 cents), Decay (100 ms to
CPU, more so than some other emulators on the market.
tightens around the mic, holding it right where you put it. The 3500 ms), Pan, Level, Mute and Solo buttons, plus an icon
That said, Roland’s Jupiter-8 and Juno-106 emulations were
hard plastic with metal thread stereo bar is damn near perfect. of the drum assigned to that channel. You can audition the
spot on, sounding damn near identical to their hardware
There are spacers designed to pop off easily, so one mic can be drum sound by clicking on the icon. At the base of each
counterparts. The venerable TB-303 bass synth and TR-
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placed above the bar and the other below. The bar is about an channel is the name of the drum on that strip. If you click
808/909 drum machines were equally impressive. Bottom
inch and a half tall and keeps either the cables (when using on the name, you are able to substitute any of the kit pieces
line: all the samples here sound great! As someone who has
ORTF) or the mics (in X-Y) from hitting each other. Add to that in that category. So, on the kick fader you can select any of
owned various Roland synths over the years, I found the
90 and 110 degree markings, width markings, and a mark for the ten kicks on board.
Roland Cloud to be a literal living museum of all Roland’s
ORTF. The box is coated cardboard, with foam cutouts that stack While we’re on the topic of drum kit pieces, there are five
greatest gear. If your musical passion is based in synthesizer
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the mics and clips in one tier and the stereo bar in the other. kicks which range in size from 26 by 16 inches to 18 by 16
At this price a hard case with a carrying handle would be greatly
land, then you know the ridiculous cost associated with
inches, with soft and hard beater options. The snares sizes
acquiring all of the gear available. For a synth nerd, the
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appreciated, and the cutout for the stereo bar requires you to run from 14 by 8-inch to 14 by 2-inch with options for sticks
put the spacers on the same side of the bar. Though there is Roland Cloud is pretty much heaven.
and rods and one for brushes. Three toms are in this kit: Low
some documentation in the box, I actually had to watch a ($19.95 per/month; rolandcloud.com)
(16 and 18-inch), Mid (12 and 13-inch), and high (9, 10,
YouTube video to realize how the spacers popped off. The -Will Severin <www.willseverin.com>
and 12-inch). There is one 14-inch set of hi-hats, as well as
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create, produce, collaborate, distribute, and monetize. Since
our first event, it’s been amazing to see small companies
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burgeon into really solid companies. Back then, iZotope was
just a few employees, and today, Artiphon has major artists
behind it, for example. We’re now getting richer and broader
into art, technology, and business. That’s what A3E Research
is doing. We’re boiling it down to the disruptive
technologies, and we’re helping the industry pursue their
)
challenges at a business level. Right after 2014, the bigger
conferences approached us and asked us to co-locate: NAMM
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in Anaheim and Nashville; Musikmesse in Frankfurt; Music
China Prolight + Sound in Shanghai. The validation comes
from these other big events asking us to bring A3E to their
attendees. When I look at Jack Joseph Puig, or Pete Brown
from Microsoft, or Steven Slate, or David Mash from Berklee,
or Marcus Ryle, who was instrumental in bringing affordable
DSP-based products to the market — we’ve had some really
great people say, “We like the mission, there’s a void, and we
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want to help you fill that void.” ••• What’s a disruptive
technology that you see shaping the industry? The survey
we just did reached a nice cross-section of the music
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but only 30 minutes from San Francisco.
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Rates start at $350 a day.
panoramic-house.com • bookpanoramic@gmail.com • 916-444-5241
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Having so much exposure to mostly independently-released
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music meant that I was privy to hearing bands from a wide variety When I hear an album or song for the first time, I never
of recording scenarios. Albums tracked at small local studios or judge the music simply by the sound of the recording alone.
home recordings were common, and I would wonder why most of I’ll listen to what is going on beyond the sonic quality and
them didn’t sonically hold up next to the classic records I had mix. I’ll assume that all the choices made in the recoding
been raised on. It soon became apparent that recording budgets process were done with intent, or by accepting accidents and
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and major label investment played a big role in this discrepancy, fate, but that the artists and producers are happy with the
but also that some music was meant to “sound” different. In the results. And, quite simply, I look at every
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early ‘80s it seemed every time a hardcore punk band got a bigger piece of recorded music in this way:
budget and used a fancy studio, the record would sound slick but “This is one way that the music could
lifeless. This realization also made me question why an artist like have been captured and presented.” A
John Fahey would need to use a huge, fancy studio for his
intimate music? Records could come from different places, and
that was okay.
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different day, another producer or engineer, moving to
another room – any major or minor change can deliver an
audible shift to the final artifact.
People frequently ask me, “What’s an example of a great I’ve rarely heard an album where the process of recording
recording?” I never know what to say. Sonic fidelity, clarity, depth has rendered the result unlistenable. Sure, there are a few
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of field, great mixes, and more can lead to an album that is albums by artists I adore that I’d love to remix (no, I’m not
enjoyable to listen to. But these techniques and assets can just
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telling you who), but a majority of the time the music will
as easily be applied to a session featuring horrible songs and survive and still connects with listeners. And that’s what
miserable singers – it’s happened! But obviously, many times a matters in the end – “great recordings” will always be
rough recording can have a vibe that is supportive of the material subject to a myriad of conditions and can come from
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being performed. Would it be better if recorded on fancier, high- anywhere. Keep this in mind next time you attempt to
fidelity equipment? Maybe not. sonically question someone else’s recordings, or especially
when examining your own work. It can be freeing to realize
all the open possibilities. r
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